Norwegian Birkie seeding

While following a link on skinnyski about an organized trip to Norway from the Twin Cities next March at the time of the original Birkie, I noticed the seeding placement table http://www.birkebeiner.no/renn_eng/index.php?sid=34). Whoa, a classic time of 3:30 at last year's American Birkie, which is darn good, will get you Wave 9 of 12. Mike Myers' winning time of 2:28, in fast conditions and thirty minutes faster than the previous year, would get him wave 2. My first thought was, "No wonder the USST is usually an also ran," but then I realized that the American Birkie times they are using assume skating. I imagine someone who had strided the Amer. Birkie could ask for dispensation, if that's considered.

Gene

Sort of the same problem here....

Skiing the Swedish Vasaloppet and currently placed in wave 10 ------ YUCK !
I'm a top 200 birkie skier ---- but not within the last few years as a
family and $$ have prevented me from going to the race.
How can I get moved up in my wave seeding without skiing the birkie or
Minnesota Vasaloppet?? Just too far to travel this year.
Beg?
Plead?
Anyone?

I don't want wave 1 or anything, but wave 2-3-4 would be nice.

JK

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
et...
While following a link on skinnyski about an organized trip to Norway from
the Twin Cities next March at the time of the original Birkie, I noticed
the seeding placement table
http://www.birkebeiner.no/renn_eng/index.php?sid=34). Whoa, a classic
time of 3:30 at last year's American Birkie, which is darn good, will get
you Wave 9 of 12. Mike Myers' winning time of 2:28, in fast conditions
and thirty minutes faster than the previous year, would get him wave 2.
My first thought was, "No wonder the USST is usually an also ran," but
then I realized that the American Birkie times they are using assume
skating. I imagine someone who had strided the Amer. Birkie could ask for
dispensation, if that's considered.

Gene

Jeff, you need to send them some results for the Birkie from the last
couple of years.

Gene, when I did the Norwegian Birkebeiner, the waves were determined
by age. The 50, 60, 70 and 80 age groups went first. Isn't it still
done that way?

J Tegeder
"Not that many generations removed from Barbarians..." JT

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, 32 degrees wrote:


Skiing the Swedish Vasaloppet and currently placed in wave 10 ------ YUCK !
I'm a top 200 birkie skier ---- but not within the last few years as a
family and $$ have prevented me from going to the race.
How can I get moved up in my wave seeding without skiing the birkie or
Minnesota Vasaloppet?? Just too far to travel this year.
Beg?
Plead?
Anyone?

I just read about a way of getting a seeding in both VL
and/or Birken, but it's not probably what you are looking for :-)

By a strange series of events I was mailed a copy of the
November issue of the "Snow and Ski", the magazine of
Skiforeningen, the Oslo Ski Federation.

Page 58-59 is an article about the Holmenkollen Ski Marathon.
Feb 11, 2006. It mentions:
"Holmenkollen Skimaraton is also this year a seeding race for both Birken
and Vasaloppet"
So all you have to do go to Oslo and ski a good time
in the H.S.M. :-)

The H.S.M. is a 42 km classic race from Hakadal to Holmenkollen.
Alternate site (in poor snow years) is Gåsbu near Hamar.

There is an outdated English article at :
http://www.skiforeningen.no/hk/event...on&lang=en

PS The magazine is WONDERFUL! Nothing like it in North America.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/

Looking at the Holmenkollen front page photo, those people look like they a=
re coming down a long winding fairly steep downhill en masse. Some trick!

Gene

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 02:03:37 GMT
David Dermott wrote:

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, 32 degrees wrote:
=20
=20
Skiing the Swedish Vasaloppet and currently placed in wave 10 ------ YU=
CK !
I'm a top 200 birkie skier ---- but not within the last few years as a=
=20
family and $$ have prevented me from going to the race.
How can I get moved up in my wave seeding without skiing the birkie or=
=20
Minnesota Vasaloppet?? Just too far to travel this year.
Beg?
Plead?
Anyone?
=20
I just read about a way of getting a seeding in both VL
and/or Birken, but it's not probably what you are looking for :-)
=20
By a strange series of events I was mailed a copy of the
November issue of the "Snow and Ski", the magazine of
Skiforeningen, the Oslo Ski Federation.
=20
Page 58-59 is an article about the Holmenkollen Ski Marathon.
Feb 11, 2006. It mentions:
"Holmenkollen Skimaraton is also this year a seeding race for both Birken
and Vasaloppet"
So all you have to do go to Oslo and ski a good time
in the H.S.M. :-)
=20
The H.S.M. is a 42 km classic race from Hakadal to Holmenkollen.
Alternate site (in poor snow years) is G=E5sbu near Hamar.
=20
There is an outdated English article at :
http://www.skiforeningen.no/hk/event...marathon&=
lang=3Den
=20
PS The magazine is WONDERFUL! Nothing like it in North America.
=20
--=20
=20
David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email: =20
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/
=20

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Gene Goldenfeld wrote:

Looking at the Holmenkollen front page photo, those people look like
they are coming down a long winding fairly steep downhill en masse.
Some trick!
http://www.skiforeningen.no/hk/event...on&lang=en

Do you mean the picture at the top (#3359) "The S" ?
a bigger size is he

http://www.skiforeningen.no/cgi/newimgshow.cgi?id=3359
(click on the little "printer" icon to get a larger size suitable
for printing)

I think this is at the start of the race at Hakadal. Terje M.
would know. There is a long (several km) UP hill at the start.

