The cold weather that has the city in its grip has forced organizers to change the format of today's B.C. Cup cross-country races.
Instead of the sprints, skiers at Otway Nordic Centre will line up for a short freestyle technique race.
A forecast high of only -18 C for today at noon will rule out the two youngest age categories -- atoms and peewees -- but it should be warm enough to allow the older skiers to battle for positions. Skiers aged 11 and younger are not allowed to race below -15 C. A temperature reading below -20 C on the coldest part of the track would force cancellation for all skiers.
B.C. Cup chief of competition Jim Burbee officially announced the switch to a shorter-duration race Friday at noon, following a conference call with ski clubs in the province.
"It's best to have a short race than no race," said Burbee.
"We thought if we called a sprint race and it was too cold, we might have to cancel the race and in this case there a better chance the race will happen. A sprint day is a four- or five-hour race, whereas we'll do this race in one hour. The racers won't be exposed to cold weather longer than 15 or 20 minutes and it exposes the volunteers to the cold for only an hour and 15 minutes.
"The weather information we had this morning was for a very cold day, warming up to a raceable temperature just before the race and the accuracy of temperature forecasts within hours is not reliable," he said.
The longest race today is five kilometres. With interval starts, skiers will begin racing every 15 seconds. The sprints were supposed to start at 9 a.m., with a 90-minute break to determine seed positions before the elimination heats were to begin.
Sunday's forecast calls for a high of -14 C by 10 a.m., the start of the classic format race.
Uncertainty about the weather no doubt contributed to a drop in the number of registered racers from 176 on Thursday to 124.
"We sent a notice out that there was a cold-weather option that we would default to, so the racers came with that knowledge," said Burbee. "It wasn't fair to have people drive from places like Rossland and Kelowna and not know the prospect of actually getting a race in and they needed to know it's a 12 o'clock start instead of a 9 a.m. start.
"We're still hoping to get the full race in Sunday because the weather is definitely warming up."
Burbee said there will likely be an unofficial (fun) race today for the peewee and atom skiers.
