Three skiers atop the overall standings after Stage 4 set the tension for Stage 5 in Val di Fiemme, Italy: a 15-kilometer mass start classic race. Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov skied in the yellow leader’s bib while his teammate Sergey Ustiugov stood 16 seconds back in the overall. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Norway’s Tour de Ski (TdS) podium hope, lurked at 26 seconds back. With a mass start format, the three contenders would play chess match skiing...
The top name on the men’s side was no surprise: Gus Schumacher. The 19-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska captured his first career Senior National Championship today in the 1.5-kilometer skate sprint in Houghton, Michigan. Schumacher (USST/AWS) qualified in second at 3:10.85, behind JC Schoonmaker (UAA) in first (3:08.88). Schumacher won the second quarterfinal, and the second semi in a smoking time of 3:04.16. Post-race interview with Gus Schumacher The men’s final shook out with Schumacher...
The Tour de Ski says so long to Tobalch, where Stage 4, a classic pursuit for the men and women, firmed up the standings for some at the sharp end and saw others take a slide down the rankings. Stage 4, a 10 k/15 k classic pursuit in Toblach, Italy saw Johaug retain the overall lead for the women, and Bolshunov snag the yellow leader’s bib from Ustiugov. On a tricky classic course with steeper...
Pursuit day at the Tour de Ski. Fifty-one skiers chased the yellow Tour de Ski leaders bib of Norway’s Therese Johaug during Stage 4, a 10-kilometer classic pursuit. Start times for the day’s pursuit were based on time back in Stage 3, a 10 k interval start skate. Johaug started first, with Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, 0.1 seconds back. A few skiers raced off with a small enough time deficit to dream of making...
In this episode, Devon gets into the nitty-gritty of a lovely day of interval start racing. That’s for real: 15 k for the men, 10 k for the women … all skate. Stage 3 starts a run of three distance races in a row. Overall positions are still in play, but the top-tier are beginning to separate. Lots of Russians today in the top-10 for the men, and a nail biter on the women’s...
Toblach, Italy. A stunning stadium and backdrop with the Dolomites lording over the venue and a steady cling-clang of baritone bells greeted skiers along portions of the course. Stage 3 in Toblach, a 10-kilometer interval start skate, turbocharged the 2019-2020 Tour de Ski (TDS). After two stages, a Stage 1 mass start skate and Stage 2 skate sprint, Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva sat atop the overall standings. In third overall, Norway’s imminent threat, Therese Johaug, was positioned...
With lickety-split snow and a two-lap course lined with fans, Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski (TdS) in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, a 1.5-kilometer skate sprint, sent a few ripples through the field, but solidified Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo as the TdS front runner. Yesterday, Klæbo, in second place, ceded little time to two of his main rivals for the overall, Russians Sergey Ustiugov, who won Saturday’s mass start skate, and Alexander Bolshunov, who placed third....
Saturday marked the start of the 14th Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Forgoing the traditional prologue start to determine time back to the leader, organizers threw in a spicy 11-kilometer mass start freestyle. Easy to follow for fans, maybe not so much for those following in the wake of Norway’s Therese Johaug. The scene was a Swiss winter ideal: plentiful snow, portions of the course dappled in sunlight, others shrouded in a drifting-in and...
So many ways to shine a light this holiday season. Do good unto others is the most basic. And if you’re a certain reindeer with a red nose, shine your nose-light as you venture out tonight. And if you’re a go-getter in the early AM or dodging around ski trails after sunset: maybe it’s time for a headlamp upgrade. We tested two Black Diamond headlamps for approximately three months. Both on and off snow and trail/road...
With the tight racing and jostling for position the team sprint presents, another factor was in the mix during Sunday’s Planica, Slovenia women’s 7.2-kilometer freestyle team sprint: big, fat, and plentiful snowflakes. Saturdays’ rainy, and lightning ridden sprint racing on an artificial snow loop, had a 180-degree backdrop flip-flop with a white winter arriving in Planica in time for the holidays and a World Cup TV broadcast. A several inch veneer of fresh snow covered...
