Subaru Team coming to Owl Creek Chase

‘Don’ of American x-c skiing keeps team at the top for 13 years

Feb. 1, 2007

ASPEN, CO – Andrew Gerlach answers the phone sounding like an overworked executive and father with a slight cold, or is that the gravelly voice of The Don?  2006-07 marks the 13^th season for the Subaru Nordic Team, the top pro Nordic team in the North America, which Gerlach founded, owns and operates from day to day out of his office in Bozeman, MT.  He runs Team Subaru as if he were a member of the Corleone family, controlling every aspect of the operation that rivals the U.S. Ski Team for top Nordic billing this side of the pond.  Hard work and perseverance is what makes the difference for this ex-Nordic racer turned Team Director. 

“I was on the other side before.” Explains Gerlach when discussing how Team Subaru came about.  “I was racing and kept trying to get some sponsorship from big companies and they always said the same thing, ‘Nobody cares about cross-country racing and nobody cares about these athletes.’  I really believed that they weren’t using the athletes the right way and I saw huge potential for cross-country racers as marketing tools.  Once I jumped in and started, it was almost easy because the stories are there to tell, and that’s the key.  Create the great story and get that out to the public.”

Gerlach speaks with a wealth of knowledge, not only about cross-country skiing, but also about marketing and business. 

“We are a marketing company that happens to run a cross-country ski team, not a ski team that attempts to market itself.”,  he says when explaining his program and what makes it work where others have failed.  “Even the U.S. Ski Team is a ski team that attempts to market itself, but we are professional, and all of our athletes know the difference.  It’s not just about the race results; it’s about creating a story and getting it out there.  Our athletes act in a purely professional manner above and beyond the race results, they get people to care about our sport.  After 13 seasons now, our sponsors have great faith in our system and that’s what makes it work.  We understand our role and we work non-stop to succeed in our marketing.  As far as Subaru is concerned, they are committed to making their name synonymous with the enjoyment of winter and with cross-country skiing, we work in partnership with Subaru to meet that goal and that is more or less the secret to our success.”

The roots of the Subaru Factory team can be traced to the old Fischer marathon team of the late ‘80’s and early ‘90s.  When that operation began to wane under the stress of day-to-day wholesale ski business, Fischer looked to Gerlach’s Endurance Enterprises to take over.  The Fischer marathon team became the Fischer Factory Team in 1994 and immediately took over as the top pro Nordic team in the North America. Gerlach’s teams have won the overall series championship on the American Marathon Series and the newly formed FIS Marathon Cup from the team’s inception in ’94 through present day. What eventually became the Fischer/Salomon/Swix team in the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s, morphed into the Subaru Team in 2002. 

Other major business decisions rose along the way and when the French giant Salomon made a push for the their new ski line in the fall of 2005, the rubber met the road.  Fischer skis, the dominant brand since the advent of fiberglass skis ran into uncharted territory…. Competition.  Gerlach reaped the dividends as the bidding ensued for the services of The Factory Team, Gerlach’s business brand.  Speculation and rumor swirled throughout the U.S. and Europe as Salomon applied the pressure.  Gerlach’s powerful Subaru Team was now, quite possibly, the biggest player in the cross-country ski world and everyone awaited Gerlach’s move.  In a position to help develop a new ski line, and force a higher level of professionalism in cross-country ski racing, Gerlach cut the deal, Fischer was out and Salomon was in.  Today’s Subaru Team rides exclusively on Salomon skis, boots and bindings, and their success continues.  Team Subaru currently leads both the American Ski Marathon Series as well as the FIS Marathon Cup in North America.  The more things change the more they stay the same; just the way The Don likes it.

Gerlach goes into great detail when describing what it takes to run Team Subaru.

“The Discovery Channel cycling team has an annual budget of around 15 million dollars, while Team Subaru’s entire budget approaches only half a million.  However, we are the largest program of its kind, we have 11 to 13 athletes on the team from year to year.  We have a staff of 5 to run the program; myself, my wife Sally and my assistant Justin Easter, as well as our 2 wax technicians that criss-cross the country taking care of all the racer’s needs.  We have 3 stickered Subarus that put on 20,000 miles each year as well as our one of a kind mobile wax unit and team locker room, a 40 ft. bus that is unique to cross-country racing.”

While Gerlach clearly runs the show at Subaru, he shuns the spotlight and turns it on his athletes.  When pressed for a photo of himself, he struggles.

“I’m not the story, the athletes are the story.  The racers on this team are the best in the game, they work hard, enjoy winter and are able to connect with the public and promote our sport.” 

What Gerlach preaches is true, the alumni roster reads like a who’s who of cross-country ski racing in America.  Current U.S. Head Cross-Country Coach Pete Vordenberg is a Factory Team alum as are 19 former Olympians including 2005 Owl Creek Chase Champion and 2006 Russian Olympian, Ivan Babikov.  In fact, Gerlach’s teams have been so strong that Team Subaru is a virtual feeder program for the U.S. Ski Team and vice versa. 