I did the trail a week or so after the race in 1999. There are several
trains per day going from Oslo to the start at Hakadal.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/

32 degrees wrote:

Skiing the Swedish Vasaloppet and currently placed in wave 10 ------ YUCK=
!

Wave 10 is the default seeding for all first-timers:-)


How can I get moved up in my wave seeding without skiing the birkie or
Minnesota Vasaloppet?? Just too far to travel this year.

I once suggested that anyone who is going to fly all the way across the
Atlantic for the Vasaloppet should invest, if at all possible, a little
bit more time - and money, but I understand that for Americans money is
often less money than time is:-) - and make it a Nordic tour by
including the Finlandia, which usually takes place on the previous
Saturday. You would not only experience two different kind of races,
you'd also have a chance to get a better seeding with a relatively
modest effort.


Beg?
Plead?

The policy is supposed to be be very strict, only recent results from
official seeding races count and no exceptions will be made, but I
believe you should be able to "snacka dig fram=E5t" or talk your way to
a wave further up: you are a distant visitor, you are making a big
splurge and it is much more of a once-in-a-lifetime occasion for you
than it would be for the average Svensson - and you''re so much and so
clearly in the wrong wave that it is almost an offense to you and a bit
awkward for the nice ordinary folks who'd be near you in Wave 10.

Write to the organizers, list your results (time and placement) in any
40km+ races you've done in this millennium and politely inquire whether
anything could be done, and I'm pretty sure something can be done. The
actual change won't take place until when you pick up your start
envelope, though.



I don't want wave 1 or anything, but wave 2-3-4 would be nice.

Wave 3 is where the skiers begin to be called "elitmotion=E4rer" and
which is where I think you should be able to get by pleading. (If you
did the 60km Finlandia in a little under 4h, you'd get seeded there.

Wave 2 is where the skiers begin to reek of testosterone and where your
poles are begging to be broken:-)


BTW until two years ago a re-seeding ("direktseedning") in Mora or
S=E4len was marked on your bib by means of a simple stamp mark on your
bib, but it turns out that some group travel organisers had used stamps
of their own to get their clients a higher seeding, and so the system
had to be changed so that the re-seeding can be checked
electronically...



Anders

Jay,

They switched last year to a time based seeding. You can use any world
loppet race for seeding. On the website they have a chart ;listing all
qualifying races and what time gets you where.

The FrontRunner
wrote in message
oups.com...
Jeff, you need to send them some results for the Birkie from the last
couple of years.

Gene, when I did the Norwegian Birkebeiner, the waves were determined
by age. The 50, 60, 70 and 80 age groups went first. Isn't it still
done that way?

J Tegeder
"Not that many generations removed from Barbarians..." JT

I have done the Vasaloppet twice, both times a little begging got me moved
up. Wave three in 2000 and wave one in 2004. Send them a little resume of
races, distances, and times. A phone call could clinch the deal. Big
difference even between wave three and one let alone wave ten.

The FrontRunner


"32 degrees" wrote in message
...
Sort of the same problem here....

Skiing the Swedish Vasaloppet and currently placed in wave 10 ------ YUCK
!
I'm a top 200 birkie skier ---- but not within the last few years as a
family and $$ have prevented me from going to the race.
How can I get moved up in my wave seeding without skiing the birkie or
Minnesota Vasaloppet?? Just too far to travel this year.
Beg?
Plead?
Anyone?

I don't want wave 1 or anything, but wave 2-3-4 would be nice.

JK

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
et...
While following a link on skinnyski about an organized trip to Norway
from the Twin Cities next March at the time of the original Birkie, I
noticed the seeding placement table
http://www.birkebeiner.no/renn_eng/index.php?sid=34). Whoa, a classic
time of 3:30 at last year's American Birkie, which is darn good, will get
you Wave 9 of 12. Mike Myers' winning time of 2:28, in fast conditions
and thirty minutes faster than the previous year, would get him wave 2.
My first thought was, "No wonder the USST is usually an also ran," but
then I realized that the American Birkie times they are using assume
skating. I imagine someone who had strided the Amer. Birkie could ask
for dispensation, if that's considered.

Gene

Yes, that's the one and, zooming to 500%, those skiers are definitely moving towards the camera. One type of error the eye makes concerns perspective in the vertical plane, so I won't stake my life on what's uphill and downhill, but those skiers are double poling. Looking back at the inside of the curve on the left, a couple are in a tuck where there's a little open track. The rear is less clear but the stances also look like d-p or glide.

Gene

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:53:10 GMT
David Dermott wrote:

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Gene Goldenfeld wrote:

Looking at the Holmenkollen front page photo, those people look like
they are coming down a long winding fairly steep downhill en masse.
Some trick!
http://www.skiforeningen.no/hk/event...on&lang=en

Do you mean the picture at the top (#3359) "The S" ?
a bigger size is he

http://www.skiforeningen.no/cgi/newimgshow.cgi?id=3359
(click on the little "printer" icon to get a larger size suitable
for printing)

I think this is at the start of the race at Hakadal. Terje M.
would know. There is a long (several km) UP hill at the start.