The Shoreline events are a series of Rollerski Races that began in 2021. These events were designed to bring the “Best of the Winter, in the Summer”

In the first four editions of the Shoreline we have had over 200 athletes race in the Elite field, including multiple Olympians, dozens of current world cup skiers, US & Canadian National Team members and top Jr & Collegiate skiers from the US, Canada, Norway & Estonia.

In the four editions we have also had a total of $38,500 in Prize money, and over $20,000 in Prize Cheese!

The Shoreline Events

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Join us to watch the Best of Winter in the Summer!

Next Event

July 2025

Results 2024

Photos & Videos 2024

2024:

FRIDAY – Distance

We rolled into the 4th Edition of the Shoreline events with the 15km Classic Mass start & 4.5km Classic Uphill Mass start. The Men’s field for the 15km was robust. Over 35 athletes, from Pro/World Cup athletes to top Collegiate skiers from across the USA, Canada & Estonia. The Men’s lead pack started to pen things up on the initial climb and continued to snap the band as the kilometers ticked off. As they cruised through the first half of the course, some athletes reached over 40mph (65kph) on the downhill. With about 1km to go Team Birkie’s Zak Ketterson & NTDC athlete Julian Smith pulled away from the field. With about 150m to go Julian went for a pass on the outside and lost his balance going down, Zak made a final push for the win.

The Women’s field had a strong crew as well, even with a number of “no shows” race morning the competition was still high. Right from the start the pace was high going up the big climb. NTDC athlete Clara Hegan began to push the pace and by 4km she had a 100m lead on the field. At the north turn Estonian Mariel Pulles had started to pull Clara in. As they headed into the big descent Mariel hit the afterburners and pulled away with her top speed around 38mph (64kph) on the downhill. She maintained her lead for the last portion of the race to roll into a solo win at 15km

We had two fantastic Junior fields for the 4.5km Uphill, although small the athlete level was high. The men’s field was won by Canadian Willem Abbink and the women’s field by Minnesotan Lydia Kraker.

Saturday – Sprints

We woke up to a weather alert for storms rolling into the area on Saturday morning. At 10am we were in the middle of a downpour. We began to worry a bit as it stretched into 11am, then 12pm. At about 12:15 pm it began to lighten up and we headed to the course to prepare for the day. We were excited to have over 90 athletes on the startlist for the days qualifiers. We had a light drizzle as we began qualifiers, but as we moved through the large field of athletes the rain let up, and the clouds began to lift. The Heats began at 3:45pm with SUN in the sky. As things heated up we had some great Qtrs for both the Men’s & Women’s fields along with the BONUS CHEESE** field. As we moved into the Semi’s & Finals the pace continued to get faster & faster. The Men’s Final was a great mix of athletes, with again a final push between Zak Ketterson & Julian Smith, with Zak inching out the win at the line.

(Men’s Final FULL Video)

The Women’s final also with a strong field of athletes, also came down to a final push between Canadian Clara Hegan and Estonian Mariel Pulles, with Pulles taking her second WIN on the weekend

(Women’s Final FULL Video)

This year events were fantastic, we want to Thank all of the Athletes, Sponsors, Volunteers and all who make these events possible. Again there was a total of $11,000 in prize money for the Top Men & Women on the weekend, over $3000 in prize cheese and over $4500 in additional prize swag for athletes outside of the prize money.

** BONUS CHEESE- with such a large field, and it being summer we wanted to give ALL the athletes the opportunity to get MORE race experience. So the Bonus Cheese rounds were all of the men who qualified out of the Top 30 (Money Round). We ran 4 additional Quarter Finals for them, although this group was racing in Qtrs they were not going to have semis or finals. Prizes were awarded to the TOP 3 on time from the 4 Quarter finals.

Results 2023

Photos & Videos 2023

2023:

Wisconsinite Deedra Irwin and Canadian Graham Ritchie, both Winter Olympians from 2022, each took home titles during roller ski racing in the Rice Lake area on Friday and Saturday.

Minnesota skier Margie Freed had the top combined performance in winning the 15-kilometer distance race and taking second in the 1.3-kilometer sprint. Irwin, from Pulaski, was fourth in the distance event to add to her win in the sprints, while Canadian Julian Smith won the men’s sprint.

This year’s races also included junior events as Eau Claire’s Kristian Hudacek won the men’s 4.5-kilometer distance and Duluth’s Liesl Cope-Schaeffer took the women’s win.

In Friday’s distance race held on Highway W in Rusk County, Freed, from Apple Valley, finished with a top time of 45 minutes, and 52.3 seconds. Her time was seven seconds in front of runner-up Sarah Goble from Michigan. In the Shoreline Sprints Saturday on Lakeshore Drive in Rice Lake, Irwin won the women’s sprint in 2:55.57 with Freed at 2:56.29.

Ritchie won the men’s distance in 39:20.2, just three seconds in front of Logan Diekmann, of Montana. In the sprints Smith won in 2:30.91, ahead of fellow Canadian Conor McGovern in 2:31.08. Hudacek won his junior race in 14:50.8, while Cope-Schaeffer won her race in 18:07.2

Prize Money $11,000

Prize Cheese $3,000

Swag for Athletes not in the Money $3,000

2022:

The Shoreline Sprints rollerski racing weekend kicked off on Friday afternoon on a quiet county road east of Rice Lake, with strong sunshine matching the heat generated on a challenging course. Michaela Keller-Miller powered away from the women’s field along the final climbs to capture the women’s title with fellow Minnesota natives Ingrid Thyr and Amanda Kautzer rounding out the top three. Canada’s Graham Ritchie took the men’s title, even after losing a pole tip in the final stretch, with Pierre Grall-Johnson second and Brian Gregg breaking the Canadian block for third. The Shoreline Sprints wrapped up on Saturday with scenic freestyle rollerski races along the waterfront in downtown Rice Lake. Ingrid Thyr and Graham Ritchie won the sprint titles.

Results 2022

Photos & Videos (2022)

2021:

With only 5 weeks of planning we pulled off the Inaugural Shoreline Sprints in Rice Lake, WI. Although we had a small field of only 16 athletes – 6 Women & 10 Men we had an AMAZING Event. With Athletes representing the USA, Norway, Great Britain & Greece we were lucky enough to have an international field. The NEW Team Birkie was also represented by a number of their Elite & Collegiate athletes. Even with the smaller number s we did run Qtr final heats (3 for each gender), followed by larger fields for the semis and full fields of 6 and 6 for the finals. Both Finals received equal prize money totaling $5500 ($2750 per gender). For the women Nichole Bathe took the win and for the men Minnesota’s Zak Ketterson.

Out There Nordic