With a snaking artificial loop of snow in a drizzly, and sometimes thundering Planica, Slovenia, the men’s World Cup field competed in a 1.25-kilometer skate sprint on Saturday. What Planica lacked in wintery vistas, it provided with fast technical racing during a day of topsy turvy weather. Racing was suspended after the quarterfinals when a robust lightning and hail storm moved in. With loud thunder booms reverberating during the weather delay, the competition organizers aptly...
This is an essential item for those who literally and figuratively run cold. For me, Nathan’s glove/mitt comes along in temps 45 degrees Fahrenheit and below. And if you’ve never heeded the advice from Kelly Cordes (see video below) about how to avoid the screaming barfies — think that nauseating pain from thawing fingers — you might have compromised circulation. Nathan’s Reflective Convertible Glove/Mitt comes to the rescue. For many running in the cold requires...
In contrast to yesterday’s open valley sprints, Sunday’s 15-kilometer interval start freestyle was tucked and nestled on the shady side of the valley. Firm snow and less than optimal oxygen concentrations greeted athletes. Davos sits at just over five thousand feet in altitude. As far as the race narrative, so much for fairy tales in lovely Davos. Dario Cologna, the Swiss ski star sat for a time in the fur-lined leader’s chair. Davos, according to...
(An earlier version of the story mistakenly stated Caldwell had placed second. FIS live timing had Caldwell in second place. Apologies for the error.) When Davos is good, it is good on a global scale. With the Swiss valley blanketed in snow, and a gauze of high clouds keeping the race proceedings just a notch away from perfectly sun-shiny, the World Cup’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint was won by twenty-year-old Swede Linn Svahn. According to the...
If you’ve been following along with the global ski scene and wax, you know this: perfluorinated waxes have been a hot button topic. From issues with importing into the U.S., stories on potential health and environmental risk, and new “green” wax products coming on-line…it’s been hard to keep up with trends. The International Ski Federation announced last month that it would move towards a fluoro-free race series next year. That caught the surprise of many...
Before diving deep into this review let’s get over the sticker shock: retail price $129.00 for the Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell. (But you can find it on sale.) $129.00 may not seem much if, for example, you’re stocking up on perfluoro wax. But take the weight of the Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell, 98 grams, and the cost seems disproportionate to the mass. Working the wax angle, the BD Distance Wind Shell actually might...
Widely reported on Monday was the unanimous vote by WADA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) to ban Russia from specific sport events for the next four years. Russia never tip-toed around its desire to dope on an industrial scale. That much has been documented in an Academy Award winning documentary and the more academic reports cataloging Russian doping misdeeds. Many have claimed Russia suffered a mere hand slap from WADA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its...
This is a new project from FasterSkier and the podcast title pretty much says it: Devon Kershaw will be sharing his thoughts and insights of the 2019-2020 World Cup with us. It began this morning, Sunday, December 1, very early for me and not so early for Devon who is based in Lillehammer, Norway. Devon is a former longtime Canadian National Team member, a World Champion, and commentator for Eurosport at last year’s Seefeld, Austria...
North of the Arctic Circle three weeks from the equinox and it was buff weather in Ruka, Finland for the final race of the World Cup’s opening weekend. Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo sealed it with a win in the men’s 15 k freestyle pursuit. He won in a time of 35:29.7 minutes and a slim 1.8 seconds over teammate Emil Iversen. Yesterday’s 15 k classic winner, Iivo Niskanen of Finland was third (+11.1). It was...
The difficulty in covering generational star athletes is avoiding cliché. There’s the “high tempo” or “high-turnover” description for Therese Johaug. And for the men, Northug’s panache and wily wait-for-the-final-meters sprint fury. Although some would argue that it is a bit too early for the stamp of generational star, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is such a regular podium crasher that avoiding cliché is troublesome there too. So today, we’re off the hook a bit. Finland’s ski hero...