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Sunday Rundown: Planica, Chaux-Neuve, Rena, Red Deer

FIS Cross Country World Cup (Planica, Slovenia): 10/15 k classic Men’s report Just when it looked like one of those Charlotte-Kalla days, Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski swooped in and topped the Swede’s time by 3.6 seconds in the women’s 10-kilometer classic individual start on Sunday for her first-career outright World Cup win. Outright meaning non-stage; Pärmäkoski has two World Cup wins to her name for setting the fastest time of day in 2016 pursuit races. But...

Masters World Cup: Day 1 Classic Distance Races

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — With temperatures staying in the mid-20s overnight on Friday, it was a warm, slightly sticky start to the 2018 Masters World Cup on Saturday in Minneapolis. However, despite temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s, the 7.5-kilometer loop course at Theodore Wirth Park held up well — an important thing, as Saturday was all classic races. According to Tom Ajax, a Minneapolis-based skier who raced in the men’s 30 k classic...

Nilsson Nabs Another Sprint Title in Planica; Diggins 4th, Caldwell 9th

PLANICA, Slovenia — With the Julian Alps and Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak, as a backdrop, it’s suitable to say the Planica Valley nordic course can be summed up in one word: burly. A high mid-afternoon sun had illuminated the mountain range throughout the rounds for the World Cup women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint on Saturday, but by the time the six finalists lined up for the final heat, a few shadows were being recast onto...

Klæbo Dominates in Planica; Hamilton 19th, Newell 20th

Sunny skies. Craggy Slovenian Alps. Fresh snow and firm classic tracks. The perfect backdrop for the coiffed hair and pink sunglasses. On Saturday in Planica, Slovenia, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo again proved his form is on another level. Sometimes calm with tens of meters to spare, sometimes allowing others to draft momentarily on his ski tails, Klæbo won the World Cup men’s 1.6-kilometer classic sprint in 3:27.35 minutes. In a final that featured three Norwegians,...

Saturday Rundown: Planica and Red Deer

Western Canadian Championships (Red Deer, Alberta): 10/15 k classic mass starts On Day 2 of the NorAm Western Canadian Championships in Red Deer, Andy Shields of Lappe Nordic won the men’s 15-kilometer classic mass start and Annika Hicks of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) topped the women’s 10 k classic mass start. Shields won the open men’s race by 9.4 seconds in 40:14.4, while Russell Kennedy (Team R.A.D.) placed second for the second-straight day....

The Drama’s Behind Them: Dahlmeier and Bø Cruise to Antholz Pursuit Wins

Norwegian biathletes started in the lead of both of today’s World Cup pursuits in Antholz, Italy, today, and one stayed there: Johannes Thingnes Bø cruised to a one-minute win over French rival Martin Fourcade, shooting a perfect 20/20 and flying on the trails. In the women’s race, his teammate Tiril Eckhoff had a few too many missed shots, and as she faded to fourth Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier surged to eventually claim a 17.3-second win over...

Friday Rundown: Antholz IBU World Cup; Western Canadian Championships

IBU World Cup (Antholz, Italy): Men’s 10 k sprint One prone penalty wasn’t enough to keep Johannes Thingnes Bø from his third-straight victory (and ninth this season, including relays) as the 24-year-old Norwegian won the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Friday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Antholz, Italy. Bø started 42nd of 109 men and had to navigate tricky wind conditions, along with the rest of the field. After missing one target...

Thursday Rundown: Eckhoff Comes Up Big in Antholz Sprint

IBU World Cup (Antholz, Italy): Women’s 7.5 k sprint So far this season, Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff had yet to crack the top 20 outside a relay in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup. That all changed Thursday when she won the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Antholz, Italy. She did so by hitting all 10 targets and besting the time of Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier by 12 seconds at the finish. “I was very nervous for...

Swix Triac 2.5 Pole: $299 at Pioneer Midwest The Swix Triac 2.5 Pole the 3rd version of the Triac pole. The shape is based on a circle and triangle blended together that increases stiffness. The finish is matte vs the glossy finish on its predecessor in the name of marginal weight gains. The TBS basket system becoming more standard on Swix poles and is included in the 2.5 for easy basket change overs. The 2.5...

Closing the Gap: Head Games

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. ...

