Baic and Onthank Ski to Bronze in Masters World Cup Relay

The American Men's 4 x 5K relay team raced to a Bronze medal today in Falun, Sweden. The team consisted of Milan Baic, Cliff Onthank, Randy Bladel and Sun Valley's Del Pletcher. Legs 1 and 2 were classic technique and legs 3 and 4 freestyle.

Milan's comments:
"We actually came thru with a podium finish in the M-5 4 X 5 km relay. Full results on the website, but here are a few details: First medal for Traverse city´s Cliff Onthank!!

My first leg classic start went very well, but trailed the Russian and Italian after about 1km. Russian continued to put time on us(44 seconds by the end of 5km) and the Italian had about 10 seconds at 2km. The Czechs and Norwegians were not real far back. I started feeling real good and and reeled in the Italian, finally passing him in the stadium right before the tag to give Randy Bladel who briefly maintained second place(for about 2 meters). Both Randy and Del Pletcher, from Sun Valley did a great job maintaining our third place position going into Cliff´s anchor leg. Cliff started his leg about 55 seconds ahead of the hard charging Czech´s and Norwegians. Cliff skied a solid leg and only gave up about 20 seconds to maintain our Bronze medal day. Yippee!! We also had the U.S. Men's M-1 and Women´s F-1 team win Bronze medals today.

It should be exciting to be on the podium with my teammates especially Cliff and Randy (Randy is also a Michigan Cupper and good friend).

Weather still cold in the single digits, but calm, bright, and beautiful sunshine!

Onto the 45km skate race on Friday. Still feeling healthy and rested. I´d like to really pop a good one. The Italian in my skating races has shown to be as fast as any skier in the entire Championships. Well at least I have hope to improve on Bronze!