The metaphors are rife when describing the rough and tumble nature of the urban environment. Most often we think of pine forest, alps, and Hansel and Gretel valleys as the backdrop for the World Cup. To foster interest and in-fill a dense schedule of racing, city-sprints are nothing new when it comes to populating the World Cup calendar. Places like Dresden provide a contextual backdrop to a Europe steeped in history. The city is often...
With lickety-split snow and a two-lap course lined with fans, Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski (TdS) in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, a 1.5-kilometer skate sprint, sent a few ripples through the field, but solidified Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo as the TdS front runner. Yesterday, Klæbo, in second place, ceded little time to two of his main rivals for the overall, Russians Sergey Ustiugov, who won Saturday’s mass start skate, and Alexander Bolshunov, who placed third....
With a snaking artificial loop of snow in a drizzly, and sometimes thundering Planica, Slovenia, the men’s World Cup field competed in a 1.25-kilometer skate sprint on Saturday. What Planica lacked in wintery vistas, it provided with fast technical racing during a day of topsy turvy weather. Racing was suspended after the quarterfinals when a robust lightning and hail storm moved in. With loud thunder booms reverberating during the weather delay, the competition organizers aptly...
Davos, Switzerland: gifted athletes, throngs of spectators lining the course, plenty of Vitamin-D and a spectacular day for the 1.5-kilometer freestyle sprint. Racers chased down and skied away from their long afternoon shadows as the sun moved across the cloudless bluebird sky. The crowds were in for a treat. In sprint racing, heats often have significant variance. Some will be fast, some will be slow with a final upsurge in intensity at the end. In...
If you’re reading this website, you’re probably well aware that the nordic skiing training year begins on May 1. In a sport where most races happen between November and March, and demand of athletes that they repeatedly race to the point of nearly losing consciousness, the preparation for race season had better start a long time before that. As the well-worn, but accurate, saying has it, skiers are made in the summer. tretinoin Embracing the...
Amidst overcast skies and spectators bearing signs for the local cross-country favorite, Canadian Alex Harvey, World Cup Finals resumed on Saturday in Québec City, Québec with a men’s 15-kilometer classic mass start race. Thanks to his win in Friday’s freestyle sprint, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo lead Saturday’s 78 starters out of the gate, his yellow bib also indicative of his first place rank in the 2019 Overall World Cup Standings. With Saturday and Sunday being...
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...
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...
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...
Redemption. As the old saying goes, it is sweet, particularly in sport, even if the occasion only arises every two or four years. Or perhaps the wait makes it savory. Two winters ago, Norwegian Team Sprint finalists Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Emil Iversen had been on their way to a potential gold or silver World Championships medal in Lahti, Finland when Iversen crashed taking out Finland’s Iivo Niskanen and putting Norway out of medal contention. ...
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Seefeld, Austria Women’s/Men’s Classic Team Sprint The furious pace of the World Championship racing schedule continued on Sunday in Seefeld, Austria with the women’s and men’s classic team sprint. Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and Maja Dahlqvist won the women’s 6 x 1.2-kilometer classic team sprint final in 15:14.93 minutes. Katja Visnar and Anamarija Lampic of Slovenia placed second (+0.37), with Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Maiken Caspersen Falla taking the final...
It was a dramatic day at World Championships in Seefeld, Austria on Thursday. Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo can now call himself a World Champion after a tactical and hard-fought victory in the 2019 World Championship 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint. Federico Pellegrino of Italy won silver finishing 0.23 seconds behind Klæbo. Russian skier Gleb Retivykh placed third, 1.37 seconds back. Klæbo qualified fifth, then proceeded to win his quarterfinal and advance to the finals after placing second...
2019 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria 1.2 k/ 1.6 k freestyle sprint Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. The women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint at the 2019...
The sun illuminated the alps in Cogne, Italy, the final World Cup stop before the FIS World Championships in Seefeld, Austria. Nestled in the mountains, the Aosta Valley is home to both Federico Pellegrino and Francesco De Fabiani, who seized the opportunity to delight the home crowd. The 1.6-kilometer freestyle race was also a chance for Pellegrino to earn his 12th individual freestyle sprint victory, tying for the second-most overall for any World Cup athlete...
FIS Cross Country World Cup 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint Cogne, Italy Amidst sunshine and sporting rolled up sleeves on Saturday in Cogne Italy, American Jessie Diggins took the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint win in nail-biter fashion. After making it into the semifinals and the final as one of the day’s lucky losers, Diggins outlunged Germany’s Sandra Ringwald by 0.11 seconds, claiming the victory in a time of 3:32.73. The 27 year old Afton, Minnesota native now has...
After two weeks away from competition, athletes revved their engines in Lahti, Finland for an individual 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint, one of the final stops on the way to the World Championships. After a string of what he deemed “bad luck” in the first sprint races of the season in Ruka and Lillehammer, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo came into the weekend with momentum from winning the last four individual sprints. Klæbo also arrived in Lahti on...
FIS World Cup Lahti, Finland 1.4 k/ 1.6 k Freestyle Sprint In the women’s skate sprint qualifier in Lahti, Finland Slovenia’s Eva Urevc laid down the fastest time in 2:40.67 minutes. Swiss skier Nadine Faehndrich was the second fastest qualifier, 4.21 seconds back, with the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Sophie Caldwell third (+4.36). Canada’s Dahria Beatty qualified 25th (+10.21). Also making the heats for the U.S. were Ida Sargent (USST) in 26th (+10.36), and Kelsey Phinney...
A strip of imported snow along the Elbe river, iconic architectural reminders of old-world Europe’s city-scape in Dresden, Germany, Lycra, speedy skiers, and teams of two: all the ingredients for the men’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle team sprint. With tight pack skiing a function of the the relatively flat Dresden ski loop, the ten teams in the final attempted to play stay-out-of-trouble-skiing for the six total laps. But with a crowded tag area and tight corners where...
The white ribbon of snow created a stark contrast to the green grass and gothic architecture along the bank of the River Elbe for the second year of city sprints in Dresden, Germany. As is typical in these events, the 1.6-kilometer out and back course was predominantly flat with a few short hill punches and a 180-degree hairpin turn at the halfway mark, where the race seemed to truly begin. The nature of the course...
FIS World Cup Dresden, Germany 1.6 k Freestyle Sprint The city of Dresden resting alongside the River Elbe hosted a 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint for the second year running. Hannah Falk of Sweden, last year’s sprint winner in Dresden, won the qualifier in a time of 3:41.85 minutes. The U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) Sophie Caldwell was the second fastest qualifier (+0.49), with Falk’s teammate, Stina Nilsson, qualifying in third (+0.80). Canada’s Dahria Beatty placed 20th (+8.72) in...