Officials confirm Birkie XC race on for Saturday

HAYWARD, Wis. — Officials confirmed on Friday that the 2007 Birkebeiner cross-country ski race will be run on schedule on Saturday, but poor trail conditions have forced the race to be shortened.
HAYWARD, Wis. — Officials confirmed on Friday that the 2007 Birkebeiner cross-country ski race will be run on schedule on Saturday, but poor trail conditions have forced the race to be shortened.
    Birkie 2007 will be a 23-kilometer competitive race for the top 200 elite men and 50 elite women and an untimed, non-competitive, ‘open-track’ event for the rest of field.
    The timed race for elite Birkie skiers will launch at 10:20 a.m. at the Cable Union Airport Start Line and finish at Highway OO in Seeley with prize money awarded to the top six men and women.
    The untimed, non-competitive, ‘open-track’ event for remaining Birkie, Kortelopet and Prince Haakon skiers will start at Cable Union Airport between 10:45 and 11:45 a.m.
    An ‘open-track’ event is new to the American Birkebeiner but is common in European cross-country ski races. In the Birkie ‘open track’ event, skiers can leave the start line at any time within a half-hour window for specified waves.
    “Skiers can show up with their friends in this window and leave together,” said Ned Zuelsdorff, executive director for the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation. “This is the best option given the course conditions. We think the course will hold up to a small number of competitive racers and it is adequate for thousands of skiers participating in a low-key, non-competitive, ‘open-track’ event. We will be advising caution on some downhills with the use of Ski Patrol members.”
    In the ‘open-track’, non-competitive event, skiers will wear a transponder timing chip to confirm identity and completion of their race, but no times, places or awards will be given. Credit will be given for completing the Birkie, Kortelopet and Prince Haakon. The non-competitive event will not affect wave placement, and future seeding will be based on Birkebeiner and Kortelopet times from 2004-2006.