FasterSkier · July 28, 2005
Mini-series with focus on the Norwegian longdistance team: Tour de Ski should not be compared to Tour de France says a unified longdistance team. They would have liked to see that the first Tour de Ski was organized very differently than what FIS has decided.
Source: Langrenn.com
Tour de France is an event with many exciting races and moments inside the same competition. Different types of competitors have different goals and there are a big number of duels of all kinds. This competition is the model for cross country skiing’s new Tour de Ski, which struggles with the fear of having athletes specializing to race either skating or classic or being split into sprinters, long-distance skiers or those racing the events in between this.
Tour de Ski can bring the cross country family together, but the longdistance skiers are not a part of the plans for the first prototype of this new creation.
– This program is only for World Cup skiers, says Anders Hallingstad, a member of the Norwegian longdistance team.
He and the other members wanted a program that included long races. The longdistance team believes that long races with early sprint prices for the sprinters and uphill sprints for the 02-Kings, with bonus seconds and different exciting additions in each race would be a lot more interesting than how the International Ski Federation (FIS) has envisioned the first ever Tour de Ski to look like. The longdistance team would like a Tour de Ski similar to how Tour de France is organized.
– It’s lame to compare this to Tour de France, says Havard Skorstad about the program that’s planned for Tour de Ski.
– It will be like a cup inside the (World) Cup, says Hallingstad
– There will be too many regular races without anything extra that will create more interest or excitement. For example like in biathlon where some races in central Europe counts in a separate cup where the winner gets a car.
The longdistance team is instead excited about the increasing popularity of longdistance racing.
– It’s very positive that (some) long distance are becoming a part of the (regular) World Cup, says Aukland and is supported by the other skiers.
– Norwegian television is showing the Vasaloppet live and that’s very positive for the sport, says Anders Hallingstad.
