Otepaa, Estonia – Petra Majdic (SLO) won her fourth sprint race of the season, edging overall World Cup leader Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) and Tour de Ski winner Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) in the A-Final. The podium represented the top three women in the overall World Cup standings, with Saarinen and Majdic swapping places. Majdic dominated the final, setting a blistering pace out of the start, and skiing to a 1.3 second victory over Saarinen. Kuitunen...
Mt. Itasca, Coleraine, Minnesota – The US SuperTour continued with a weekend of 10k’s – men and women raced a 10km Classic on Saturday, and a 10km Freestyle on Sunday. Saturday – 10km Classic The cold front hit northern Minnesota right on time for the MT Itasca SuperTour. All the Anchorage waxing experience definitely paid off! -12F predictions for 8:00AM caused the jury to set the start back to noon. Even colder than anticipated lows...
Otepaa, Estonia – Lukas Bauer (CZE) demonstrated that he is in good form heading to World Championships, wining the men’s 15km classic World Cup race in Estonia. Bauer, last year’s overall World Cup Champion and Tour de Ski winner, edged Swede Johan Olsson by 1.5 seconds. Veteran Vincent Vittoz (FRA) rounded out the podium, +9.3 seconds. This was Bauer’s first victory of the season, bettering his second place performance in Kuusamo, Finland at the end...
Otepaa, Estoina – Justyna Kowalczyk (POL), coming off a strong showing in Whistler, showed no ill effects from the travel, skiing to an impressive 26 second victory in the women’s 10km classic World Cup. Kowalczyk won the 15km pursuit in Whistler, and finished second in the individual sprint. Only a handful of racers from the Whistler events competed in Estonia, and non fared better than Kowalczyk. She held a 4 second lead at the 2.3...
Antholz, Italy, January 23. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished in a season-best place 15th in today’s 10K Sprint, the final World Cup Sprint before next month’s World Championships in Pyeong Chang, Korea. Burke, after last week’s Relay where the US team posted its best result in 20 years, commented, “I am feeing great, and have my form back now. It was a great feeling to have this kind of a performance here… We really...
Aspen, Colorado – The Owl Creek Chase was only one of two SuperTour races taking place as part of the Aspen Nordic Festival last weekend. A 5/10km mass start classic event was held on the 16th. As the race was also part of the Colorado Invite RMISA collegiate competition, the field was large and very competitive. In the men’s race, Vegard Kjoelhammar (CU) edged the Saab Salomon Factory Team’s Andrey Golovko to take the victory...
ASPEN, CO – It was a busy weekend in the world of Nordic racing in Aspen, Colorado. Highlighted by the Owl Creek Chase, the Aspen Nordic Festival also played host to Junior Olympic Qualifiers, Citizen level Colorado Cup racing, Elite level events in the USSA SuperTour, Sprint racing at Wagner Park, and for the first time this year, the University of Colorado NCAA Invitational. With all these events combined, the Aspen Nordic Festival and the...
In a cold and windy sprint event, Kris Freeman and Kikkan Randall easily won the individual national sprint titles today. Freeman used his superior endurance to blaze an early lead in each heat, smoking the rest of the field. Kikkan Randall was also the clear leader, unchallenged throughout the day’s events. Denver University student athlete and Alaskan resident Mike Hinkley overtook the US Ski Team’s Chris Cook just before the finish line, cheered on by...
Oberhof, Germany – The US Relay team of Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), and Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) posted their best result of the season this evening with an 11th place finish. The US Team finished 3:23.9 behind the team from Austria who won their second World Cup Relay in a row. They used twelve spare rounds and had no penalties. Russia in second place, only...
Universal Sports has put together an excellent recap page of the Tour de Ski – complete with full write-ups for each stage, links to on-demand video and photo galleries.
