Congtrats to our good friend, John Bauer, on his win in Saturday’s Masters World Cup Classic Race in Minneapolis, MN! John knew conditions would be wet for the event and had his Rossignol Xium C3 Classic Skis stone ground by New Moon Thursday, just days before the race. New Moon’s lead grind tech, Jeff Schmid, chose our Uni Warm grind for John, knowing it would be fast on the wet, man-made snow at the Theodore Wirth Park venue. Add John’s many years of waxing experience as a Toko Wax Field Tech and three trips to the winter Olympics as a US athlete, and you have a winning combo!
John’s win busts a long-standing myth in nordic skiing – “you can’t grind right before a race… it takes a long time to get ski up to speed after grinding…” Elite skiers often grind at the last minute for a specific condition or for a special venue. Today’s grinding techniques are gentle and are ready-to-race right off the grinder with minimal post-machine waxing and prep. Don’t be afraid to grind mid-season!
New Moon’s Grind Program is not just for Olympians, though. We have devised a simple grind menu to serve the needs of any skier, racer or not. One can select our cold-specific, “Old Man Winter” grind for dedicated cold skis or areas prone to severely cold winters. Universal Cold, or the “Uni Cold” grind is New Moon’s most popular and versatile grind, fast in nearly any temp and track condition, barring severely cold days well below zero Fahrenheit and very wet snow above freezing. The aforementioned “Uni Warm” is an important grind for wet and heavily transformed snows, especially for classic skiers encountering wet, glazed tracks. The Uni Warm’s deeper structure is essential for breaking suction at mid and higher speeds. For the spring skiers, New Moon’s “Ski in a T-Shirt” grind will handle sloppy corn snow and slush.
This simple menu can still leave a few questions for some. Jeff suggests, “If in doubt, go Uni Cold, and ‘wet it up’ with a structure tool if things get really wet and sloppy. “ Additionally, New Moon’s techs are happy to discuss grind options with you – just give us a call at 800-754-8685 with technical or scheduling questions. Remember, it’s not too late to revive those old, favorite race skis!
John Bauer says:
I was very excited to receive my C3 classic skiis from Rossignol on Monday, as I was likely to need them for the upcoming Masters World Cup later in the week. They were ready for the Saturday 30 km and next Monday (10km) races. The grind came out clean and I prepped with alternating Toko LF grey and LF blue, probably putting in 4 layers of EACH with alternating scraping/ copper brushing–in addition to reheating! For race prep, I mainly went with the TOKO glidewax recommendation of LF grey again, scrape/brush; HF Red scrape; JetStream HS Red block, ironed in with fiberlene. For kick-base prep, the call was –again-TOKO products: ironed in green klister, covering with thin red klister, covering THAT with red hard wax. I found that combination too draggy so I covered with hard wax blue –two coats–to harden the kick somewhat. I had killer kick. The glide was still competitive with those primarily double-poling, presumably without much kick/ grip. Thanks New Moon and Jeff Schmid!! John Bauer