Coleraine, MN, The two women form the Maine Winter Sports Center won the Youth and Junior categories. They were the only repeat winners today, as both Leif Nordgren (Marine-on—St. Croix, MN) in the Youth Men and Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) in the Junior Men were edged out of first place by small margins. With their victories today, McNamee and Toussaint, along with Mark Johnson (Grand Rapids, MN) in the Junior Men’s category have now...
Arianna Follis (ITA) was the winner in the Tour de Ski freestyle sprint race, held on a 450m course in Prague's famous old town. She claimed victory after posting the fastest qualification time, ahead of the Tour favorites Marit Bjoergen (3rd place) and Virpi Kuitunen (fifth place). Pirjo Muranen (FIN), finished 2nd, earning her first individual podium finish at the World Cup level since January 2005. Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland took fourth, equaling her best...
HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN (December 30, 2007) — The fences are up, trails are marked and there is plenty of snow. Skiers have started arriving in Houghton, Michigan, for the 2008 U.S. Cross Country Championships. The first of four cross country ski races kicks off New Year's Day 2008. More than 460 skiers have registered, representing close to 30 colleges, various ski clubs and the U.S. Ski Team. Several Olympic skiers will vie for the national championship,...
Lukas Bauer (CZE) made it back to back victories today in Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski, winning the men's 15km Pursuit in convincing style in front of the home crowd in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic. The 30 year old skied four solo laps of the 3.75km course to win by 47 seconds ahead of a very large bunch sprint. After such a dramatic women's pursuit, what would happen with the men?...
Marit Bjoergen (NOR) won the Tour de Ski Stage 2 Pursuit in Nove Mesto today with an incredible burst of speed to catch and sprint past Charlotte Kalla (SWE) in the final straight. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) took third place, 7 seconds back in what was an exciting contest amongst the best female cross country skiers in the world. The winner of prologue Kuitunen (FIN) started steadily, holding her time gap over Saarinen (FIN) and Kowalczyk...
Andy Newell spent the Christmas Holiday putting “money in the bank” with some solid training. Read more. Justin Freeman struggled through a tough interval workout, but is feeling primed to race.
Norweigan Bjoergen skied up from the fourth position to take the victory in the second stage of the Tour de Ski. Bjoergen started 21 seconds behind yesterday's winner, Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) and edged young Swede Charlotte Kalla. Justyna Kowalcyzk (POL) took the third spot behind Kalla. Kalla posted the fastest time for the day – 25:47.9. Sabina Valbusa (ITA) was just behind, with Bjoergen third. Said Bjoergen, “this was great, I was fast on my...
Bauer started in the first spot of the men's 15km freestyle pursuit, 6 seconds ahead of Axel Teichmann (GER). This lead stretched to 42 seconds by the finish, and Bauer had his second victory in as many days. The next 30 skiers grouped into a large pack, all finishing within 20 seconds. Two swedes emerged from the pack to claim second and third – young Marcus Hellner and veteran Anders Soedergren respectively. The largest climb...
Watch complete coverage of the Tour de Ski on WCSN. Races are not live, but most Tour de Ski events are scheduled to be on-line with no more than a 1-day delay. Cross-country expert Peter Graves will be working with WCSN to provide top-quality commentary on these events! Yesterday's prologue is on-line, and the schedule provides details on when upcoming events will be posted.
Coleraine, MN. Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) left his nearest competitor over one minute behind today as he won the Junior Men’s 10K Sprint in the first day of competition at Youth/Junior World Championships Trials. Roberts, a pre-qualifier for the 2008 Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships, next month today reconfirmed his status as the top US junior biathlete. He and second place finisher Mark Johnson (Grand Rapids, MN) each had a single prone penalty,...
This is a bi-weekly column (well, most of the time) highlighting our ski coaches from around the country…. including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches, and ambassadors to our sport. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches/volunteers and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s nordic community. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email rob@fasterskier.com. Please give...
Editor's Note: The results viewable directly on both the FIS and Tour de Ski websites are incorrect, reporting inaccurate times. The actual results are viewable on these sites as official PDFs. The links at the bottom of this article go to the correct results. Last year's Tour winner Kuitunen started the 10-day event off where she left off last year, winning the women's 3.3km prologue by .7 seconds over teammate Aino Kaisa Saarinen. Justina Kowalcyzk...
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Good snow, World Cup and Junior World Championships start slots plus another big field of competitors should equal intense competitions for the 2008 U.S. Cross Country Championships, starting New Year's Day at Michigan Tech. “We'll have about 450 athletes racing again. I'm excited about what should be more great racing,” U.S. Cross Country Head Coach Pete Vordenberg said. “We're going to have another huge field and there's a lot at stake, so...
Coleraine, MN, December 27. Junior and Youth biathletes from across the US are converging at Mt. Itasca where the Junior and Youth World Championship Trials open tomorrow. Over 60 competitors from six states including Minnesota, Maine, Alaska, Vermont, New York, and Colorado will vie for positions on the US Team that will compete in the Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany at the end of January. Three athletes have already earned positions...
All is set for the start of the 2007-2008 Tour de Ski. Snow conditions are good, the weather is stable and waxing is expected to be relatively easy. The Stage 1 Prologue is a short interval start classic race, 3km for women and 4.5km for men. A new starting system is being used for the first time. The athletes are seeded according to World Cup ranking, with the leaders going off last – the same...
Italy Women Confortola, Antonella Follis, Arianna Genuin, Magda Moroder, Karine Valbusa, Sabina Men Checchi, Valerio Di Centa, Giorgio Pasini, Renato Piller Cottrer, Pietro Santus, Fabio Zorzi, Cristian Schwienbacher, Freddy Follis is in good form this season and likely the main overall contender amongst the Italian women, although Valbusa is an experienced campaigner and can't be discounted. Follis excelled in the Sprint events in the 2006/2007 Tour, taking two podium finishes, but also skied a very...
Austria Women Smutna, Katerina Men Hoffmann, Christian Pinter, Juergen Stockinger, Martin Wurm, Harald The sole Austrian woman Katerina Smutna is a good all-round skier with top 20 World Cup results in both Sprint and Distance events, however has taken her best results in the Sprint events. Smutna doesn’t seem to have the form this season to be one of the top candidates for the overall ranking, but could definitely be in there fighting for places...
The last several weeks have provided numerous strong snow systems that have covered the Ponderosa State Park trails just outside downtown McCall, Idaho with a strong snow base of two feet heading into the new year. Good news on the early snow front (hardly unusual in McCall, but still nice to hear these days) comes as early USA entries to the world's largest traveling winter championship event surpass the 250 skier mark. The March 1-7...
The US Ski Association Distance National Championships, incorporated into the Tour of the Golden Heart Spring Series, will put the best of Fairbanks, the Golden Heart City of Alaska, on display to all those who will attend. This four-race series will feature outstanding competition in four events over a six-day period, including the two events in the US Ski Association National Distance Championships, the 7.5Km+7.5Km and 15Km+15Km Skiathlon/Pursuit, and the 30Km/50Km Mass Start Classic event....