The cold front covering nearly the entire state of Alaska this week managed to squeeze out warm enough temperatures to allow the 2009 US Cross Country Ski Nationals to begin with a distance skate race today. Kris Freeman of the US Ski Team unofficially won the Men’s shortened 10K skate race 50.3 seconds in front Leif Zimmerman, followed by Matthew Liebsch another 12 seconds back. Freeman, who hadn’t arrived in Anchorage until Saturday, raced conservatively...
Val di Fiemme, Italy – 22-year old Dario Cologna (SUI) won the third annua FIS Tour de Ski, skiing away form the field in the grueling Final Climb. Cologna, who had never stood on the World Cup podium prior to this season, and had just 34 Word Cup starts under his belt, finished 30th in last year’s Tour. This season was different. Entering the 7 event, 10 day test, the young Swiss was considered a...
Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) attacked early and often and picked up valuable bonus seconds on her way to the victory in the Women’s 10km Classic Mass Start in the Tour de Ski action in Val de Fiemme, Italy. Kuitunen set a strong pace early, putting on a big push at the 1km mark and stretching out the field. She passed the first intermediate point at 3.3km in first, gaining 15 bonus seconds. She was closely followed...
Axel Teichmann (GER) won his third event of the 08-09 Tour de Ski, edging Finn Sami Jauhojaervi at the line in the 20km Mass Start Classic in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Dario Cologna (SUI) finished 4th and holds a 34 seconds lead entering the last day. Teichmann climbed back to the second position overall with a victory that included 50 bonus seconds, the most of anyone in the race. Overall there were five intermediate sprint...
All Tour de Ski races are currently available online for on-demand viewing. This year’s Tour has featured some extremely exciting racing. Watch the best in the World battle in the toughest ski event. It is one thing to read about it, another to watch it! The full schedule is here:
Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) skied to a dominating victory in the Women’s 9km Individual Start Classic Race in Nove Mesto this morning. Kuitunen held a 12 second lead by 3.4 kilometers, and went on to win by 37.6 seconds over teammate Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. Marit Bjoergen was third, 12.3 seconds in back of Saarinen. “This was a good day for me, it is not often when you can have a day like this. It was pure joy...
Axel Teichmann (GER) won the 15km Individual Start Classic Race in Nove Mesto. The tall German edged out Norweigan Martin Johnsrud Sundby by 5 seconds on the five lap, three kilometer course. Nikolay Chebotko (KAZ) took third, his first-ever World Cup podium result. Teichmann skied hi typical race, starting slowly and accelerating as the kilometers passed. At the first checkpoint at 3.4km, he was back in 27th. By the halfway mark he was 12th, and...
Tor Arne Hetland (NOR) won the Tour de Ski Freestyle Sprint in Prague, Czech Republic. Hetland bested Vassili Rotchev (RUS) and Jean Marc Gaillard (FRA) to take the victory and claim an addition 60 bonus seconds. In the Tour de Ski sprint competitions, bonus seconds are awarded to the top 30 finishers on a scale with first receiving 60 down to 1 second for 30th. Hetland was pleased with his race, but has no illusions...
Dario Cologna (SUI) took over the lead of the FIS Tour de Ski with a strong performance in the 15km classic pursuit start in Oberhof, Germany. Devon Kershaw (CAN) moved up from 5th to 3rd, gaining his first World Cup podium finish in a distance race. Axel Teichmann (GER) held a 13.2 second lead after the prologue, but Cologna moved up quickly, catching the tall German by before the 5 kilometer mark and was able...
Defending World Cup Champion Virpi Kuitunen (FIN), and last year’s Tour de Ski runner-up, edged Norweigan Marit Bjoergen in the Women’s 10km Classic Pursuit in Oberhof, Germany. Kuitunen started in 7th place, 24 seconds behind Claudia Nystad (GER) who slipped to 16th. The Finnish star raced in a pack with her teammates Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Pirjo Muranen, as well as Bjoergen. The group quickly closed on the leaders, setting up Kuitunen’s strong charge to the...