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April 6 - World Cup Wrap-UpAs always, a late report of action from several weeks ago. The World Cup season finished off with the long distance mass-start events in Kuopio, Finland. Sort of an anti-climactic finish, and you have to question the reasoning of FIS after it was generally agreed last season that the multi-discipline final in Italy was a great success and also that the long distance event should be combined with an existing mass start "popular" event such as a Worldloppet race.
Anyway, the surprise winner of the 60km skate in Kuopio was Sergei Dolidovitch from Belarus. Dolidovitch had a previous best world cup result this season of 10th, so no doubt he would have been very happy with the result. Another unsighted Belarussian, Sannikov, also made it into the top 10. Dolidovitch only just made it across the line ahead of Piller Cottrer from Italy and Botvinov from Austria, both of whom have had very good post-championship form. A notable result was Norwegian biathlete Frode Andreasson's 10th place, not the first time that a top Norwegian biathlete has had a crack on the cross country circuit with reasonable success.
Per Elofsson didn't race as he already had the overall World Cup in wrapped up. And perhaps it was just as well as the following weekend he managed just 8th in the Swedish 50km championships (though that's not completely fair as it was reported that he had bad wax). Top ten overall standings down below.
Julia Tchepalova didn't have to win in Kuopio to take out the overall World Cup, but not a bad way to finish off the season anyway. Tchepalova won the 40km skate with only a handfull of seconds ahead of Russian team-mates Savialova and Lazutina. Last year's World Cup Champion Bente Skari of Norway finished 13th, but her second place in the overall standings was also secure. Again the top ten standings below.
For those interested in looking up all the World Cup results from the season, the easiest access is probably through Hannu Niinimaki's site in Finland.
So that is the end of a very interesting World Cup season. Marred slightly by the doping scandal in Finland, which still has many questions left unanswered. With some of the banned Finnish skiers now seeking a reduction in their penalty, and calls for an overhaul of the FIS doping tests, the international sporting community will soon see if FIS is really serious about tackling the doping problem. And it is a problem.
Final World Cup Standings
Men, after 20 of 20 races
1. 763 Per Elofsson, SWE
2. 603 Johann Muhlegg, SPA
3. 474 Thomas Alsgaard, NOR
4. 456 Pietro Piller Cottrer, ITA
5. 439 Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, NOR
6. 384 Rene Sommerfeldt, GER
7. 378 Fulvio Valbusa, ITA
8. 370 Frode Estil, NOR
9. 363 Kristen Skjeldal, NOR
10. 346 Michal Botvinov, AUTWomen, after 20 of 20 races
1. 1106 Julia Tchepalova, RUS
2. 990 Bente Skari, NOR
3. 893 Larissa Lazutina, RUS
4. 785 Stephania Belmondo, ITA
5. 529 Olga Savialova, RUS
6. 528 Gabriella Paruzzi, ITA
7. 502 Olga Danilova, ITA
8. 481 Nina Gavriljuk, RUS
9. 435 Katarina Neumannova, CZE
10. 352 Kristina Smigun, EST
March 21 - Palmer Stars at Swedish Ski GamesThe "Svenska Skidspelen" usually begins with a junior race before the World Cups, this time with the Rossignol Cup, 10km classic for girls and 15km classic for boys. Making a special guest appearance in the 10km were Australian juniors Esther Bottomley and Rhiannon Palmer. Esther unfortunately had some problems with Asthma during the race, however Rhiannon put in a very good performance to acheive a highly creditable result. Rhiannon placed 14th out of the start field of 69, 2 minutes 53 seconds behind the pace of Ingrid Narum from Norway - the current Norwegian junior champion and also a silver medal winner from this year's World Junior Championships in Zakopane. Three of the Swedes ahead of Rhiannon also competed at the World Junior Championships. What makes the result even more impressive is that the race was on a tough World Cup course. Despite struggling with breathing and tossing up whether to pull out, Esther finished in 52nd place. Full Results from Swedish Ski Games site.
