TOBLACH, Italy – It’s hard enough to finish in the top 30 on the World Cup, but American Holly Brooks did something even more impressive here in Wednesday’s Stage 6 of the Tour de Ski: she finished in the top 30 with a broken wrist. By placing 30th in the skate sprint, Brooks joined an elite club of skiers who have toughed out some top finishes with broken bones. Fellow members include Slovenian Petra Majdic,...
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 – 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...
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,...
OBERSTDORF, Germany – Kikkan Randall’s pink tiara will have to wait until next year. The birthday girl had a cardboard crown on hand for Stage 3 of the Tour de Ski on Saturday—a gift from her mother that Randall was ready to pull out if she made the final heat of the classic sprint race. Unfortunately, the tiara had to stay in her backpack, as the Alaskan got a 29th birthday present of an unexpected...
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 – If there’s anything positive about Kris Freeman’s struggles in the first half of the 2012 season, it’s that they haven’t been too much of a mystery to him. Through nine competitions this season, Freeman’s head has been “everywhere but racing,” as a result of a big change in his personal life: Just before he departed for Europe, he and his girlfriend parted ways after 10 years together. Following a week of rest...
As the US Ski Team makes final preparations for the Tour de Ski they shared with us a glimpse of what their holiday looked like last weekend in Ramsau, Austria. Life on the road can be long and tiring, but it is great to have good friends and teammates to make things feel like they would back home.
Lenny Valjas and Ivan Babikov are in, Kris Freeman is out, and the U.S. is looking forward to more quota spots for its women’s team next year During the first period of World Cup racing, the U.S. and Canadian ski teams had plenty of notable results. Kikkan Randall won and won again, much to the delight of the Americans. She and Sadie Bjornsen shared a team sprint podium, while Holly Brooks notched a couple of...
While Kikkan Randall fell in the sprint final (see our Full results
The 2012 World Cup season is already a month old, and there has yet to be a mass start. That changes on Saturday in Rogla, Slovenia when women ski a 10km classic and men 14k. The races feature intermediary sprints for World Cup points—once for women at 5.2k and twice for men at 5.2k and 11.2k. In a new twist, points will be awarded to the top-10 at the intermediary marks, instead of just the...
Brooks Unofficially an Official Member of 2012 Tour de Ski Team Last month FasterSkier reported that Holly Brooks (APU) had been given the opportunity to race the 2012 Tour de Ski pending continued strong results and good health. With just one weekend left in the first World Cup period, Brooks has fulfilled her end of the bargain, posting a career-best 13th in the 15km freestyle in Davos, Switzerland. According to US Ski Team Head Coach...
With veteran Kris Freeman on the squad, and Noah Hoffman drooling over the long Davos climbs, not many would have picked relative World Cup rookie Tad Elliott to lead the US men’s team in the 30km freestyle in Davos, Switzerland. But Elliott posted a career-best result, placing 27th in a stacked field despite skiing what US Head Coach Chris Grover termed an “interesting” race. “In splits, he started quite fast, dropped off pace, then regained...
Holly Brooks (USA) continued her meteoric rise from participant to contender on the World Cup circuit, skiing to 13th place in the 15km freestyle in Davos, Switzerland. With teammates Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall placing 21st and 27th respectively, the US women finished the day with an unprecedented three skiers in the top-30. Brooks started quickly, clocking as the race leader at the two kilometer mark when she came through as the 31st starter. And...
For some cross-country skiers on the World Cup circuit, the news that Saturday’s individual races would be shortened wasn’t all that disheartening. Sadie Bjornsen, who made her first World Cup podium in Sunday’s team sprint with U.S. teammate Kikkan Randall, tried to contain herself. Instead of a 15 k freestyle in Davos, Switzerland, the women will race 10 k. The men’s skate race was cut from 30 k to 15 k. “Sadie just did a...
Seven hundred kilometers away from Dusseldorf, Germany, where the U.S. women tore up this weekend’s sprint competition, the team’s female distance skier, Liz Stephen, made waves in Austria. Stephen won the FIS women’s 5 k freestyle race in Seefeld on Sunday, just hours before teammates Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen skated to second place in the World Cup team sprint. While Randall and Bjornsen made U.S. Ski Team history with the first team-sprint podium appearance,...
With Devon Kershaw returning to Italy to join Alex Harvey, the defending World Champions in the Team Sprint turned to Drew Goldsack and Len Valjas to represent the nation of Canada. And represent they did. The pair may not have reprised Harvey and Kershaw’s gold medal performance, but they certainly surpassed expectations, advancing to the finals in Dusseldorf and remaining in contention for the podium in the final before settling for fifth place. “Most would...