Nordic Nation: Not a Fantasy, Hoffman Teams with FasterSkier for 2017/2018 Fantasy XC

It’s been eight long months, but finally, the International Ski Federation (FIS) Cross Country World Cup season is upon us and with it, the Noah Fantasy Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country League. Both the real-world and online competitions kick off this Friday with the Ruka Triple World Cup, three days of racing in Kuusamo, Finland.

If you’re playing, you need to pick your team by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Even if you’re in a post-Thanksgiving tryptophan-haze … it’s time.

Noah Hoffman, a U.S. nordic racer and founder of Noah Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country, which is entering its fourth season, after finishing 25th in last weekend’s 15 k freestyle FIS race in Beitostølen, Norway. He’ll be starting his season in earnest on Friday, Nov. 24, at the Ruka Triple World Cup in Finland. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)

In this episode we get a quick rundown from Noah Hoffman on how he got involved with FasterSkier and Adam Mahar, the coding brawn behind the world’s premier XC fantasy league, briefs us on the new rules. We connected with Noah Hoffman while he was training in Sjusjøen, Norway, and Adam Mahar, the Minneapolis-based website administrator and head programmer for Noah Hoffman Fantasy Cross Country.

To start the conversation off, you’ll get a bit of insight into what drives Hoffman and why he’s so productive when it comes to creating ski related projects. He’s got a blog, a great podcast, and the eponymous fantasy league.

Last year at this time, we did a full-blown analysis of Hoffman’s ski league, exploring the origins of the league, hearing how Adam got involved and then falling into a serious wormhole learning how some fantasy league experts pick their teams. Here’s a link to that episode.

Strategize, log in and pick you team. For this long weekend of racing, you have to have your team registered before midnight (EST) on Thursday. Choose wisely: the races are classic sprints (Friday), 10/15-kilometer classic individual starts (Saturday) and 10/15 k freestyle pursuits (Sunday). And if you need some pointers or at least some direction, listen closely to this episode.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

Jason Albert

Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.