Tartu Maraton

February 24, 2006

Tartu Maraton took place on Sunday, February 19, and consisted of two events: The 63 km CT race from Otepää to Elva and the 31 km CT race from Arula to Elva. The organizers provided a very nice reception for Worldloppet Masters at lunchtime on the Saturday before the race.

Tartu Maraton 63 km CT

During the preceding week the weather was sunny and the temperature was around -10C down to about -15C. On Saturday the temperature rose and on Sunday morning we woke up with 5 cm of new snow on the ground and a temperature of -3C. The race started at 9 am. Ski testing in Otepää led to the usual conclusion: for this snow situation where the tracks become shiny you had to use hard waxes for around zero or even above zero degree temperatures in order to get adequate grip. Alternatively the wax tape worked very well. The snow fall continued until noon but the temperature remained steady below freezing. As noticed in other races with similar conditions, the trails deteriorated gradually which created an additional challenge for the skiers that were further back in the field. Tartu Maraton applied a mass start with the skiers arranged in several groups depending on previous results. The last groups included however many fast skiers who had difficulties to overtake because of the crowd and because the glide outside the tracks was not as good as in the tracks. Tartu Maraton should probably start thinking about a wave start, especially if the number of skiers continues to increase, they already have an important ingredient: individual chips. 3027 skiers completed the race and the winner's time was 3:04:37.

Some results:

Tartu Maraton 31 km CT

This race started at 12:00 at Arula and joined the 63 km track after a few kilometers. Snow and race track conditions were similar to the 63 km track. The course of this WL Silver Master race is the easiest part of the 63 km race in which the biggest climbs and descents are in the first half.

The junction of the short and the long race created some traffic problems for those 63 km skiers who passed the junction point around 12:15. From this point on the short and long race skiers were together and were distinguished by the different bib numbers. The picture show the finish for both races. 1017 skiers finished the race

Some results:

Robin and Naomi became Silver Masters with this race. Congratulations!

This page was last revised on September 16, 2007