Great day for US and Canadian teams on day 1 of 2013 Skimo World Champs: Teams race summary

Today (Feb 10, 2013), the 2013 Ski Mountaineering World Championships in Pelvoux, France saw their first day of competitions – the teams race – for both women and men.
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Top 3 Overall

Men
With a baby face and at only 22-years old, Mathéo JACQUEMOUD, claimed his first world title, racing for France in a team with very experienced William BON MARDION. Second place went to Italy thanks to again very experienced Manfred REICHEGGER and a younger Matteo EYDALLIN. Bronze went to another French team – Xavier GACHET and Alexis SEVENNEC.
Two minutes separated 1st from 2nd, and 2nd from 3rd on a course that had about 2500m. The winning time was 2:32:17.
Women
French also dominated the women’s category. Multi world champ, Laetitia ROUX, successfully “coached” her young teammate, Axelle MOLLARET, to gold. Second went to experienced Italian girls – Gloriana PELLISSIER and Elena NICOLINI. And third to another experienced pair this time from Switzerland – Maude MATHYS and Emilie GEX-FABRY.
The winning time was 2:59:45 over 2100m course.
» Full race results page is here, but some placings seems to be missing – http://ismf-ski.org/www/index.php?q=content/races-result&page=ListRacesAction&type=view&id_parent=88&id_parent2=&id_parent_parent=

US and Canadian teams

Men
It was a historical day for skimo in North America as the new US champ, John GASTON, along with his kamikaze-skier teammate, Max TAAM, raced to an amazing 10th place! This marks the first ever NA top 10 finish for men at a World Cup skimo competition. Their time was 2:58:54.
Second best NA team, at 15th place from Canada, were Reiner Thoni with Andrew McNab. This is a great result as the boys managed to go one higher than in 2011. Their time was 3:05:05.

Rest of the teams finished like this:

• 17th place for Luke NELSON with Marshall THOMSON (US)
• 21st place for Tom GOTH with Andy DORAIS (US)
• 22nd place for Scott SIMMONS and Greg RUCKMAN (US)
• 28th place for Peter KNIGHT and Steve SELLERS (CAN)

32 or 33 teams raced.
Women
Another great result for North Americans here as well – Janelle SMILEY and Stevie KREMER finished 6th with a time of 3:24:55.
Then two novices from Canada, Martha BURLEY and Carla McKirdy, finished at 9th, with as well a novice US team hot on their heels at 10th place – Kim YOUNG and Mckenna DOUGLAS.
12 teams raced.
» Photos and official gossips for the US teams can be found here – http://www.ussma.org/blog/brackec/world-skimo-championships-team-race-recap