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Labrador Race Report
January 26, 2003

The air in the dimly lit room hung heavy with a sooty mix of wood smoke and burnt wax. The room's only light was focused solely on a small workbench, which was covered with hair like metal filings, multi colored blobs of wax, and thin white flakes of wax scrapings. His tired hands released the vise and hefted the ski up into the air with its tail to the light. He eyed the ski's metal edge.

It was a thin glowing ribbon of highly honed steel. He lightly moved this thumb down the edge from tip to tail stopping at about the heel of the binding to rub his thumbnail across the edge. A small shaving of his nail easily curled off.

His thumbnail was white from having done this same procedure more than dozen times today. He flipped the ski upside down and now examined its base. The base couldn't have been more different than the edge. Two very different purposes but both built for speed. The base was flat, black and featureless. It was so smooth and finely polished it looked wet in the light. It looked fast. It looked perfect. He set it down, base to base with its mate. He placed his hands in the small of his back and arched back slowly, releasing the accumulated tension. As he stretched his mind went through all the variables. What would the temperature be early Sunday? Are we supposed to get any snow? Would the snow be wet or dry, natural or man-made? What would the course be like as the race progressed? How would the course be set? Although he was confident about his tuning decisions he was a perfectionist to the last. For he knew that Fate for a downhill ski racer rides on a thin metal edge and that he, Bryce Button, Cazenovia Ski Racing Team ski technician, shaped Fate.

For a second week in a row Fate smiled warmly on the Cazenovia Ski Racing Team. Cazenovia's elite travel team put on another outstanding performance at the 3rd Annual Peter Courtwright Memorial GS at Labrador "Mountain".

Cazenovia's sole racer in the F5 division was Kaitlyn Button. Kaitlyn ran her best ever GS race finishing in 11th place just 5/10ths of a second out of a top ten finish. Sister Courtney, skiing in the F4 division, took 10th place for the second consecutive week. If Courtney keeps up her blazing ski performances she will be a sure bet for the CNY State team. I'm sure the Venus and Serena are glad these two ski rather than play tennis.

The big story of the day was Barclay "Bode" Talbot's 8th place finish in the M5 division. "I was like really stoked for this race. It was like my kind of hill, like my kind of course and my skis were like you know one with the mountain so like I just like let them ride. It was a totally awesome day for like me and my team", Barclay said breathlessly after the race. "Barclay's aggressive free form ski style is very analogous to that of World Champion Bode Miller's technique", commented Coach Annie Lapham. "Its speed, speed, more speed, and let the technique follow. It's a good coaching challenge", she said.

Also in the M5 division was James "Shaken Not Stirred" Smith finishing in 19th place for his second top 20 finish this season. Not far behind was Sam Concilla in 35th place. This was only Sam's second race of his young career and all the marks of a budding skiing legend are evident. Benny "Hana" Concilla missed a gate on his first run and was disqualified but should be giving his brother a run for his money in the coming weeks.

And finally Nathan Smith, skiing in the highly competitive M4 took a 38th place. "Nathan's finish doesn't do justice to his marked improvement over last season and his week to week improvements this year", commented Coach Lapham. "This kid's a racer! He just needs more time on the hill and in the bindings".

The team is eagerly looking forward to next weekend when they host the Cazenovia Ski Club's Dual Slalom race. This is central New York State's only side-by-side race and is one of the season's most thrilling ski racing events. Don't miss some of the best young ski racers in the Northeast going head to head in exciting slalom action at your ski club.