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Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier

Klæbo Hop Skates to a Stage 3 Win; Hamilton Settles into 14th as he Returns to World Cup Sprinting

Let’s explain. The format was basic, a freestyle sprint. Otherwise, that’s where sprints as we know it ended. The 0.66-kilometer course shot off from the start up a gradual V2-able climb. It then rounded a left-hander where athletes descended what looked like a salted banked turn found in a X-Games terrain park. Down to the course’s bottom zoomed the skiers. Then things turned skyward. The course ascended a mini-Alpe Cermis lasting around one-minute for the...

Perfect Pacing: Sjur Røthe Claims Ski Tour 2020 Stage 1 Win

The six-stage Ski Tour 2020, which runs from Sweden to Norway over the next week, began Saturday in Östersund, Sweden with the men’s 15-kilometer individual start skate. The race began with twilight immersing Östersund with the sky eventually morphing into black as the seeded group of skiers looped around on what FIS called a 4.71 k course. This much can be concluded after a single day of what will be a hotly contested tour: the...

Bolshunov Four for Four in Distance Wins; Norris Earns Season Best Result in 24th

Around and around they go. Due to lack of snow in Falun, Sweden, the men again wheeled their way around a manmade ribbon of snow, skating six icy 2.5-kilometer laps. Reduced from 30 to the 15 k distance and without the long, steep climb for which the course is usually known, how athletes would fare was yet to be determined.   Along the way, two sets of 15 bonus points were available for the top ten...

Norway’s Golberg and Valnes Go 1-2 in Falun Classic Sprint: Bolshunov Third

Thousands of spectators, slate skies, and a manmade loop of snow laid down in the otherwise green-brown Falun, Sweden ski stadium greeted the World Cup on Saturday. After a weekend hiatus last week, racers contested a 1.4-kilometer classic sprint in one of Sweden’s skiing epicenters. The main World Cup sprint star, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, was absent. The twenty-three-year-old Klæbo broke two fingers last week. According to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, he will be reevaluated on Feb....

MSA Trials Wrap-up: Tactics, Selections, Photos, and Videos

Mont Sainte-Anne brought great ski conditions on a weekend where the best in Canada fought to qualify for four different race trips: U20/U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany; Falun and the Scando Tour; the sprint tour of Québec and Minnesota; and World Cup finals in Canmore. Combine this with the usual NorAm action and COC leader competition and you have all the ingredients for a great weekend. Over 400 athletes raced in five age groups...

MSA Trials Rundown: Classic Interval Starts

Fresh snow greeted day two of the Mont Sainte-Anne Trials for the interval start classic. With athletes battling to qualify for U20/U23 World Championships in Oberwiesenthal, Germany and three separate World Cup trips (Falun/Scando Tour, Sprint Tour, Canmore), it was never going to be a simple matter of skier against the clock. Racing started with the open men’s 15km on a 5km loop that was shared by all the elite categories. Early on, it looked...

Nakkertok NorAm Weekend Round Up

The NorAm circuit moved east to the Nakkertok trails for three days of racing jointly hosted by Nakkertok Nordic, Club Skinouk, Chelsea Nordiq, and Kanata Nordic. Friday featured classic sprints, Saturday interval start free, and Sunday interval start classic. The event was also the Candy Cane Cup for the younger categories, as well as Ontario Cup 1 and Coupe Québec 1. 374 athletes in the U16, U18, and Open categories competed on Friday with many...

Canadian Nationals: Two Day Pursuit and WCF Qualification

This article has been updated to correct an interpretation of the selection criteria. Day two of nationals was day two of the pursuit at Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, Québec. The two-day pursuit format (classic interval start on day one, free technique pursuit start day two) was held for the second time at nationals. With both national titles and starts at World Cup Finals in Québec City up for grabs, it was always going to be...

NCAA Championships in Stowe, Vermont: K.O. and Izquierdo-Bernier Take the Wins…Utah Leads the Team Overall

On Friday, the third day of racing at the 2019 NCAA Skiing Championships featured another cross-country racing day with the women’s 15-kilometer mass start classic and the men’s 20 k mass start classic. After two days of racing and scores tallied from a single day of nordic racing on Wednesday and an alpine GS event on Thursday, Dartmouth was in the overall lead for the team championship. They had tallied 259 points to Utah’s 252.3...

NCAA Champs Day 1 Rundown from Stowe, Vermont

NCAA Skiing Championships Stowe, Vermont 10k/5k Freestyle In Stowe, Vermont the men raced a 10-kilometer interval start skate race on Wednesday to open the cross-country portion of the NCAA championships. Erik Olsvik Dengerud from the University of Colorado won in a time of 24:25.5 minutes. Kornelius Groev from the University of New Mexico (UNM) placed second in 24:45.1, and Ian Torchia of Northern Michigan University was third in 24:45.4. https://www.vteabp.org Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier from UNM was...

A Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour Weekend Rundown

For the third consecutive year, the SuperTour and NorAm series met up at Sovereign Lake near Vernon, BC, for a combined race weekend of skate sprints and classic interval starts. Over 450 athletes competed each day in four age groups. According to many attendees, combining the two Continental Cup series was an unqualified success. While many of the skiers expressed their pleasure in interviews, one quote stood out. “The SuperNoram is the best idea ever.”...

FIS World Cup Beitostølen, Norway 4 x 5 k / 4 x 7.5 k Relay Sunday in Beitostølen, Norway the women raced a 4 x 5-kilometer relay on firm tracks and under partly cloudy skies — Saturday’s races featured fresh snowfall. Norway I took the win in a total time of 57:23.6 minutes. In order of relay legs, Heidi Weng, Therese Johaug, Ragnhild Haga, and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg comprised the team that raced at the...

Saturday Rundown: From Lillehammer to West Yellowstone (Updated)

FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Lillehammer Norway: 10 k/ 15 k Freestyle Individual Start Women’s Report | Men’s Report On Saturday, the second day of World Cup cross-country racing ensued in Lillehammer, Norway with a 10-kilometer freestyle individual start race for the women. On a track of snow surrounded by green fir trees and a soggy landscape, the women skied two laps of 5 k course. Norway’s Therese Johaug was the fastest skier at every...

Friday Rundown: U23 Worlds Skiathlons; Eastern Canadian Champs

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Americans Lauren Jortberg and Ian Torchia.) U23 World Championships (Goms, Switzerland): 15/30 k skiathlons On the final day of U23 World Championships racing in Goms, Russia stole the show in the women’s and men’s skiathlons. Anastasia Sedova led them in the first race of the day on Friday, the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon, which she won in 44:03.6 minutes. Russia swept the podium and had four...

Wednesday Rundown: U23 Worlds 10/15 k Classic (Updated)

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Americans Lydia Blanchet and Ian Torchia.) U23 World Championships (Goms, Switzerland): 10/15 k classic Russia put two in the top three in both the women’s and men’s races on Wednesday at U23 World Championships in Goms, and for the second-straight race, Canada’s Monday’s skate sprint), finishing third, 29.6 seconds behind Kirpichenko. In Monday’s sprint, Kirpichenko qualified fourth and ended up fifth in the final. She is...

Monday Rundown: Leclair Leads North Americans in 15th in U23 Worlds Sprint (Updated)

(This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Laura Leclair, Katherine Stewart-Jones and Maya MacIsaac-Jones, as well as American Julia Kern.) U23 World Championships (Goms, Switzerland): Freestyle sprints On the first day of U23 World Championships racing in Goms, Switzerland, Norway’s Tiril Udnes Weng tallied her first individual world title in the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint, winning the A-final in 2:50.24 minutes, just 0.08 seconds ahead of Swiss World Cup regular Nadine Fähndrich...

MSA NorAm Trials: Notes and Quotes

The third NorAm of the season in Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA), Québec, was also a Canadian selection event for next month’s Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, as well as Junior and U23 World Championships, which start later this month in Goms, Switzerland. The original schedule of racing from Saturday, Jan. 6, to Tuesday, Jan. 9, with a backup race day on Wednesday had to be modified when Saturday and Sunday were colder than International Ski Federation...

U.S. and Canada Annouce Squads for FIS World Junior & U23 Championships

The U.S. and Canada have named their squads for FIS Cross Country World Junior and U23 Championships, set to begin later this month in Goms, Switzerland. Both countries’ selections include athletes who excelled against the senior fields at recent domestic races (U.S. National Championships and NorAms) which served as selection races for Olympic teams. In fact, Canada’s U23 women did so well against their senior compatriots that it’s unclear who will represent Canada at the...

Wednesday Rundown: Ruhpolding IBU World Cup; MSA NorAm Trials

IBU World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): Men’s 20 k individual For France’s Martin Fourcade, the difference between a miss on the last shooting stage of the men’s 20-kilometer individual International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup on Wednesday versus perfect shooting wouldn’t have ultimately changed his result in Ruhpolding. Despite the one-minute penalty, which was tagged onto his total time after his lone miss of the day, Fourcade still won by a minute. The Czech Republic’s Ondřej...

Tuesday Rundown: MSA NorAm Skate Sprints

NorAm Trials (Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec): Freestyle sprint The Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA) NorAm weekend continued Tuesday with freestyle sprints, which counted toward Junior and U23 World Championships team selection only. In the women’s 1.3-kilometer sprint, Dahria Beatty, of the Canadian World Cup Team and Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA), won every heat to take her second win of the MSA NorAm, after winning Monday’s skiathlon winner, Browne, of the national U25 Team and Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre (CNEPH),...