Tour de Meissner 2011

Race Description

The 2011 Tour de Meissner —  a family-friendly, one-day ski festival — is coming up at Meissner Sno Park on Saturday, February 12th. Skiers may choose skate or classic technique and may either race or enjoy a non-competitive Tour. Youth 12 and under race for free on a 3km course while all others ski the 15km distance.

Race Director, Bill Warburton says, “We’ve designed a rolling course on moderate terrain, so I want to encourage first-time racers to give this a try. At the same time, experienced skiers will find the terrain to be fun, fast and a pleasure to ski.”

If you’ve enjoyed skiing at Meissner, come try this event to experience the trails in a new way. Connect with your friends over some good food after the race and encourage your friends who’ve never been to a ski race to come check it out.

Prices

* 3K Racers and Youth Tour register day of the race!!

Registration

1. Early registration EXTENDED thru Friday, February 11th at 8 pm.

• On-line registration CLOSED.

2. Day of Race  Registration (Opens at 8:15 am)

• $10 late registration fee for Adults
• $5 late registration fee for Juniors

ATTENTION MINORS: You must present a signed waiver on race day. Download it to print if your guardian will not be there on Saturday: Youth Waiver.

Event Times

• Day of Race Registration opens 8:00, closes at 9:45
• Youth Race, 3km, start @ 9:30
• Skate Race, 15km, start @ 10:00
• Classic Race, 15km, start @ 10:10
• Tour, 15km, start @ 10:15 (Skate or Classic)

Facilities / Parking

• Jane’s Hut will be open and available for public use.
• No waxing facilities provided.
• Outdoor toilets available.
• Meissner SnoPark holds ~ 120 cars.  Please carpool, park head-in to the banks and perpendicular to the banks, and no more than 1 cardoor from your neighbor.  Thanks!!
• We expect the Meissner lot to be full before race start, so we are running free van shuttles from Swampy Lakes for overflow parking. Estimated extra time is 15 minutes, so please plan ahead.

Course Details

• The course will be groomed for both skate and classic.
• 2 Aid Stations
• Rolling terrain on groomed trails through scenic ponderosa and fir forests. The course begins on the wide Tangent trail and heads to the base of Cry Baby Hill. The course turns onto Pine Drops for the first climb. Turning right onto Tangent, the course climbs gently to Currant Way. A twisty trail with fast rollers brings you back to through the Stadium at 5km for Aid Station 1, then descends out to Wild Strawberry. The course plays along a ridge before stepping back up to Aid Station 2 at 12km. One more loop on Ponderosa finishes with a short climb back to the stadium for the finish.

Wax Recommendations

The following wax report is provided by Ben Husaby of the Bend Endurance Academy. As of Thursday afternoon.

The conditions at Meissner have vastly improved with the light dusting of snow we received over the past couple of days.

Lee has been out grooming the trails and the skiing is very good- firm with softer grainy snow as a top surface.  The snow is mostly transformed with wetter spots in the sun.

If it has been a while since you have waxed your skis, it will be important to give your skis some attention prior to applying your race/tour wax.  Our skis have been picking up a lot of grit, pine pitch and detritus over the past weeks.  I suggest a good initial brushing with a firm bronze or steel brush, tip to tail.  If you have time to hot scrape and brush, I am sure your skis will appreciate it!

Race Wax:
Under layer- CH or LF wax in the Blue range. Let cool, scrape, brush.

HF layer- Red or similar (-4/+1) range.  If you do not have HF but want to do something special you can use an LF wax for your top wax. Let cool, scrape, brush.

Structure:
If you are applying structure, I suggest you do that between the under layer and HF layer.  I recommend a broken pattern (.3 mm)  Press lightly at the tip increasing pressure through the fore body of the ski with full pressure from the binding to the tails.  The structure will “dumb down” with the subsequent waxing of the HF layer.

Extra Speed:
If you want to go all out- you can apply a mid temp powder or block over the top of your HF/structured ski.

Finally, know that a careful application, clean skis and good attitude will always be faster than dumping dollars on the ski.

Good Luck!
Ben

Tour de Meissner Conditions Update by Bill Warburton, Tour Director

I arrived on site at 12:30 (Friday) so it was a little late, but the snow was already pretty soft. Structure on your skis will be key to staying fast tomorrow, and a High Flouro wax for sure.

I’d say over the course it’s 50% firm and fast, 50% dirty and sun-warmed with a 3 short sections of very dirty snow from the pine debris, but it’s nothing that will harm your skis.

The course changed very slightly from what was on the original map due to one connector that hasn’t been groomed and I thought it was. The new maps will be at the registration table table in the morning.

The change moves the 2nd Aid Station out to the Ponderosa / Penstemon intersection instead of the Ponderosa / Lodgepole intersection. The course distance is 15.2 km and I have marked “10km” “5km” and “1km” TO GO. So there aren’t km markers everywhere, just a couple to give some reference. Intersections are marked with blue arrows and we’ll pin flag everything solid in the morning.

The 3km course has yellow arrows and is marked with “2km” and “1km” to go.

Lee will groom late evening, early morning, so expect firm conditions in the morning, with air temps above freezing by race start. Weather looks clear until the late afternoon.

Course Map

Course Profile

Tour Director

Bill Warburton at bill [at] bendenduranceacademy [dot] org or 541.335.1346.

Beneficiaries

The Tumalo Langlauf Club supports grooming at Meissner Community Ski Trails through community donations and memberships.

The Bend Endurance Academy offers affordable Nordic ski programs for youth, junior, collegiate and adult athletes at the Meissner Community Ski Trails.

“Legaleze”

Tumalo Langlauf Club and Bend Endurance Academy are  501(c)3 non-profits and will benefit from this race as a result of your participation. Thank you!

This event is run under a special use permit from the US Forest Service, Bend Forst Rock District.