The build-up was immense. Head to head skiing. A mass start classic race with 10-kilometers to prove world-class stamina with Québec City’s cross-country ski fans lining the course. In a world now rife with data and the application of that information enmeshed in sport, the calculus seemed simple enough. Norway’s Therese Johaug has made a clean sweep of every World Cup distance race she’s entered this season. Nine World Cup wins. Then add three distance...
It’s remarkably sweet when an athletic career ends on a grace note: Ted Williams lofting a home run in his final game at Fenway, say, or John Elway passing his Broncos to a Super Bowl victory. Or, earlier today, Alex Harvey taking second in front of a levitating crowd of supporters on the Plains of Abraham in the middle of Quebec City. Harvey’s career has been winding slowly down from its world championship apex, but...
FIS World Cup Québec City 15 k Mass Start Classic We’re changing the format for this race rundown. With many North Americans racing during World Cup finals in Québec, screenshots from Live Timing will keep the rundown updated efficiently. Why start with the top of the podium, when the real story sat front and center in second. Canada’s Alex Harvey nailed the pacing and nailed the finish to ski himself into a storybook-like ending in Québec. This was Harvey’s next...
FIS World Cup Québec City 10 k Mass Start Classic We’re changing the format for this race rundown. With many North Americans racing during World Cup finals in Québec, screenshots from Live Timing will keep the rundown updated efficiently. Having won every World Cup distance she’s entered this season, Norway’s Therese Johaug couldn’t shake off Sweden’s Stina Nilsson or her own teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg on Saturday morning. We’ll get to all the details in the full race report,...
How to play the Johannes Høsflot Klæbo sprint game? It has got to go through every sprinter’s mind. As the day’s fastest qualifier, Klæbo set the tone in 3:07.61. Prior to Friday’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Québec, the young Norwegian had started nine World Cup sprints this season. He had won seven of them and placed second in another. And he had already locked up another sprint cup crystal globe becoming the first to win the...
There was wind. Some snow. And certainly 1.6-kilometers of soft leg-sapping snow during Friday’s freestyle sprint in Québec. This was no 2.5 minute in duration hard-pack speed fest. It was a grind. Take off too early and plenty of real estate remained for a decaying fade. Sit back, control the effort, ride the draft a bit on the skier train and the slow snow could, in fact, keep those more tempered athletes in the game....
We’re changing the format for this race rundown. With many North Americans racing during World Cup finals in Québec, screenshots from Live Timing will keep the rundown updated efficiently. In the finals of Fridays; 1.6 k skate sprint in Québec, Stina Nilsson took the win and with it the sprint Crystal Globe overall. Sweden also took second and third place with Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling respectively. American Sadie Bjornsen placed sixth overall as the top North...
We’re changing the format for this race rundown. With many North Americans racing during World Cup finals in Québec, screenshots from Live Timing will keep the rundown updated efficiently. FIS World Cup 1.6 K Freestyle Sprint Québec Results from the women’s 1.6 k freestyle sprint qualifier: Sadie Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell, and Jessie Diggins made the heats for the U.S. Full qualification results are below. metronidazole Double click the images/results below to enlarge. In the men’s 1.6...
Here are the basic rules for this week’s World Cup finals in Québec. It’s a three race series: a sprint, a classic mass start, and freestyle pursuit for the final stage. We’ll get to the import of the World Cup points on offer in a moment and why they add some tension to the weekend. This much is clear: the final standings for the men’s and women’s overall World Cup remain close as does...
At eighteen-years-old, Gus Schumacher remains composed in what is a pressure cooker of endurance sport. There he was last week on his home tracks of Kincaid Park in Anchorage, AK., claiming four first place medals and providing locals a deep-well of pride. If in fact this young man is stressed before or during a race, it’d be hard to notice. And maybe part of that demeanor has to do with his preparedness. Schumacher is prepared. ...
