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Wave Criteria for the Loppet

Planning your optimal wave placement?  The 2013 Loppet will be the last year when non-loppet events can be used as qualifying times for the races.  After that, only Loppet and Pre-Loppet results will land you at the start line.

The 2013 freestyle race will have 7 waves with up to 170 people per wave. There will be a 5 minute interval between wave start times. We will attempt to have an equal number of people in each wave. Skiers will be placed into waves based on their speed.

Preliminary wave assignments will be made about 1 week before the event. All skiers registered at that time will be sorted from fastest to slowest by their qualifying time and then divided into 7 waves with an equal number of skiers per wave. Bib numbers will correlate to qualifying times with the lowest bib numbers going to the fastest skiers. Final wave assignments will be made 1 day before the race and may differ from the preliminary wave assignments due to additional registration activity. Qualifying times will be established from race results over the last year. If no race time is available from the past year we will go back an additional year to locate a qualifying time .The City of Lakes Loppet will look-up results from the following events: City of Lakes Loppet, Birkie, Korteloppet, Noquemanon, Marine O’ Brien and the Mora 35K and 58K races.

If you have not participated in any of those races and would like another race to be considered for a qualifying time, please include that with your registration or e-mail it to us at registration@cityoflakesloppet.com.

If you do not have a previous race result to use as a qualifying time, you will be placed into the last wave. To account for differences in race course distances, terrain, weather conditions etc, all results will be adjusted to a City of Lakes Loppet time. The adjustments are made by evaluating the results of those skiers who participated in both the Loppet and the other events and establishing a linear regression to correlate those results to the Loppet. If a skier has participated in multiple events over the last 2 years, their best time will be used as their qualifying time. Preliminary wave assignments will be published on our web site about 1 week before the race. Learn about the wave placement process.

If you believe you have been placed into the wrong wave, please contact us with the reasons why you think you should be in another wave. Reasonable requests will be gladly accommodated.

You think you are fast this year?  Just think of speedy you’ll ski two years down the trail!  Starting in 2014, wave placement is based upon the past two years of Loppet results and/or the Peace Coffee Pre-Loppet only.  For details click here.