Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk (c) celebrates her fourth-straight Tour de Ski victory last year in Val di Fiemme, Italy. She shared the 2012/2013 Tour de Ski podium with Norwegians Therese Johaug (l) in second and Kristin Størmer Steira in third (r). (Photo: Fiemme2013)
With the eighth-annual Tour de Ski starting 24 hours from 8 a.m. EST, we thought we’d give you a rundown of what’s happening when and who’s racing.
The short-and-simple: TdS
The stages: seven in nine days
The places: Oberhof, Germany (Dec. 28-29), Lenzerheide, Switzerland (Dec. 31 & Jan. 1), Cortina d’Ampezzo-Toblach, Italy (Jan. 3), Val di Fiemme, Italy (Jan. 4-5)
Dec. 28: 3/4.5 k freestyle prologue (women at 14:00/men at 15:15 CET), Oberhof. Start lists:women | men
Dec. 29: Freestyle sprint (heats start at 14:30 CET), Oberhof
Dec. 31: Freestyle sprint (heats at 14:45), Lenzerheide
Jan. 1: 10/15 k classic mass start (men at 13:00/women at 15:45 CET), Lenzerheide
Jan. 3: 15/35 k freestyle pursuit (women at 10:30/men at 12:15 CET), Cortina to Toblach
Jan. 4: 5/10 k classic individual start (men at 11:00/women at 15:45), Val di Fiemme
Jan. 5: 9 k freestyle pursuit/final climb (women at 13:30/men at 15:00 CET)
The players:
Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk powers to the top of the Alpe Cermis and her fourth Tour de Ski victory last season. (Photo: Fimme2013)
221 athletes from 26 nations
Justyna Kowalczyk: four-time defending champ from Poland. She’s one of three women to have completed all seven Tours to date, with Finland’s Riitta-Liisa Roponen and Ukraine’s Valentina Shevchenko
Marit Bjørgen: the Norwegian powerhouse is back after skipping last season’s Tour because of a heart scare. The three-time Olympic gold medalist and 12-time world champion has yet to win the Tour, but finished second twice (in 2007 and 2012).
Petter Northug: the Norwegian runner-up in three straight Tours (2009-2011), who has yet to win overall andone of three men to finish all seven editions of Tour. Germany’s Jens Filbrich and Italy’s Giorgio Di Centa are the others.
(Not racing: Dario Cologna: Swiss skier who won three Tours in 2009, 2011 and 2012. Recently started skiing again after tearing an ankle ligament and having surgery in November. Hopes to race Alpen Cups Jan. 10-12 in Chamonix, France.)
The point: $$$, World Cup points (overall winners get 400 World Cup points and half of the regular World Cup points will be awarded per stage), and a tune-up for the Olympics in February
U.S./Canadian lineup (tentative):
Liz Stephen racing the final climb up the Alpe Cermis in the 2011/2012 Tour de Ski. Last year, she had the second-fastest time in the 9 k freestyle pursuit, and finished 15th in the overall Tour.
US Ski Team:
All seven stages:
Noah Hoffman
Jessie Diggins
Liz Stephen
First four stages:
Andy Newell
Simi Hamilton
Sophie Caldwell
Holly Brooks
Canada:
All seven stages:
Devon Kershaw
Ivan Babikov
Alex Harvey (may skip final climb)
Lenny Valjas (may skip final climb)
First four stages:
Dasha Gaiazova
Perianne Jones
Who’s out:
Chandra Crawford: training in Canada
Kikkan Randall: training in Davos, Switzerland
Ida Sargent: training in Davos
Sadie Bjornsen: training in France
Need-to-Know Basics: Eighth Annual Tour de Ski – FasterSkier
![The 2012/2013 Tour de Ski women's podium, with winner Justyna Kowalczyk (c) of Poland; Norwegian runner-up Therese Johaug (l) and Norway's Kristin Størmer Steira in third. (Photo: Fiemme2013)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/01/Podio_TourdeSki02-web.jpg")
![Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) powers to the top of the Alpe Cermis and her fourth Tour de Ski victory. (Photo: Fimme2013)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/01/Kowalczyk-web.jpg")
![Liz Stephen finishing the final climb up the Alpe Cermis in last year's Tour de Ski. This year, she had the second-fastest time up the nine kilometer track, and moved into 15th in the final Tour standings.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/01/42L-Stephen-Finishes.jpg")