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For the second-straight year, the World Cup’s season-ending races will be held in Canada, with Québec City hosting 2017 World Cup Finals, this Friday through Sunday. Canada initially announced a according to a press release. On Thursday, FasterSkier confirmed that the list included the Women | U.S. selection criteria, and

Sundby Secures World Cup Overall with Holmenkollen 50 k Win; Harvey 6th

OSLO, Norway — Here’s something dizzying: six times around an 8.3-kilometer course with a total vertical gain of just over two thousand meters. In non-metric terms, all 47 finishers on Saturday’s Holmenkollen 50 k classic race accumulated roughly 6,574 feet of climbing. On the sharp end of the race for most of those kilometers were Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen. They were the animators for the hordes of Norwegians lining the course...

Saturday Rundown: Holmenkollen, Kontiolahti, Jackson, and Lake Placid (Updated x4)

NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week. On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson,...

Brandsdal Outduels Klæbo for Drammen City Sprint Win

DRAMMEN, Norway — The stage was set around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when a homegrown Norwegian made good in front of a spectator-lined 1.2-kilometer classic course smack-dab in the middle of Drammen’s city center. It was a day of contrast that began with blue skies and ended with a deep chill and falling snow as thumping music pounded and the gothic Bragernes Church loomed. In between, the clouds amassed and the classic tracks stayed firmed for...

Wednesday Rundown: Drammen & Lake Placid (Updated)

FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Just three days after 2017 Nordic World Championships ended in Lahti, Finland, World Cup cross-country skiers were back to their regular-season grind with 1.2-kilometer classic sprints on Wednesday in Drammen, Norway. In the men’s race, Norway stole the day with Eirik Brandsdal notching his first World Cup win since 2015 in Drammen, but Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov broke up the team’s total domination of the final with a...

Amidst Finnatics, Niskanen Strides to 15 k Gold; Bjornsen Notches 18th at World Champs

LAHTI, Finland — Through the first seven medal races of 2017 Nordic World Championships, the hometown Finns came close. There was Niskanen was primed to pass Iversen for what appeared to be a golden performance. Instead of a cheer concluding the sprint, a collective exhale deflated the crowd: Niskanen and teammate Sami Jauhojärvi ultimately settled for bronze. While it wasn’t the result they had hoped for, it remained the 25-year-old Niskanen’s first World Championships medal. Another...

Wednesday Rundown: Lahti 15 k Classic & NoCo

FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 15 k classic After narrowly missing the victory in Results *** FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Nordic Combined large hill/10 k Germany’s Johannes Rydzek racked up win #3 in as many nordic-combined competitions at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, winning the individual large hill/10-kilometer Gundersen start on Wednesday. The last individual competition of the championships began with Austria’s Mario Seidl jumping the farthest at 132.0 meters and earning 137.3 points....

Setting the Scene: Pre-Competition Day at Lahti World Championships

LAHTI, Finland — Tuesday at Lahti’s venue for the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships, the sun sets early. Although technically sunset was 5:22 p.m., the sun on this clear-sky day was still wintertime reluctant. It seemed too short a time for the sun’s transect to thaw Lahti. Temps were in the mid-to-low 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But a brisk wind called for down coats and insulated pants for those not actively skiing — in the shade, it...

Feeling Like His Old Self, Sundby Handily Wins Otepää 15 k; Harvey 19th

If the Otepää World Cup = a World Championships tune-up, consider Martin Johnsrud Sundby primed and ready. On Sunday, the 32-year-old Norwegian put together one of his best races ever from start to finish, by his own assessment, which resulted in at 37.1-second win in the men’s 15-kilometer classic individual start in Otepää. For the last four years, Sundby (the 2014 and 2016 Overall and Distance World Cup winner, who was overall World Cup leader...

Sunday Rundown: World Champs Silver for Dunklee, Bailey 6th in Hochfilzen (Updated x2)

IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Women’s & men’s mass starts Silver medal for Susan Dunklee. That’s the big news coming out of Hochfilzen, Austria, on the final day of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships after the American finished second, just 4.6 seconds out of first, in the women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start. Dunklee started in bib 17 in the mass start and cleaned all 20 targets to put herself in the hunt for gold....

Saturday Rundown: Ulricehamn, Antholz, Chaux-Neuve, Zuoz, Whistler, & Truckee (Updated x6)

U.S. SuperTour (Truckee, Calif.): Classic sprints [UPDATED] Less than a week after being men’s 30 k classic mass start champion at this year’s U.S. nationals — won Saturday’s SuperTour classic sprint as well. Lustgarten, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, raced to a 1.58-second victory in the men’s A-final at the Auburn Ski Club in Soda Springs, Calif., finishing in 3:03.4. Ben Saxton, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team, placed second, and Reese...

Tuesday Rundown: Classic Mass Starts in SoHo

U.S. Cross Country Championships (Soldier Hollow): 20/30 k classic mass starts After a day of rest, racers returned to the Soldier Hollow (SoHo) trails on Tuesday for the men’s 30-kilometer and women’s 20 k classic mass start competitions. Two laps into the the men’s eight-lap event, a front group began to form, with Kris Freeman of Team Freebird, Ben Lustgarten of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), Scott Patterson of Alaska Pacific University (APU) and his...

Craftsbury and Caldwell Top Tough Weather at Eastern Cup Openers

Note: Photos from this story are courtesy of John Lazenby. Many more photos from the Eastern Cup weekend are available U16 boys – men Temperatures warmed on Sunday and the snow turned to rain, but luckily the manmade base of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s 2.5 k loop held up well through nearly 400 racers doing two to four loops each. In the U16 girls’ 5 k skate, Lehmann held onto her lead, as did Koch...

Americans Lock Out Canadians at Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour

VERNON, B.C. — It might’ve been the first Canadian NorAm of the season, but the Americans made it all about themselves in what also doubled as their second stop on the U.S. SuperTour circuit this past weekend at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre. U.S. skiers kept Canada off the podium in the classic sprints and freestyle intervals starts on Saturday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 11, with Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt, of the Alberta World Cup Academy...

Lillehammer, Östersund & West Notes & Quotes

Three days of racing, more than a dozen North American skiers, and one FasterSkier on-site reporter was there to witness it all — including Women | Women | Women | Diggins’s 5 k victory “Jessica can be either in the front or in the back when it comes to classic. I thought that if she has a good day, then we and Marit can try to chase Heidi, and that would be a really nice group....

Gelso Wins Back-to-Back in West; Guiney Garners First SuperTour Title

The second day of SuperTour racing in West Yellowstone came to a close on Sunday with the men's and women's distance classic events. Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation skier, Matt Gelso took his second win in a row, claiming the men's 15-kilometer classic race title, while the Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Liz Guiney garnered her first ever SuperTour win.