AURE, NORWAY – Cross country skier Petter Northug (NOR) leaves Aure and the rest of the events at Toppidrettsveka. Northug completed two of four events.
Toppidrettsveka started out as an elite Norwegian week of competitions, camps and challenges that evolved into an international week of camps and competitions in the northwest part of Norway. The past two years it has featured World Cup roller ski events, and this summer acted as test events for the rollerski World Championships next year.
The reason for leaving is that Northig doesn’t want to take any chances with his training program in the important World Championship season, on home turf this time.
After talking to national team coach Morten Aa Djupvik, Northug concluded that two events at Toppidrettsveka was enough this time. “I think Petter has had enough hard workouts for a few days, and doesn’t want to risk anything. That’s why he skips the last two events this weekend. He will start preparing for the national team camp in Seiser Alm/Livigno at the end of August/early September,” says Djupvik.
Northug will do VO2max testing at the Olympic development center in Oslo (Toppidrettssenteret) as well as some presentations for the National Ski Association (Skiforbundet) the coming week.
From Langrenn.com, August 13, 2010. Translation by Inge Scheve (©NTB)
Inge Scheve
Inge is FasterSkier's international reporter, born and bred in Norway. A cross-country ski racer and mountain runner, she also dabbles on two wheels in the offseason. If it's steep and long, she loves it. Follow her on Twitter: @IngeScheve.
One comment
Martin Hall
August 18, 2010 at 8:14 am
I was wondering when this guy had to slow down—April was racing and training, as was June and July. I’ll bet he has 15-20 race starts since the end of the ski season! What a beast!