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2006 October

Whoa! What are those for? Cool as! If you think you get crazy looks as you rollerski in North America, try rollerskiing through the streets of New Zealand. Sometimes little kids come out of their homes to watch us in our rollerski pick-ups, so we get them to help us out by making them the official ‘starters’ of our speeds. While most collegiate skiers have been spending the fall training with their teams, there are...

Petter Northug has to slow down his training toward the Norwegian opening races at Beitostolen since he is coming down from high altitude. The altitude effect makes everything easier at sea-level. The danger of training too hard at sea-level and risking overtraining is therefore high. Northug has been told to be extra careful in the phase that he now approaches. – Focus will be on training easy, and I just have to put the brakes...

“The Sausage” kept his word after a bet and ran naked in the main finish area after the race. See link to the photo! http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=135723 Some excerpts: – I got an ultimatum that I’m either in or I’m not in. I just hope that nobody was offended by this, but it’s never going to happen again, says “The Sausage” to VG Nett. The sprinter was second in Saturday’s race and after another second place this...

DUSSELDORF, Germany (Oct. 29) – Sweden's men and Norway's women won the first cross country team sprint of the new World Cup season Sunday before a large and wildly cheering throng. No U.S. racers competed. Olympic sprint champion Bjoern Lind and Peter Larsson took command late in the six-lap men's race, six times around a 1.5K course on machinemade snow along the Rhine River, and edged Norwegians Petter Northug and Tor Arne Hetland by 2.6...

DUSSELDORF, Germany (Oct. 28) – Olympian Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) collided with another racer in his semifinal heat of the season-opening World Cup sprint Saturday but rebounded to finish eighth in the rainy, soft-snow conditions. He was fourth-fastest in qualifying. “Not a bad start for the season. I have no complaints,” Newell said. “The snow wasn't bad, considering it was raining last night and off and on during the day; the snow stayed surprisingly quick...

Marit Bjoergen and Eldar Roenning, both of Norway, won the World Cup Opening Sprint in Duesseldorf. The 26-year-old Bjoergen celebrated her fourth victory in Duesseldorf today. This was in total the 27 World Cup Victory in her career. The young Russian sprinter Natalia Matveeva finished in the second place while the third place was taken by Marit's team mate Ella Gjoemle. Also in the final skied also Lina Andersson (SWE, 4th), Arianna Follis (ITA, 5th)...

DUSSELDORF, Germany (Oct. 28) – Olympian Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) collided with another racer in his semifinal heat of the season-opening sprint Saturday but rebounded to finish eighth. Newell was fourth-fastest in qualifying. Norway: The Sprint Throne is Ours Marit Bjorgen On Top In Germany For complete results: Women: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=11801 Tomorrow is the sprint relay event. Sources: USSA, Eurosport, FIS

DUSSELDORF, Germany (Oct. 27) – An ailing but determined three-man U.S. sprint squad, battling chest and head colds, will race in the opening World Cup competition of the 2007 season. Organizers began laying down machinemade snow Friday over an 800-meter course alongside the Rhine River. Two-time Olympian Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) and two of his '06 teammates, Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) – who produced the first U.S. podium in 23 years last March when he...

Here are the startlists for Saturday’s sprint World Cup prologue in Düsseldorf, Germany Startlist sprint prologue freestyle women 1 MISCHOL Seraina SUI 46.09 13:10:15 2 SOLLI Guro Stroem NOR 31.27 13:10:30 3 NORGREN Britta SWE 31.93 13:10:45 4 MATVEEVA Natalia RUS 24.50 13:11:00 5 BOEHLER Stefanie GER 42.09 13:11:15 6 MALVALEHTO Mona-Liisa FIN 60.61 13:11:30 7 KUITUNEN Virpi FIN 15.50 13:11:45 8 SACHENBACHER STEHLE Evi GER 40.36 13:12:00 9 VENAELAEINEN Kati FIN 38.93 13:12:15 10...

Riikka Rakic is a 1995 Graduate of Middlebury College and the FIS coordinator for this year’s Tour de Ski. Rakic answered some questions for www.Middleburyskiing.org . www.tour-de-ski.com for some recent commentary on the Tour! What challenges will world skiing face in the years to come? I personally think that the climatic change will be the biggest challenge we will have to face in the future and it will have a great impact on the skiing...

Sweden’s Jörgen Brink will miss this weekends sprint World Cup opening in Düsseldorf. He will be replaced by Anders Högberg. Jorgen Brink will not race this weekend. He got sick with a cold during the teams camp in Val Senales. – It’s too bad the season should start this way, but there are a lot more important competitions for me later this season, says Jorgen. Brink will be replaced by teammate Anders Högberg Brink’s roommate...

Siri Halle, the 1991 junior World champion will be racing in the Dusseldorf sprint World Cup opener. She was recently training in Bulgaria. http://www.fasterskier.com/news2371.html Siri Halle (34) has been selected to race for Norway in the upcoming sprint World Cup opener in Düsseldorf, Germany. She is however not a member of the national team, so while the team did their final preparation in Val Senales, Siri Halle got ready at 2000 meter altitude in Bulgaria....

The Norwegian sprint team is doing their final Dusseldorf preparations in the skitunnel in Torsby, Sweden The Norwegian sprint team will be training in Torsby, Sweden from October 23 to the 26 in their finale preparations for the sprint World Cup opener in Dusseldorf, Germany. Other teams, including the US Sprint Team, are also there. The team will be utilizing the skitunnel for on-snow training and do additional dryland training in and around Torsby. Hard...

Scandalized coach Walter Mayer is still coaching despite being thrown out by the Austrian ski federation. It’s the German newsagency SID that reports that the coach, who was banned from the Torino Olympics, still is coaching in Austria. He is among other coaching the national army ski team and WSV Ramsau. Mayer was involved in the doping scandal during the 2006 Olympics, and fled Italy, but was found sleeping in his own car. He was...

Alaskan Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) flashes her trademark wide smile and notes, “It's in my blood” as she explains how an aunt (Betsy Haines) was a 1980 Olympic cross country skier, and an uncle was an Olympian, too (John Haines, '76). Randall, 23 and a two-time Olympian – and a junior at Alaska Pacific University (with a business major), comes into the 2007 season with confidence from last winter when she produced the best U.S. women's...

Bœrre Næss is convinced that Norway will retake the sprint throne from the Swedes this winter. http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3201.html – We have to hope and believe that the second and third (victory) will happen this winter, says Næss. Bœrre Næss has trained different (for sprint) this summer. Olympic (Atlanta) 800-meter champion Vebjœrn Rodal has helped him a lot. – I have done stair-explosiveness training once per week. That has increased my leg strength considerably. I have also...