Should there be mass starts at venues other then the Lake Placid or Jackson on the EISA collegiate circuit. Are they fair when the course is too narrow?
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EISA Mass Starts
(5 posts)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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I think that classic mass starts are the most exciting races on the college cirucit from the perspective of both racers and spectators. It is easy to tell how everyone is doing, the race is tactically more interesting (college races aren't like world cup mass starts that are actually less dramatic than interval starts), and it gives teams an opportunity to ski together for mutual benefit.
Skate mass starts are a different story. At venues like Dartmouth or Sugarloaf, the bottleneck effect is so extreme that the race is more or less decided (despite what the starter always says) by how people get out of the gates. While I think that wide venues like Jackson are good for skate mass starts, only those venues should host them. Oak Hill is set up for classic mass starts or interval starts.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I agree with Evan. The mass start at Black Mountain last year was absolutely crazy. While there was plenty of time for the race to shake out, the first part of the race was madness. The same was true with Sugarloaf, where watching it I could tell who was going to do well from straight out of the gate.
Keep the Mass Starts to classic, unless the venue truly has the capability to host a Skate MS.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I agree that some of the EISA skate mass starts can be a little crazy, and I think that in some cases the designs of the starting areas could be improved. However, I do not think that the width of the trails really has an impact on how results end up. Especially in the 20k races, there is plenty of time to move forward. In fact, last year at Black Mountain in Rumford (Bates Carnival, the race mentioned in the above post), Glenn Randall broke a ski in the start and had to scramble to find a new ski. He essentially started the race in dead last, one entire minute behind the field. Over the first 10k of the course, Glenn passed nearly 100 skiers (many non-carnival racers also participated), and by the third lap, he was in the lead. While in the end, Glenn ended up third on the day, I think that his ability to move up from dead last to first in 10 kilometers points to the fact that narrow trails do not significantly influence the final results in these races.
I personally believe that skiing mass start races on narrow trails helps skiers develop technically to deal with skiing in hectic racing situations. You can bet that World Cup Sprinters need to be extremely comfortable skiing in tight packs to be successful in World Cup heats.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Dartmouth is perfect example of how the races are affected by poor starting areas. I love mass start races and don't really care because no matter what the course looks like they're still more fun to WATCH and SKI in than individual races, but it is somewhat frustrating to be stuck on a hill watching the race ski away from you...Glenn randall and others might be able to do what you say, but many people couldn't....might wanna ask blackhorse-Von Jess how moving up treated him last year at Dartmouth for the 15k....i assume his yelling and swearing for most of it wasn't out of enjoyment....
Posted 2 years ago #
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