The course for tomorrows rather short courses – a 5km for the women and a 10km for the men – will see like sprints compared to today’s races. They will be in the classic style and the course appears to have a couple good climbs on it including one that rises 40 meters in elevation [...]
Today saw the start of the distance races with the first point A to B race of the Tour. It was pursuit style so there were expectations of great battles and tactics on the course. The results of this race would determine the overall classification of the Tour. Simple concept: win the race and you [...]
Today is the first to two very deserved rest days for the athletes. With the sprint portion of the Tour done for another year, more and more athletes will be dropping out, particularly sprint specialists. One the men’s side, the most notables to leave the Tour will be leader Emil Jönsson, stage 3 winner Eldar [...]
Today is the first to two very deserved rest days for the athletes. With the sprint portion of the Tour done for another year, more and more athletes will be dropping out, particularly sprint specialists. One the men’s side, the most notables to leave the Tour will be leader Emil Jönsson, stage 3 winner Eldar [...]
Today was final consecutive race day before a day off for the athletes. The Prague city sprints got off to a late start and saw the heats being run under flood lights. The track was tight quarters and who ever was in the lead at the first hair pin after the start would be nearly [...]
After the Oberhof sprint, the athletes hopped in team vehicles and started their journey to the Czech Republic; unless your name is Virpi Kuitunen, then you hopped on a plane home back to Finland. The Prague sprint tomorrow will be exciting as it’s the first city sprint and it’ll be fast and furious as the [...]
Today was the final of three race days in Oberhof. With numerous of the top sprint specialists not pariticipating in the Tour de Ski, it opened the door to others to get a taste of sprint action such as Matti Heikkinen, Simen Ostensen, and Jens Filbrich. The weather seemed to co-operate more or less and [...]
Tomorrow’s sprint race will be surprisingly the first time a classic sprint has ever been run in the Tour de Ski. The forecast is calling for snow and temperatures hovering around -0C, it’ll surely be a wax technicians nightmare. I’m expect some athletes in the post-race interviews will have some words about how their skis [...]
Even though we saw a great performance from Kowalczyk and some more magical moments from Northug, today’s races were highlighted by the Finnish skiers in my eyes. They skied hard and with intention. Sure, they didn’t win the race, but they sure changed how the results list looked with their intentions out on the course. [...]
The prologue has been dominated by two German’s since the inception of the Tour de Ski: Claudia Nystad and Axel Teichmann. Today saw Nystad fail to win her 4th consecutive prologue, while Teichmann was edged out by a Swede and a Norwegian to deny him of his second straight victory in the format. There are [...]
Tomorrow sees the start of the fourth annual Tour de Ski. Oberhof, Germany is the location of the first two stages and will be the first time the 10-day competition has taken place in an Olympic year. Subsequently, some big names will not be taking part as they have prioritized the Olympics and the preparation [...]
Last night saw millions of people around the world slip into turkey-induced comas; I was one such person. However, today is a new day and we’re now only six days from the start of the fourth edition of the Tour de Ski. This years Tour is starting a day later than years past, on New [...]
The temperature was the same, but the conditions were immaculate compared to yesterdays sprints. The sun was out and the tracks were fresh for the first mass start races of the World Cup season. The athletes were dressed warmly with many neck warmers, Vaseline, and anything else to protect the skin – especially the cheeks [...]
The sprints were long and the weather was on the chilly side – with most athletes wearing their buffs or a type of neckwarmer on – but that didn’t mean it was a boring day on the tracks. The conditions were sub par with snow covering the tracks which made it slow going in the [...]
Tomorrow will see the last sprint race before the Christmas break. This is the first time Slovenia has hosted a World Cup in almost 17 years. The last time the World Cup circuit hit Slovenia was in Bohinj in January 1993. The last winner was the great Kazakh Vladimir Smirnov (there was no women’s race [...]
With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on the horizon, numerous athletes were vying for a chance to represent their country in February. Most of the usual suspects – Northug and Hattestad on the men’s side with Saarinen and Majdic – having risen to the top already. It appears Northug has started off where he left off [...]
For those wondering why this blog has gone dead and look like it hasn’t been maintained, it’s simply because this blogger doesn’t have the time. I am travelling in Asia so there won’t be any posts from this blog for the start of the season or the first four World Cup weekends. However, if all [...]
It’s been a while since my last post, but luckily this time of the season is slower than molasses for all thing nordic so there hasn’t been anything of substance to report. Today however, there was some bad news out of Norway as 22 year old Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen was in a serious bike accident [...]
There’s nothing really important to say but numerous random articles that have floated to the surface lately. First off, Rossignol is feeling the economic crunch harder than most winter sport companies and will be cutting not only jobs (approximately 30% of their work force), but also cutting wages of the athletes that currently use their [...]
It was announced today that Tor Arne Hetland is retiring from competitive skiing and a long and illustrious career. Hetland was one of the first sprinting stars of cross country skiing after is was introduced during the 1999 World Cup season. The 35 year old veteran of the circuit decided to hang up the skis [...]