They were out of the running for the finals in Saturday's North American Cup ski cross but three American racers couldn't resist the chance to flash the stars and stripes on their ski suits one more time down the course at Tabor Mountain.
They were having too much fun to call it a day early.
Russell Malm of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., has raced all over North America and parts of Europe and he rates the course at Tabor one of the best he's seen for ski cross.
"I'd rank it top-five definitely, I love it," said Malm. "I've been to Norway for youth Olympics and I was at junior worlds twice (in Austria and Norway) and this is a nice course. It really flows and you can pick yourself up really fast and you make passes and you can draft really well."
Noah Giron of Lake Tahoe, Calif., 17, was back for more, having raced the first Nor-Am Tabor hosted last year, when there wasn't so much snow.
"It's so much nicer than it was last year, they really did a good job on the course for what they had to work with," said Giron. "I'd say this is the second-best course I've ever raced. It's really smooth and the landings are definitely forgiving. For the most part you can make a few mistakes and still land on your feet."
Said Quinn McGunnigle of Philadelphia, Pa., 22, who got his ski legs attending school in Vermont: "A lot of courses, your start makes or breaks you, and what's nice about this one is it's wide and if you have a bad start there are probably seven or eight places you can make it up. It's a game the whole way down."
The Tabor Mountain course was radically revamped for the 2015 Canada Winter Games - built using large earth-moving machines to push dirt into piles to build the tabletop jumps, banked corners and rollers that now make up the course. Because of that, it doesn't require a lot of snow to make a great course.
The Nor-Am weekend was the 18th event Tabor has hosted on the newer course and the crew headed by Mitch Thibault has learned how to take full advantage of the snow conditions.
Kevin MacDonald of Calgary, who won both days at Tabor, raced in Prince George two years ago when the city hosted the Western Canadian championships in March 2015, just after the Canada Winter Games, and he's liked the course every time he's seen it.
"It was a great course - Tabor put on one of the best builds they've had yet," said MacDonald. "Nice big features, smooth terrain, and the volunteers did an amazing job with course work and maintaining the snow. There are lots of opportunities for passing, which makes it fun. I loved this course two years ago and did really well and the same thing this year."
Tabor also got a passing grade from Leah Emaus of Rochester, N.Y., the women's winner Saturday.
"I love this course," said Emaus. "Coming from upstate New York we don't have too many courses to train on in the east and even out west there aren't too many courses either. Having the amount of snow they have here and doing what they did with it, it's pretty awesome."
