Cendrine Browne was worried about course conditions for Sunday's 15-kilometre classic race at the Haywood NorAm/Buff Sprints Western Canadian cross-country ski championships.
The overnight freeze made the already-challenging downhills at Otway Nordic Centre a bit more dicey, and she had the choice of putting on the brakes to make those tight corners safer, or just let gravity take over.
Browne chose the latter, and that approach took her to the top of the podium in the senior women's class. The 22-year-old from St. Jerome, Que., led from start to finish, completing the course 52 seconds ahead of second-place Annika Hicks of Canmore Nordic, who was just six-tenths of a second in front of bronze medalist Katherine Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok, Ont.
"I was afraid of the downhills, but they weren't so bad," Browne said. "It was so icy and I was afraid of losing my kick (wax) on the downhills because when you skid you lose all your klister. There's a lot of big uphills on the course so having good kick is important, but I had great skis. My grip was excellent."
Browne spent a week before the NorAm races training at altitude at Lake Louise and was not feeling physically strong when she started her weekend at Otway. Despite that, she was fifth in Friday's 10km freestyle race and made the A-final in Saturday's sprint.
Browne's next challenge is Ski Tour Canada, an eight-race, 12-day World Cup tour event March 1-12 which stops in Gatineau, Que., Montreal, Quebec City and Canmore. She will be part of a 12-female, 14-male Canadian team on the Tour.
"I'm really excited to race World Cups in Canada, I'm going to be able to race in front of my family and friends, racing the best in the world," Browne said. "I did some World Cups earlier this season in Europe but that's not the same as racing at home. It's a pretty big advantage because we won't have jet lag and we can eat the food we're used to eating. There's a lot of snow in Quebec right now. I hope the Europeans will be happy about the nice trails."
Evan Palmer-Charette of Thunder Bay, Ont., won the senior men's 20km classic. He hung with a pack of jackrabbits which included Lappe Nordic clubmates Andy Shields and Michael Somppi, David Palmer of Black Jack (Rossland) and Patrick Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok and they set the pace in the race, which consisted of four five-km laps.
"We kind of worked together until the final K when Mike Somppi pushed the pace and I was just able to get by him over the top of the last climb and hang onto the finish," said Palmer-Charette. "There's two significant climbs on this course, the one main one off the start and one in the latter half of the course, and between that the technical downhills played a big role today and I was able to keep my grip without having to skid on the corners. Some guys were skidding a bit more and I think lost their kick and weren't able to climb the hills at the end."
The 21-year-old Palmer-Charette finished in 53:11.5, just one-tenth of second ahead of Shields and a five-tenths before Stewart-Jones.
Palmer-Charette raced at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, where he finished second in the 15km freestyle race and anchored Team Ontario to gold in the relay. He said this past weekend's conditions at Otway – fast trails, warm sunny weather – were virtually the same as what he encountered a year ago.
"I'd say this is my favourite venue other than home, Lappe Nordic, so I was pumped to come back here once again," said Palmer-Charette. "I really like the technical downhills – skiing those well is definitely an attribute of mine. I also like the longer, more gradual climbs that are on the trail system here, not like short steep pitchy ones. I love the weather here. Is it like this all the time?"
In other open category results, Gareth Williams of Telemark Ski Club (West Kelowna) won the junior men's race, with Caelan McLean of Whitehorse, Yukon, second and Peter Hicks of Canmore claiming bronze. Katie Weaver of Vancouver captured gold in the junior women's race, while Ingvild Hoymork of Edmonton and India McIsaac of Calgary (Rocky Mountain Racers), were second and third respectively.
Kaia Andal of Caledonia won her second Haywood NorAm medal of the weekend Sunday, finishing third in the junior girls 7.5km classic mass start race. Rachel May of Larch Hills Nordic (Salmon Arm) and Sara McLean of Foothills Nordic (Calgary) finished 1-2 respectively among the junior girls.