Heading into the final weekend of World Cup racing, the U.S. Ski Team will be allotted a greater number of starts. Starting with Friday’s sprint, racing will be organized in Québec, Canada. Not technically the U.S., but it is North America. The International Ski Federation’s rules state that when Canada hosts a World Cup, the U.S. is considered part of the “nation’s group”. In Québec, you’ll see some new U.S. faces on the World Cup...
Sunday’s men’s 15-kilometer freestyle individual start race in Falun, Sweden, was the final European stop for the World Cup. With the race concluded, athletes will pack up ski bags, moth-ball the wax buses, and jet across the Atlantic. Next week athletes will race amidst the crowds and city-scape of Québec. The final Euro-leg of the World Cup saw Alexander Bolshunov of Russia win his third individual race in a row. His top-step effort was his...
FIS World Cup Falun, Sweden 10k/15k Inidividual Freestyle The sun rises. The sun sets. And Norway’s Therese Johaug won the 10-kilometer individual start freestyle in Falun, Sweden. In 25:23.9 minutes, Johaug made her winning statement. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson placed second (+18.75), with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Jessie Diggins in third (+30.3). Fourth place went to Ingvild Flugstad Østberg of Norway who finished 30.8 seconds back. Sadie Bjornsen (USST) raced to 12th (+1:05.7), Julia Kern...
The two skiers have commanded the wins this season for the overall sprint cup. Stina Nilsson of Sweden and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla remain the speed skiing torch bearers. Only Nilsson and Falla have won multiple sprints in 2018/2019. Falla won the World Championship sprint in Seefeld and the last three of four individual sprints coming into Falun’s sprint on Saturday. Earlier in the season Nilsson went on her own run — winning four individual...
The World Cup made its final European stop in Falun, Sweden before the field heads across the pond to Quebec City for the final series. For the men, the weekend opened with a 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint, a last test before the freestyle sprint in Canada. Heading into the weekend, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo sat comfortably in the lead for the overall sprint standings with string of six back-to-back wins, not including a win at the...
FIS World Cup Falun, Sweden 1.4 k Freestyle Sprint On a day when sugary snow course picked off skiers trying to advance during Falun, Sweden’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint, Stina Nilsson, yes of Sweden, took the win. She won the final in 3:07.72 over Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla in second (+0.67). The day’s top qualifier, Maja Dahlqvist, placed third (+2.14). The Americans entered in the race were some of the key players who tumbled on course. Jessie...
For the rare athlete the field of play is truly a stage. A place to perform in the moment and seemingly acknowledge the moment as it happens. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo appears to have many of these days. And as he crossed the line in today’s 1.2-kilometer classic sprint in Drammen, Norway, Klæbo may as well have taken a bow. It was again a virtuoso sprint performance. In 2:37.90 minutes, Klæbo earned another win in Drammen...
The World Cup entourage gathered Tuesday at the head of the Drammensfjord in Norway. The 1.2-kilometer classic sprint in Drammen, Norway — the post-Holmenkollen sprint stop on the calendar — was held under overcast skies and within a city center jammed with fans. Coming into Tuesday’s classic sprint, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla had claimed two individual World Cup sprint victories this season and a World Championship sprint win in Seefeld, Austria. Falla remains consistent, having...
There are two sides to any fence. This fence here, it separates pain and pleasure. Flags wave with pride, flasks are filled, beers are drank, and chants are yelled triumphantly for all to hear. Inside the fence, the sound of nerves echo silently- the loudest noise you’ll never hear. The sound of poles colliding with the snow, skis gliding delicately, and the heavy breath which always accompanies such ache. This ache starts as a...
Skies cleared and the sun shined on the 30-kilometer mass start classic at the Holmenkollen. When not surrounded by tall pines, racers were offered beautiful vistas of Oslo and the cold blue fjord on which Norway’s capital is built. While the Sunday crowd pales in comparison to the masses who attended the men’s event on Saturday, plenty of tents still lined the course to house families of fans camped out for the weekend. The snowbanks lining...