The Tour de Ski has moved on from Germany to Italy, and along with it, American Holly Brooks has gone from being eine zähe dame to una signora dura. An MRI on Monday morning revealed that the tough lady has been racing with non-displaced fractures at the end of her radius—one of the bones in her forearm—as well as a “big bone bruise.” After her 53rd place finish in Stage 5 of the Tour, a...
TOBLACH, Italy – Here are some of today’s best images from the Tour de Ski Toblach Classic 3.3 Km.
TOBLACH, Italy – It’s been a while since one had to flip to the second page of the results sheet to find Kikkan Randall’s name. Yet there it was on Tuesday, sandwiched between two anonymous central Europeans. Randall finished in 29th place in Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski, 43 seconds down to winner Marit Bjoergen (NOR). Hard to believe, but the result was Randall’s worst of the year on the World Cup, and...
Note: Due to a change in the results from the women’s sprint qualifier, this article has been updated. RUMFORD, Maine — Twenty-four hours after the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Nationals were originally scheduled to start, the women in the 1.4 k freestyle sprint qualifier found themselves racing on completely different conditions on Tuesday – and no one was complaining. The second to start, Jessie Diggins (Central Cross Country) posted the fastest qualifying time in 2:58.84,...
TOBLACH, Italy – It took 11 races, but Alexander Legkov finally got his first win of the 2012 season in Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski on Tuesday. With the help of a new coach and the right pair of skis, the Russian powered through finicky conditions to edge Eldar Roenning (NOR) and Dario Cologna (SUI) in the 5 k individual-start classic race. Petter Northug (NOR) floundered through the slick, soft conditions in Toblach,...
RUMFORD, Maine — The old adage “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute,” was overheard many times at Black Mountain on both Sunday and Monday, but waiting around all morning didn’t change the fact that Sunday night’s rain put a serious damper on U.S. Nationals. News broke early Monday morning that an overnight downpour had soaked the artificial snow at Black Mountain and forced race organizers to postpone the scheduled freestyle sprint indefinitely....
TOBLACH, Italy – Ivan Babikov (CAN) will race Stage 5 of the 2012 Tour de Ski, according to Canadian Head Coach Justin Wadsworth. “He’s for sure going to race today,” Wadsworth said. Babikov had a catastrophic crash at the end of Stage 4 of the Tour in Germany, breaking a ski and a pole. Canadian staff initially feared he had broken his wrist. X-rays came up negative, and after an examination by Mireille Belzile—the mother...
RUMFORD, Maine — Due to significant rain on Sunday night, all races at U.S. Nationals have been put on hold until further notice. The freestyle sprint race that was supposed to begin Monday morning has been postponed, and the race jury will meet later today to revise the schedule in more detail. According to an email sent out by Media Director Craig Zurhorst at 6:17 am Monday morning, the manmade snow on the course had...
OBERSTDORF, Germany – Over the past two years, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen has gotten used to her spot at the top of women’s cross-country skiing. Collecting win after win, and paycheck after paycheck—and backed by her deep-pocketed Norwegian national team—Bjørgen has become skiing’s version of the one percent, firmly ensconced at the top of her sport and showing little interest in spreading the wealth. Since December 29th, however—the first stage of the 2012 Tour de Ski—Bjørgen...
On the eve of U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine, FasterSkier’s Audrey Mangan talks about the conditions and the atmosphere in at Black Mountain on Sunday.
OBERSTDORF, Germany – Ivan Babikov’s arm isn’t broken, according to his coach Justin Wadsworth. X-rays at a local hospital Sunday afternoon revealed that Babikov’s bones were intact, after a hard crash at the end of Stage 4 of the 2012 Tour de Ski that busted Babikov’s pole and one of his best skis, Wadsworth said. Local physicians gave Babikov a brace, and told him to let pain govern his decisions about racing. Wadsworth said in...
OBERSTDORF, Germany – If anyone was going to embrace Saturday’s downright nasty weather in the third stage of the 2012 Tour de Ski, it was the Russians. The interminable rain and snow here may have gotten to some of their competitors, but it failed to even dampen the energy of Nikita Kriukov, Alexey Petukhov, and Nikolay Morilov, as the Russian trio swept the podium in the classic sprint. “Russian peoples like different weather,” Kriukov told...
OBERSTDORF, Germany – If there’s one thing more dispiriting for a cross-country skier than having a bad day, it’s having a good day that’s limited by equipment. Andy Newell (USA) was on the rebound from a potential illness in Stage 3 of the 2012 Tour de Ski on Saturday, a classic sprint. But his race was stymied by the soggy, sloppy conditions that prevailed here all day. After qualifying in 28th, Newell couldn’t make his...
Once again, we’re shaking up the Pro Workout series by giving busy skiers a chance to add some simple weight training (simple in principle, harder in practice) to their fitness regimens. This is the second “quick” workout in a series about gym exercises. We started with Canadian Senior World Cup team member
OBERHOF, Germany – Kris Freeman had a good day, notching the 20th-fastest standalone time of the race and moving into 30th place. His thoughts on the race: “I wanted to move up into the points, and I got a point, so I’m pretty satisfied on the day. It’s only the second time I’ve taken points this year, so it feels good to know I can still race. I’ve come back from a lot of stuff,...
OBERHOF, Germany – Kikkan Randall should consider a job with the U.S. Postal Service, because she just keeps on delivering. Not pain, not snow, nor gloom of Oberhof could stay Kikkan Randall from the swift completion of her appointed rounds here on Friday. By the time she arrived at the end of her three laps of the race course, Randall had notched yet another stellar distance result, finishing Stage 2 of the 2012 Tour de...
OBERHOF, Germany — There’s no shortage of grit among the top men on the Canadian cross-country ski team. Each year, Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw, and Ivan Babikov train for hundreds of hours, climbing dozens of steep hills through sun, rain, and snow. The training has powered the athletes to some pretty impressive accomplishments this season. But even after all that preparation, Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski on Friday threw a challenge at the...
OBERHOF, Germany – Emil Jönsson is neither black nor 6’5”, but athletically, he’s cross-country skiing’s Usain Bolt—the sport’s fastest man in a drag race. Since last March, though, the World Cup circuit has been suffering from an acute absence of the Swedish speed-demon, with a hamstring injury and a cold limiting Jönsson to a single sprint start before the 2012 Tour de Ski. As evidenced by his podium finish in that race in Davos, Switzerland,...
OBERHOF, Germany – Thursday’s freestyle prologue will probably not end up being significant in the grand scheme of the 2012 Tour de Ski, which includes eight more competitions and 100 kilometers of racing spread across two countries. But that doesn’t mean good results here didn’t give athletes a boost. Led by Alex Harvey’s sixth-place finish, the Canadian men are flying high after Stage 1 of the Tour. With Harvey just seven seconds away from the...
As athletes prepare to start this year’s Tour de Ski on Thursday, plans are taking shape for the next four editions of the race that would vary its length and location. According to FIS Cross-Country Race Director Jürg Capol, the Tour will almost certainly be making a stop in Switzerland next year, and for the three years afterwards. The event will alternate between venues in Münstertal—the small valley that claims Swiss superstar Dario Cologna as...