Buckwheat Ski Classic

Leading the pack in the early stages of the race. Photo by Bill Greer
This past Saturday I raced my last race of the season; the Buckwheat Ski Classic. The race is held at Log Cabin, on the SKagway Road, about 1.5 hours drive from Whitehorse, near the Yukon/BC/Alaska border. The race competition wasn't the strongest this year due to the US Distance Nationals in Fairbanks, AK being held at the same time as the Buckwheat. I wasn't too sure exactly how the race was going to play out for me, because ever since the disastrous 30km race at Canadian Nationals I've been feeling pretty tired. The race was 50km race which consisted of twice around a 25km loop. It was a windy day which filled the track with snow, which made it pretty slow. After leading the pack and braking trail for the first 24km of the race, young Yukon Ski Team member Knute Johnsgaard, was the only one left with me. Breaking trail was tiring so I let Knute lead for a while at the begining of our second lap. We ended up skiing more or less together for almost the entire race. With about 2km left in the race, I decided that I better try to pick up the pace and see if I could drop Knute. As soon as I sped up, Knute started to "bonk" and I ended up winning the race by 4min and 32sec. It was a long, super slow race that took 3:12 to complete, but it was worth at the finish line....there were cash prizes! Buckwheat and I at the awards. Photo by Bill Greer