Everybody agreed that the inaugural Tour was a success and that the basic idea works. For the second edition, the FIS Cross-Country Committee, led by Chairman Vegard Ulvang, reviewed the rules and made some adaptations at the FIS calendar meeting in Portoroz (SLO) in May. A summary of the most important rules amendments follows:
Newly introduced will be the Tour Team Cup — a team scoring. In each Stage, the racing results (time score) of the two best ladies and two best men per nation will count for the Team Cup.
To provide the sprinters with additional opportunities, the new Tour rules include increased Bonus Seconds. This means that the winners of the sprint races will receive a time bonus of 60 (rather than 50) seconds. The second placed will get -56 seconds, the third -52 seconds and so on until the 30th ranked athlete will earn -1 second. Moreover, additional intermediate sprints are included in this year's Tour de Ski in three distance races (both competitions in Oberstdorf, one in Val di Fiemme).
Another novelty in the rules is that if a racer loses by more than 18% (ladies)/ 15% (men) compared in an individual start race, she or he is excluded from the rest of the Tour. Lapping and skipping a race will also lead to exclusion.
In total, one million Swiss francs will be awarded to the most successful athletes, the King and Queen of Cross-Country, the winners of the Sprint Ranking and the daily Stage winners. In the first edition of the Tour, the prize money was reduced due to the cancellation of the first two races.
