All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Riddarfjärden bay, dropping down nearly to the water’s edge before climbing back up the finish. Royal guards continue their stoic watch, and boats navigate the icy waters as the top sprinters in the world do battle on 5,000 cubic meters of snow trucked five kilometers from a nearby alpine area. According to the Chief of Race Göran Nilsson, not just...
Bryan Fletcher (USA) saved his best for last, winning the final Nordic Combined World Cup of the season in Oslo, Norway on Saturday. The win marked Fletcher’s first appearance on the World Cup podium, and closed out a successful season in which he went from an up-and-comer to one of the mainstays on a strong US team. The win, while a breakthrough, was hardly a surprise. Fletcher had already cracked the top-10 four times heading...
Devon Kershaw (CAN) followed by Alex Harvey (CAN). Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus. After cleaning up in the bonus sprints, and finishing 10th overall in the Holmenkollen 50k classic, Devon Kershaw (CAN) moved into second in the World Cup standings, and is now 15 points ahead of Petter Northug (NOR). Kershaw was in the mix at each intermediate sprint, and won the final two, but that was never the plan. “I decided out there to just grab...
After a strong performance last year in the World Championship 50k, it was hardly a surprise to see Noah Hoffman (USA) toward the front of the pack on Sunday’s Holmenkollen classic event. Wearing a distinctive red hat along with the US black suit, it was easy to pick the 22-year-old American out of the large group in the 50k race. Hoffman made his mark early, passing the 3k preem in 5th place. All told, he...
As a classic specialist, Eldar Roenning (NOR) can oftentimes be overlooked when contemplating race favorites. The stocky Norwegian does not race the World Cup regularly, generally only hitting the events that play to his strengths in the traditional style of skiing, but he reached the top of the ski world on Saturday when he took the victory in the famed Holmenkollen 50k, defeating World Cup leader Dario Cologna in a mad sprint to the line....
On a soggy, yet historic day on the streets of Drammen, Norway, Kikkan Randall claimed the first crystal globe for an overall World Cup title when she placed 11th in the classic sprint. And while Randall may have claimed the biggest hardware, she wasn’t the only bright spot for the US amidst the rain and wet snow. All told four Americans qualified for the heats in one of the World Cup circuit’s most competitive events....
All in all it was a great day for the Canadian team in Drammen for the World Cup classic sprint. Lenny Valjas earned his first World Cup podium, placing second, Chandra Crawford reached her first classic final and took 5th while Dasha Gaiazova matched a career-best placing 8th. The only negative was the luck of Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw, both of whom looked back in top form after a long altitude camp in Italy....
Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) entered the day planning on being aggressive, and the strategy paid off. Brandsdal skied away from the field in the final of the Drammen classic sprint, winning for the second time this season. Brandsdal may not have been the favorite in this race, but his win certainly was no surprise. The same cannot be said of second-place finisher Lenny Valjas of Canada. The towering Canadian used a strong double pole and impressive...
Marit Bjørgen (NOR) was one of four Norwegians to reach the podium in Drammen, Norway, thrilling the home crowd with a dominating performance. Bjørgen won the classic city-sprint in wet conditions over teammate Astrid Jacobsen and rival Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). Drammen is not your usual downtown affair, with a challenging climb up to the finish, complete with one last pitch that steepens just before the line. The rest of the course is more mellow, but...
The field strength may have paled in comparison to the World Cup, or even a Scando Cup event, but a win is a win and a podium a podium, especially on European snow. A group of American skiers posted strong results over the weekend in two days of Swiss Cup racing, led by Becca Rorabuagh’s win in the 10k classic on Sunday. Rorabaugh was also 3rd in Saturday’s 10k freestyle while Tad Elliott, fresh off...
The 90-kilometer Vasaloppet is one of the most prestigious non-World Cup ski races in the world—such a big deal in fact that Petter Northug made the race his primary focus in 2012 following the Tour de Ski. Unfortunately for Northug, a stomach bug kept him from even reaching the starting line, and we can only guess at how he would have fared. Of course safe money would have been on Northug if he had been...
Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey have been setting an impressive standard on the Canadian team of late, regularly battling at the front of races, and making frequent podium appearances. But even the best have off days, and as an indication of the depth of Canadian squad, Dasha Gaiazova and Lenny Valjas picked up the slack when Kershaw and Harvey failed to advance to the heats in the classic sprint in Lahti, Finland. Gaiazova and Valjas...
Marit Bjørgen (NOR) doesn’t enter many races as an underdog, but with the way Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) advanced through the early heats in the classic sprint in Lahti, Finland, the Norwegian was just one more woman in the final trying to avoid being embarrassed. Kowalczyk powered away from the field in both the quarter and semi finals, opening up gaps on the first climb that ultimately reached as much as 30 meters. No one could...
Like the man himself, Dario Cologna (SUI) wins with a certain quietness—no devastating sprint entering the stadium or on the homestretch, ala Petter Northug (NOR), and definitely no theatrics across the line. Instead Cologna relies on his clearly superior fitness to help wear down the field, pushing the pace at the perfect times, and usually attacking early and convincingly somewhere out on the course. Despite a sluggish start, Cologna executed a strategically fine performance to...
Team Russia completed an impressive World Junior/U23 Championships in Erzurum, Turkey by winning both the men’s and women’s Junior relays on the final day of the week-long event. The women’s team of Elena Serokhvostova, Natalia Zhukova, Nadezhda Shuniaeva, and Elena Soboleva skied to a 13.4 second victory over Sweden. The Swedes bested Slovenia with a lunge at the line to capture the silver. Sweden’s Evelina Settlin, who took silver in the sprint earlier in the week,...
Ethan Dreissigacker (USA) skied to a top-20 in the World Junior 10km Biathlon Sprint, for arguably the top international race of his career. Kurtis Wenzel (CAN) was not far behind in 23rd to lead the Canadian squad. The race, which determines the start order for the next event, Sunday’s 10km pursuit, was won by Russian Maxim Tsvetkov just ahead of the French duo of Florent Claude and Simon Desthieux. Both Tsvetkov and Claude missed a...
For some people, back-to-back World Cup races is just not enough. Fortunately for elite skiers looking for more fun, more pain, and potentially more cash, there was a perfect option on Sunday—the World Uphill Trophy. The Polish World Cup races were shifted to Friday and Saturday to accommodate the event that had originally been considered for the World Cup calendar. It ultimately did not make the cut, but that didn’t stop some of the top...
Expectations of the Canadian team are at the highest point since Beckie Scott’s heyday, what with Devon Kershaw winning races, Alex Harvey and Chandra Crawford on the podium, team sprint medals, Ivan Babikov showing off classic chops and regular appearances in the points by a strong group of up-and-comers. So a day with a top result of 15th may have once been cause for celebration, but is now just ho-hum, especially coming off of Kershaw’s...
In what couldn’t have been a better-scripted home-coming, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) blew the World Cup women’s field off the tracks with an uncontested win in the 10km classic in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. Kowalczyk has singlehandedly put cross-country skiing on the map in Poland, establishing herself as one of the all-time greats with three consecutive World Cup titles and the same number of Tour de Ski wins. She is known for her massive training volume and...
Alex Harvey (CAN), back in action after a cramping back caused him to drop out of the 30k last weekend, crashed out of the quarterfinals in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. Harvey qualified in 20th in the skate sprint, but his day came to an early end when he went down on the tight left turn above the stadium “I was feeling pretty good in my quarter, the pace felt pretty easy,” Harvey wrote in an email...
