LOVELAND VALLEY — One guy went with the chicken suit. Another wore a thong, and not much else. Some of the girls dressed like princesses or ballerinas.
The 51st Loveland Derby unofficially ended the Colorado ski-racing season over the weekend with nearly 500 participating in what was billed as the oldest continuously run ski race in North America. Ages ranged from 10 to early 20s.
Ski racing is alive and well at the youth and junior levels. Racers from all over Colorado and a few other states gathered to close their seasons with competition, camaraderie and a little humor.
“The Derby is mostly a fun race,” said Bryn Kennedy, a junior at South High School who calls herself a “weekend warrior” when it comes to ski racing. “It’s not really about winning for a lot of people; it’s more about coming out here with friends and having a blast. A lot of people will go crazy with their costumes.”
The guy in the chicken suit, for example. Under all those feathers was Seppi Stiegler, the reigning NCAA giant slalom champion for the University of Denver and the son of an Olympic slalom gold medalist.
“This has been a Halloween costume for like four years running,” Stiegler said. “I’m losing pieces — don’t know where the feet are anymore.”
Fortunately, the little ballerinas and princesses were racing on a different slope when Brian Hartman of Breckenridge and Team Summit tore down the slalom course wearing nothing above his ski boots but a Stars and Stripes thong, a pair of suspenders and a race bib.
“It’s my last race ever,” said Hartman, 18. “I’m not going to race in college, so I had to go big.”
Lindsey Vonn and Sarah Schleper have raced in the Loveland Derby. Some of the kids who raced this year have grandparents who raced in it.
Sue Booker, whose grown offspring raced in the Derby when they were young, wouldn’t miss it for anything.
“The first year we came, I saw all these healthy young kids having a ball in the snow, and it hooked me,” said Booker, who manages Loveland’s sport shops. “We’ve been coming ever since. I love to see families enjoying the sport together.”
Kennedy’s family is like that. Bryn practically grew up at Loveland, because her mom worked there. When Bryn was a baby, Mom sometimes hid her under her coat while she coached.
“They slapped a pair of skis on my feet when I was about 1,” Kennedy said, “and I’ve been skiing at Loveland for the past 16 years.”
For all the frivolity, the Derby also served to showcase Loveland’s distinctive race program, which seeks to include children from Front Range cities.
The director of the Loveland Racing Club, C.B. Bechtel, says most of the 100 kids in the program come from Denver, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.
“One of our core values is keeping ski racing affordable,” Bechtel said. “Because racing can be a very expensive sport, we provide avenues for average families to be able to afford to have their kids involved.”
Kids can race in the Loveland program for as little as $700 a season. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Loveland operates vans that bring kids up from the city for $10 round-trip.
“We want to get the family who’s got a 7- or 8-year-old kid who loves to ski, but there’s no way they can get up here — both parents are working, and there’s no way they can afford to have one parent running the kid back and forth,” said John Hale, the program’s head coach, who has an extensive background with the U.S. Ski Team. “They can utilize that van, come up and get world-class training, go to their own school and get what they need right here.”
Skiers who regard Loveland Valley as little more than a bunny hill haven’t skied the steep pitches that hang above the base. The U.S. Ski Team uses those slopes in the fall, as do teams from other countries preparing for early-season World Cup races at Aspen and Beaver Creek.
“It’s a world-class training hill,” Hale said. “The best in the world come here to train in the fall. It’s a great facility that is close to that huge base in Denver. There’s got to be a lot of athletes there that just simply don’t have access to the sport, and if we can give them the access, we’re going to keep those kids in the sport.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