Former U.S. Champion Carl Swenson is a perfect example.  Swenson spent many years with the USST but when age and budget woes in Park City prevented him from getting named to the team, Gerlach stepped in and picked up the perennial Olympian from Vermont.  During his tenure with the Factory Team, Swenson won many races including the American Birkebeiner, the largest race in North America. Through support from the Factory Team he was also able to keep training for his international goals and a few years later Swenson was back with the U.S. Ski Team and storming his way through Europe. 

With several quality results on the World Cup circuit, Swenson entered the 2003 World Championships brimming with confidence and looked to peak for the 50k freestyle race, the ultimate test in Nordic skiing.  Swenson paced himself well and was leading the race midway when a broken pole towards the end of the event was the only thing that kept him off the podium.  Swenson finished 5^th that day, one of the greatest results in the history of U.S. cross-country ski racing and while Gerlach takes no credit for that result, it does leave one wondering how Carl Swenson’s career and many other’s would have worked out had the Factory Team not been there.

Gerlach does admit to having a soft spot in his heart for the sport of cross-country, not to say that he hasn’t been tempted to try something else. 

“As a businessman, I’ve thought about giving up on Nordic and trying something else many times.  Wondered, ‘Why am I doing this?’ but after you’ve been in it this long and to see how far we’ve come…I mean, I was an athlete on the other side and I kept saying how it could be done, finally someone said ‘Put up or shut up’, so I did.  I really believed it could be done, and that’s the key, you have to believe.” 

He continues, “When I first came on the scene, there was little marketing value in cross-country skiing, there was no SuperTour, no Marathon Cup, no sprint races.  Nordic racing was what I called ‘Submarine racing’; racers left the start, disappeared and returned from the woods an hour later. In the meantime, the fans had no idea what was happening out there, just as if it were 2 submarines racing under water.  The fans had no idea about the story of the race.  Now we have the SuperTour and the great stories, heck, I never even heard of the Owl Creek Chase until it came on the SuperTour. Hopefully Carl (Swenson) can come to Aspen and dominate the Owl Creek Chase and then we can get that story out there. I have to give great credit to Nordic Program Director Luke Bodensteiner and the people at USSA for doing what they’ve done in the last few years.  The sport has really grown through the SuperTour and we’re getting these incredible stories out there.”

U.S. Nordic fans have had more to cheer about lately as well. In the past two weeks, U.S. racers have finished on the podium at the World Cup twice, with Kikkan Randall and Torin Koos. A third U.S. sprinter, Andy Newell, just missed the podium with a 4^th place finish and is currently the 3^rd ranked FIS sprinter in the world.  Gerlach isn’t afraid to lend his opinion on U.S. Nordic as of late and with the World Championships coming up at the end of February in Japan, he offers his predictions.

“There’s no reason we can’t win some medals in Sapporo, our sprinters have done really well as of late, a couple of podiums, and we have some depth, but also watch out for Kris Freeman in the distance races.  I’m really pulling for Lars Flora though, he is one of Subaru’s best racers, he went to the Olympics last year and he has 7 straight wins on the SuperTour, watch out for Lars.”

When offering other insight into his vision of the future, Gerlach stresses the importance of moving forward.

“We have had great success with the U.S. Ski Team recently and it is really exciting that all the investment in the sport is paying dividends.  At the same time however, we really need to invest in the sport for the future.  When you look at Telemark, WI and over 500 racers in the SuperTour there and when you look at Minneapolis and see thousands of kids in the high-school programs, you know that people are begging for the sport.  We need to invest in snow making equipment and get more reliable ski conditions in the east and the Midwest, these places can only flourish with more reliable conditions and we can’t just rest on our laurels, we need to look forward and move forward.”

And with that, The Don of American cross-country ski racing was off to take care of his next responsibilities, the list is endless; check in with the organizers at The Boulder Mountain Tour to make sure everything is set for the race and expo, double check with Lars Flora to make sure his travel plans for the upcoming World Championships are in place, put in a call to his lead wax technician for updates on snow conditions in Sun Valley and so on and so on and so on……

Andrew Gerlach’s Subaru Factory Team will be participating in the 10^th stop on the USSA SuperTour, the Owl Creek Chase presented by RMN on Feb. 10.  Subaru team members slated to participate are; Carl Swenson, former NCAA All-American Justin Easter, defending Owl Creek Chase women’s champion Kristina Strandberg, 2-time NCAA Champion Jana Rehemaa and former U.S. Women’s 50km Champion Abigail Larson.  The members of Team Subaru will also be on hand for the ‘Ski with the Pros’ clinic on Sunday Feb. 11^th at the Aspen Cross Country Center.