Under much more co-operative weather than race one of the BC Cup Series, two Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club members glided to Revelstoke last weekend for the second stop of the tour.
Both Cole Turner and Grace Turner of Williams Lake had an excellent two-day race weekend.
Grace, in the girls bantam one division, skied to seventh place in the classic event on Saturday, then took eighth place in the skating event on Sunday.
With the results Grace is now closing the gap on the leaders in the division, and said she’s looking forward to continuing the trend at the championship finals hosted by Kelowna in a couple of weeks.
Cole, meanwhile, had his best weekend of the season.
Coming off two bronze placements last month in Prince George, he skied to a first-place tie with a skier from Sovereign Lakes, Vernon, who was touted as the skier to beat after placing first in Western Nationals held in Canmore, Alta.
On day two Cole overcame some adversity after being randomly seeded 30th out of 31 skiers for the mass start of the race.
He said he was disappointed with his back-row starting position, however, didn’t let it affect his performance.
During the race Cole worked his way through the pack on the first uphill of the course and managed to pass 29 skiers on his way to a second-place finish where he came to within 1.2 seconds of the leader. He finished the race in less than 10 minutes for a four-kilometre skate ski.
Cole said if he receives another podium finish he will be well on his way to making the BC Talent Team for 2015.
Cole and Grace, who attended the meet as the lone lakecity skiers, were also welcomed by both Kamloops and 100 Mile House clubs who lent their waxing expertise and coaching.