Seven-Stage Tour de Ski Starts Saturday

It’s time for the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) 11th Tour de Ski. The 2017 edition takes place in three countries and four different venues. Racers will compete in seven stages over the course of nine days. The grueling Alpe Cermis — a 9-kilometer freestyle hill climb in Val di Fiemme, Italy — will be featured again as the final race to determine the overall Tour de Ski (TdS) results.

Directly leading up to the multi-stage event, all four venues reported good snow conditions, even if it’s mostly manmade. In its third year of hosting the Tour, Val Müstair, Switzerland, is opening the TdS for the first time with the first two stages. Oberstdorf, Germany, reported good conditions for two stages on a 2.5 k loop, as did Toblach, Italy, which will hold the fifth stage. The perennial host of the Tour’s final stages, Val di Fiemme has coped with a lack of natural snow, but its course and final climb are ready, with the Alpe being open since Christmas.

The Races: 

1. Saturday, Dec. 31 (Val Müstair): freestyle sprint (heats start at 8:50 a.m. ET)
2. Sunday, Jan. 1 (Val Müstair): 5/10 k classic mass start (7/10 a.m. ET)
3. Tuesday, Jan. 3 (Oberstdorf): 5/10 k skiathlon (6:15/9:15 a.m. ET)
4. Wednesday, Jan. 4 (Oberstdorf): 10/15 k freestyle pursuit (5:30/6:45 a.m. ET)
5. Friday, Jan. 6 (Toblach): 5/10 k freestyle (4:45/7 a.m. ET)
6. Saturday, Jan. 7 (Val di Fiemme): 10/15 k classic mass start  (8:30/9:30 a.m. ET)
7. Sunday, Jan. 8 (Val di Fiemme): 9 k freestyle pursuit (hill climb) (5:30/9:30 a.m. ET)

The Players:

Ingvild Flugstad Østberg continues to prove that she can compete for a win in any distance and after finishing second in last year’s Tour (to Norwegian teammate Therese Johaug, currently out with a provisional suspension), Østberg will be back this year to vie for her first TdS title. Her teammate Heidi Weng placed third last year but is already off to her strongest start yet, with three individual victories so far this World Cup season.

Also on a roll this season, Americans Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen have been consistently placing in the top 10 and top 20, respectively, and finished 10th and 14th overall in last year’s Tour (with Diggins notching her first individual World Cup win in the 5 k freestyle stage in Toblach, and U.S. teammate Sophie Caldwell winning her first World Cup race as well in the Stage 4 classic sprint in Oberstdorf.)

Last year’s men’s champion, Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway returns to defend his title all the way to the finish in Val di Fiemme. Sundby is in good form, with two individual wins and four podiums so far this season. Also returning is Sundby’s teammate Finn Hågen Krogh, who raced to second last year and is coming off his first victory of the World Cup season in the 15 k freestyle in La Clusaz, France. Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov will be aiming to move up on the podium after taking third last year, and Norway’s Petter Northug continues to miss the World Cup action as he is looking to rekindle his usual level of energy, according to multiple reports.

Six Russian skiers have been provisionally suspended as of Dec. 22, after being tied to doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in the McLaren report, according to a FIS press release on Friday. Following the investigative actions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the FIS Doping Panel “made the unanimous decision today [Friday]” to uphold those provisional suspensions of Evgeniy Belov, Julia Ivanova, Alexander Legkov, Evgenia Shapovalova, Alexey Petukhov, and Maxim Vylegzhanin. The athletes had originally appealed to FIS to compete in the Tour, expediting the FIS Doping Panel’s decision-making process, but ultimately, those six will not be able to compete in the Tour nor any competitions or national-team activities.

“The reasons for the Panel’s decision will be communicated directly to the athletes in due course,” the FIS press release stated.

So who does that leave for Russia, and which other athletes will be competing? Let’s take a look at some of the TdS rosters.

 

RUSSIA 

Women: Yulia Tchekaleva, Polina Kalsina, Elena Soboleva, Alisa Zhambalova, Olga Tsarevets, Mariya Guschina, Anna Nechaevskaya (as leader of the Continental Cup)

Men: Sergey Ustiugov, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Andrey Larkov, Andrey Melnichenko, Petr Sedov, Ermil Vokuev, Alexey Chervotkin (as leader of the Continental Cup)

 

USA

Women: Jessie Diggins, Sadie Bjornsen, Liz Stephen, Sophie Caldwell*, Kikkan Randall**, Rosie Brennan

Men: Simi Hamilton*, Noah Hoffman, Erik Bjornsen

* Caldwell and Hamilton intend to stop the Tour after Stage 2, according to U.S. Ski Team (USST) Head Coach Chris Grover.