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The Devon Kershaw Show: Recapping the 15k with the Jessie Diggins of Swedish ski journalism

Tomas Petterson, a veteran sports reporter for the Swedish newspaper Expressen, joins us to recap the men’s 15 k at World Championships, and to discuss Sweden’s fantastic women’s team and the country’s hopes for its raw, talented men’s squad. Reach us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. Seven days down, four to go.

Bolshunov collects third gold medal while Krüger rebounds to bronze post-COVID; Patterson historic 8th place for USA

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. There were a number of stories to unpack during the men’s 50-kilometer mass start free, which was changed last minute to 28 k due to extreme weather conditions in Zhangjiakou....

Klæbo Wins Second Tour de Ski; Røthe Reigns on Alpe Cermis, Ketterson 48th

Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.   We began this year’s coverage of the Men’s Tour de Ski with a prelude from 5 time Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault. So let us begin this coda with him as well. On the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix, “the hell of the north”...

Klæbo Skates Away With the Win in TdS Stage 3 15k Mass Start Free; Schumacher 25th

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and the A Hall Mark of Excellence Award.  To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Traveling Northeast from Lenzerheide, Switzerland to Oberstdorf, Germany, home to last year’s FIS World Ski Championships, athletes lined up for Stage 3 of the Tour de Ski for a mass...

Bolshunov Victorious in the 30-Kilometer Skiathlon; Patterson 14th, Norris 17th

This World Championship coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. With swaths of bare ground peeking through the melting snow, skis rattling through tracks and swooshing across the lanes, and short-sleeved race tops, World Championship racing continued in a...

Bolshunov Wins a Nail-Biter in Falun; Schumacher 9th and Patterson 15th (Updated)

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com. Sunny skies and cold snow greeted the skiers for the start of the men’s 15 k individual freestyle on Friday, kicking off an extended weekend of racing in Falun,...

Norway win Men’s 4 x 7.5 k Relay in Lahti; Belligerent Bolshunov Bullies

This World Cup coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and their A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage please contact info@fasterskier.com.  The fog seemed to have thickened since the completion of the women’s race earlier in the day, at times obscuring the skiers with only their silhouettes visible. Eleven teams...

With a Klæbo Anchor Leg – Norway Claims 4 x 7.5 k Relay in Lahti

Sunday, for the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Lahti, Finland the scene was decidedly more fitting for winter sport: The race began amidst falling snow despite bare firs and hardwoods lining the course. It’s been a sparse winter in Lahti.  Eleven teams contested the relay, with ten nations represented; Russia fielded two teams. The U.S. was not represented.    For the first 7.5 k leg, Russia I’s Ilia Semikov and Russia II’s Andrey Sobakarev...

All Norway: Pål Golberg takes the Ski Tour Overall as Bolshunov Stymied by Tricky Conditions

Yellow bibbed as the overall leader of the World Cup, out first on Sunday’s 30 k classic pursuit in Trondheim, and Norway’s Pål Golberg starting 34 seconds back: this was the situation Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov found himself in as he pulsed from the start. Thrown into this mix of tension was a helter-skelter mish-mash of weather. On and off again snow, blustery winds, and temps hovering right near that wax tech’s no man’s land of...

Bolshunov Takes a Bold Flyer and the Stage 4 Win

With the course re-routed from the original 38-kilometer mass start skate to essentially an out and back into Meråker, Norway’s ski stadium, the day belonged to Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov who appears, at this point in the season, to be unstoppable in the distance events.  In a post-race interview, Devon Kershaw noted that men paced it World-Cup comfortable for much of the first portion of the race. In other words, the effort up-front, although speedy for...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Ski Tour 2020 Stage 1

It was all Norway in both the men’s and women’s Stage 1 of the Ski Tour 2020 from Östersund, Sweden. Sjur Røthe on the men’s side was pacing perfection while Therese Johaug simply steamrolled. This was clear, Norway had the best skis, and perhaps by default, the fastest skiers almost across the top-10 board. Yet, it is a long week ahead, and we are one stage into a six-stage event. Here’s the debrief from Devon:...

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...

Third Consecutive Distance Win for Bolshunov in Oberstdorf; Norris 28th

And the World Cup beat goes on. Nearly 70 men lined up in Oberstdorf, Germany for a 15/15-kilometer skiathlon, battling across techniques in front of a Bavarian Alp backdrop. The venue will be the home of the 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The 3.75 k course in Oberstdorf featured a variety of terrain, with the Burgstall hill climb bringing athletes to the high point of the course. To increase the pulse in the long...

Ustiugov Victorious Over Narrowly Spread Field in Stage 1 of the Tour de Ski (Updated)

The starting corral was blocked by a wall of red before the start of the 15-kilometer mass start freestyle in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Of the top ten ranked athletes, eight hailed from either Norway or Russia, interrupted only by Iivo Niskanen of Finland and Lucas Chanavat of France.  Front and center was last year’s victor Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. He became the youngest Tour de Ski Champion at 22 years of age after holding off Russia’s Sergey...

Ustiugov Closes with a Fury as Russia Goes 1-2 in Lillehammer Relay

Call it what you want: national pride, national bias, flag-waving: the team relays elicit nationalistic tendencies. In Lillehammer, Norway, you might think and maybe expect it’s your birthright to see the hometeam crush. That’s been the recent norm almost without exception.  Here’s the quick stats to either dispel or reinforce those tendencies: Norway has won nine of the last 11 relay races on the World Cup. Russia won the other two. In fact, Russia took...

Bolshunov wins 15 k in Falun and the Distance Cup; Harvey 11th, David Norris 16th

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...

Norway Wins 10th Consecutive Gold Medal in Men’s 4 x 10k Relay; Americans Finish 9th

While a temperature in the upper thirties would not normally classify as cool to a ski racer, it was a welcome break from the blazing sun and upper 50’s that have been ever-present in the 2019 Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria. Light rain peppered the athletes in the 4 x 10-kilometer relay, continuing to keep things challenging for the wax techs. The relay is a testament to both a nation’s depth and strategy,...

Friday Race Rundown: Men’s 4 x 10 Relay from Seefeld

The 4 x 10-kilometer men’s relay was a two-team tango as Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo were tagged for their respective anchor legs on Friday. The two teams stuck together until Klæbo moved ahead with less than five k to go and gapped Russia by 22 seconds. naltrexone revia It was enough final leg surge for Norway’s Emil Iversen, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Sjur Røthe, and Klæbo to win in 1:42:32.1 hours. Russia’s...