Two days of relay racing are up next at the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The relays are always the crowd favorite at every World Champ event, and this year will be no different.
Mother nature has decided to give the racers a break for both days of the relay, with predicted highs in the 30’s (F) and partially sunny skies. This will be quite a nice contrast from the wacky weather in yesterday’s 15km slog-fest.
 and interval timing is available at http://livetiming.usskiteam.com. </p>
<p>The race can also be viewed “live online†at http://www.sportresult.com/sports/cc/cc.asp.<br />
The startlist is usually posted within the last 30 minutes before the event begins.</p>
<p>The Russian ladies will be defending their title from the 2006 Torino games. However, Finland is the pre-race favorite amoung European bookmakers, followed by the Norweigian women ins 2nd, and the Russia 3rd.</p>
<p>Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) will ski the leadoff leg for Team USA. She'll be followed, according to Head Coach Pete Vordenberg, by Laura Valaas (Wenatchee, WA) in the second classic technique leg, Caitlin Compton (Minneapolis,MN) in the third freestyle leg, with the never-tiringSarah Konrad (Laramie, WY) anchoring the squad..</p>
<p>Lindsey Weier (Mahtomedi, MN) is the lone American not racing, as she returned home after the 10km skate to prepare for the NCAA Ski Championships next week in Jackson, New Hampshire. Weier, a senior at Northern Michigan University, is hungry for an NCAA title in her last season of collegiate racing.</p>
<p>Women’s relay startlist can be found at:<br />
http://www.sapporo2007.com/pdfs/2007CC2502SLES%5B1%5D-Women-Rery-Start-1st-CO.pdf</p>
<p>As we all know, anything can happen in relays. Fasterskier.com’s wild predictions after ‘analyzing’ all available data is (in order): Russia, Italy, and Norway. Buy the Fasterskier.com gang dinner if you bet and win, but don’t blame the Fasterskier.com gang if they are wrong!</p>
<p>Regardless of the race outcome, the race will be interesting with 16 teams entered. And, of course, who will win the USA/Canada battle? </p>
<p>Nordicbet.com also has odds on Thursday’s 4x5km relay for women: </p>
<p>Finland 2.55<br />
Norway 3.50<br />
Russia 4.75<br />
Italy 6.00<br />
Sweden 8.00<br />
Germany 10.00</p>
<p>—————————————————————————————</p>
<p>On the Men’s side (Friday’s race), Italy will be defending their title from the 2006 Torino Olympics. As history has shown, this race will be close and down to the wire and promises 90 minutes of pure excitement.</p>
<p>The men’s relay will be one heck of a show to watch for sure! Russian is coming on strong and could absolutely be among the leaders at the end of the day. Itally will for sure be there to the end as they have proven over and over and they have VERY good skate skiers. Italy will not get dropped and they can sprint! Germany has finally been able to peak at the right time and avoided getting sick as they did at both the 2005 Worlds and 2006 Olympics. They are (in Fasterskier.com’s opinion) the logical favorites to win the gold — just look at where their top skiers placed in the pursuit and how well Angerer and Teichmann skied in the 15km freestyle despite their late start numbers in the worst of the snowstorm. German should prepare to uncork the Champagne…BUT then Norway is in the picture AGAIN! Norway was humbled in the 2006 Olympic relay and is ready for REVENGE. They have the deepest team (along with Germany): Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, Eldar Ronning, Lars Berger, and Petter Northug will most likely be the team. Frode Estil, Jens Arne Svartedal, Anders Aukland, and Ole Einar Bjorndalen were left off the team!</p>
<p>Why COULD and SHOULD Norway win? Mr. Cocksure, Petter Northug has a great finish sprint—and he has proven that against the best. He also has had the guts to make statements about winning. Sapporo has been a humbling nightmare for him so far and it’s time for him to deliver!</p>
<p>Team USA decided to pull the plug on the relay after a frustrating day in the 15km skate race and rest up and focus on the 50 km mass start. Head Coach Vordenberg thinks that the relay would not be the best preparation for the 50km.<br />
U.S. sprinters Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT), Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) and Chris Cook (Rhinelander, WI) have left the championships, heading to the next stop on the World Cup tour – Lahti, Finland. Along with Coach Justin Wadsworth, they’ll begin preparations for the spring World Cup sprint races in Scandinavia.<br />
Fasterskier.com asks all readers to post your predictions in the comments section below!</p>
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