After 10 years of the World Cup grind, U.S. Ski Team veteran Andy Newell discusses his future while regenerating at home in Shaftsbury, Vt., ahead of the season-ending World Cups in Canada. "I think being able to adapt year after year, and stay relevant and stay current in the sprints has been a challenge, but also something I'm proud of," he says.
There were no Norwegians on the podium Saturday in Falun, Sweden. Russia secured the top two with Maxim Vylegzhanin in first and Alexander Bessmertnykh in second, and France’s Maurice Manificat finished third. American Erik Bjornsen to a second-best 21st, a minute out of first.
In soft conditions, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla busted apart the final of the women's classic sprint in Stockholm, Sweden. She saved her powerful stride and double pole for the last half kilometer, where she appeared to engage the afterburners, winning the day by 3.3 seconds.
The Arrowhead 135 is a 135-mile, human-powered event in northern Minnesota. This year, Mike Brumbaugh broke the course record by 5 minutes despite skiing with a busted pole for 115 miles of it. “When I broke it at twenty miles, I stopped and stuck a stick in each end ... It just snapped again. Then I just carried it for sixteen miles." He had to get resourceful at a general store stop along the way.
At Sunday's Holmenkollen 30 k classic mass start, Norway's Therese Johaug dominated. She won by a margin of 3:46.5 over teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. FIS reports Johaug's margin of victory was the largest ever for a women's cross-country World Cup.
Norway's Petter Northug showed his versatility as an all-rounder, winning Wednesday's classic sprint in Drammen, Norway. His quick double pole and quicksilver skate skis won out the day. The U.S. Ski Team's Simi Hamilton placed 11th overall while Canada's Alex Harvey posted his second-best sprint result of the season in 20th.
During three days of competition at the Seefeld Triple, Germany's Eric Frenzel proved he's Mr. Consistency, winning all three days for his third-straight Triple crown. In seventh overall, Bryan Fletcher led the U.S. for the third year in a row landing in the top 10 in Seefeld.
It's been a steady climb of success for the U.S. women's cross-country team. On Sunday in Nove Mesto, they took a collective step higher in the 4 x 5 k relay, placing second to a hard-charging Norway, while besting Finland by nearly 14 seconds.
Maurice Manificat has been waiting for this win all season despite being on the podium twice in the last two months. On Saturday, he beat Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby for his first World Cup victory since 2013. For Sundby, it was a small speed bump on his way to seize control of the 2015/2016 World Cup overall.
U.S. Nordic Combined coach Dave Jarrett talks about the cause and effect of a string of World Cup cancellations this season. "Every race that we have had the ability to start five guys on the World Cup has been canceled so far, and we are not going to get those chances back," he explains.
Martin Johnsrud Sundby showed he's still got it, winning Saturday's 15 k classic mass start ahead of Norwegian teammate Niklas Dyrhaug and Kazakhstan's Alexey Poltoranin, for nearly a 1 1/2-minute head start in Sunday's final climb. Alex Harvey notched seventh on the day for 12th overall heading into the final stage.
Despite starting 26th in Sunday's final stage of the Tour de Ski, nearly 10 minutes back from the leader, Noah Hoffman is excited for the opportunity ahead of him. "You couldn’t design something that could be more to my strengths," he said of the infamous 9 k freestyle hill climb up Alpe Cermis.
Finn Hågen Krogh knows a lot about ups and downs, and has formed somewhat of a pattern at this year's Tour de Ski. However, the Norwegian had one of his career-best races on Friday, winning the 10 k freestyle by 3.6 seconds ahead of teammate and overall Tour leader Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Noah Hoffman placed 19th to lead the U.S., and Canadian Alex Harvey finished 37th and is now 15th in the Tour.
U.S. Ski Team veteran Kikkan Randall reacts to teammate Sophie Caldwell's first-career podium. "You could tell she was ready to make this happen," Randall said on the phone Tuesday. Randall's husband, Jeff Ellis, also talks about his experience interviewing Caldwell after the race.
Canada's Alex Harvey started seventh and finished ninth to maintain his place in the top 10 of the Tour de Ski after three stages, and American Noah Hoffman posted the 17th-fastest time of the day to finish in the top 25 for the second-straight day in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
If there's one word that sums up the recent performances of several members of the U.S. women's team, it's consistency. In Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski, the women’s 15 k classic mass start, Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen proved particularly consistent in their pacing, consistent in their technique, and consistent in their results.
It’s a new year, yet some things remain the same. Jan. 1 marked the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de Ski, a 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint in in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. It also marked the third World Cup sprint victory in a row for Italy’s Federico Pellegrino.
The dueling alphabet soup of binding systems is about to get a whole lot simpler. For the past decade or so it’s been two camps: Salomon’s SNS system or NNN. On Jan. 1, Salomon plans to reveal a not-so-well-kept secret.
Simi Hamilton was feeling his potential and his moment on Saturday. "It really comes down to what makes me super happy, and that’s skiing really fast on a sunny day and in beautiful places, with lots of great fans on a short course, skating especially," the U.S. sprinter said after notching his second World Cup podium in two years.
Jump, ski, repeat. That was the mantra in Park City and Midway, Utah, last weekend as some of the world’s best nordic combined skiers converged for a series of three Continental Cup races. Taylor Fletcher placed third, second and finally first to secure a fifth quota spot for the U.S. team at the World Cup.