The Run Is Over: Bjørndalen Not Named to Norway Olympic Team

For the first time since 1992, Ole Einar Bjørndalen will be doing the same thing as you come Winter Olympics time: he’ll be watching it. Okay, not just like you, but Bjørndalen – who made his Olympic debut in 1994 and went on to become the most successful Winter Olympian of all time with eight gold and five other medals – won’t be on the Norwegian biathlon team. Instead, the husband of Belorussian superstar Darya...

Crawford Fourth in Ruhpolding Mass Start; Burke 21st

Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Rosanna Crawford. For a few minutes, it looked like Biathlon Canada’s Rosanna Crawford could clutch her third in the 15 k individual). She has followed that up with another one of her best results of her career. “The crowd was amazing in Ruhpolding this whole week! I loved having my first podium at one of the most popular World Cup venues,” she wrote. “We had...

Sweden Goes 1-2, U.S. Women Third in Dresden Team Sprint

DRESDEN, Germany — Just over 15,000 people gathered at the Elbe River bank on Sunday, some donned in sunnies and carrying sauce-laden brätwurst from pop-up food carts, though all took pause around 11:14:59 a.m. It wasn’t to take in the Altstadt baroque-style buildings that make up the city skyline, nor was it to bask in the bright, mid-morning sun hovering on the horizon. A new attraction had come to the capital city, and all eyes...

Pellegrino Anchors Italy to Another Dresden Win; Late Crash Takes Out U.S. Men

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Bob Thompson.) Federico Pellegrino’s winning move in the men’s 6 x 1.2-kilometer freestyle team sprint on Sunday wasn’t exactly the same as yesterday when the Italian attacked on the final climb of the Saturday’s individual sprint, Locke placed 15th for a career best. The two ultimately finished seventh in the first team-sprint semifinal, just one place behind Great Britain’s James Clugnet and Andrew Young....

Sunday Rundown: U.S. 3rd in Dresden Team Sprint; Crawford 4th in Mass Start

IBU Biathlon World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): 12.5/15 k mass starts Kaisa Makarainen of Finland took her first win of the season and will start next weekend with the overall World Cup leader’s bib after she outsprinted Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier by 0.8 seconds to claim the win in the 12.5 k mass start. In a tight race for third, Veronica Vitkova of the Czech Republic edged out Rosanna Crawford of Canada for the final spot on the podium; the pair...

Caldwell Third in Dresden City Sprint; Falk Gets First Win Since 2010

In Sophie Caldwell’s quarterfinal heat of the World Cup skate sprint in Dresden, Germany, she led from start nearly to finish. In the final 200 meters she was passed by Sweden’s Hanna Falk, but won a photo finish for second place and advanced to the semifinals. In that quarterfinal heat, the U.S. Ski Team member had finished just 0.24 seconds behind Sweden’s Falk. As the racing got even tighter in the semifinals and final, it...

The Grandkids Will Love This: Pellegrino Beats Klæbo in Dresden; Hamilton 10th, Locke 15th

How do you beat Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo at his competition-crushing game? Take him by surprise with minimal time to recover. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino did just that on the last uphill rise of the 1.2-kilometer sprint course on Saturday in Dresden, Germany. Dresden, a historic city in eastern Germany, debuted its brand-new course along the Elbe River on manmade snow amid damp conditions and temperatures above freezing throughout the day. Pellegrino had done what he...

Saturday Rundown: Dresden, Ruhpolding, Kaiser Maximilian Lauf

FIS Cross Country World Cup (Dresden, Germany): Freestyle sprints Men’s report For her second-straight World Cup sprint, Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team reached the podium in the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint on Saturday in Dresden, Germany. Caldwell placed third in the final behind Sweden’s Hanna Falk, who won it in 2:11.02 minutes, and Maja Dahlqvist, also of Sweden, who placed second (+0.23). Caldwell and Dahlqvist both lunged in a photo finish for second,...

MSA NorAm Trials: Notes and Quotes

The third NorAm of the season in Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA), Québec, was also a Canadian selection event for next month’s Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, as well as Junior and U23 World Championships, which start later this month in Goms, Switzerland. The original schedule of racing from Saturday, Jan. 6, to Tuesday, Jan. 9, with a backup race day on Wednesday had to be modified when Saturday and Sunday were colder than International Ski Federation...