Rhiannon's performance was reported in the Swedish press, including the comment - "Australians, they can't ski can they? But look, they can.". And they didn't even know that Rhiannon and Esther still have two more years left as juniors after this one. To cap off the weekend, Rhiannon raced again in a regional race near Sveg on the Sunday, finishing 2nd. Both Esther and Rhiannon will compete later this week in the Swedish Junior Championships in Östersund, but this time in their own age classes.
Falun World Cups, March 17-18
Women 10km Freestyle
With a Russian whitewash in Borlange over 5km freestyle only 3 days before, no prizes for picking the nation of the podium finishers in this race. Julia Tchepalova lead at all the major splits to take her 6th World Cup win of the season, ahead of Lazutina and Savialova, and with it the blue bib of the overall World Cup leader. At least this time a couple of Italians managed to break up the first six Russians a little bit, with Belmondo in 4th place and Paruzzi in 7th. Full results from Swedish Ski Games site.Men 15km Classic
All the Swedish attention for the race was about whether Per Elofsson could secure the overall World Cup from Johann Muhlegg. For Muhlegg to have a chance he needed to win and Per to finish outside the top 7. Unfortunatley this turned into a bit of a non-event, as Muhlegg apparently chose the wrong pair of skis and was never in contention, managing to finish only 19th. Per Elofsson also had one of his worse performances of the season, finishing only 8th (A shocker!), but that didn't matter much for the crowd or Elofsson as the 23 year old became the first Swede since Gunde Svan in 1989 to become the overall World Cup Champion. An incredible season, six wins and a second place from 9 starts, not to mention two World Championship gold medals. Worth a rise for sure.Back to the race and Michal Ivanov of Russia lead pretty much all the way to score the second World Cup win of his career. Hjelmeset of Norway was up there for while but dropped to sixth, Estil of Norway and Batory of Slovakia were still in contention over the last 5km, however Batory fell to 4th behind Bjonviken, and though Estil closed on Ivanov at times he ended up 15 seconds behind at the finish. Nothing much else to report really. Full Results.
Women 10km Classic
With Tchepalova now in the lead of the World Cup, Bente Skari needed to gain a lot of points back in this last classic race to have any chance of taking the overall World Cup. However the Russians had other plans. Tchepalova had started only 30 seconds ahead of Skari, and there was no way she was going to let the Norwegian catch up. Larissa Lazutina started another couple of minutes back, getting splits on them both. At 5km Lazutina had a 10 second lead over Skari, with Tchepalova holding 3rd another 5 seconds behind. Then Tchepalova started coming back, reducing Lazutina's lead to under 10 sec in the first 2km of the second lap, and drawing up level with Skari. Then, some confusion, did Tchepalova fall? Or was that the men's relay yet to come? At any rate Tchepalova lost a lot of time towards the end, but not enough to lose third place. Skari came across the line just after Tchepalova to put herself into the number one spot, but only for a couple of minutes until Lazutina came in to take her second World Cup victory of the season. The World Cup standings now? Tchepalova leads with 36 points from Skari, however with only the 40km skate in Kuopio remaining the chances of Skari coming back are very remote.The one and only Beckie Scott from Canada finished off her World Cup season with a very impressive 12th place, picking up from a 21st place in the 10km freestyle the day before. Milaine Therault also picked up points in 25th place, with Sara Renner also not too shabby in 34th place. Wendy Wagner from the USA had a flying start, up in the top 20 in the first 2km, however she started to fade already the first time up the big hill (known as the "Murder Hill" in Falun) and dropped down to 50th at the end of the second lap. Full Results.
Men 4 by 10km Relay Classic/Skate
This built up to be a pretty exciting end to the season's World Cup relays. Norway lead after the first classic leg from Hjelmeset, with Italy, Russia, and Norway 2 about 10 seconds back and Sweden 19 seconds back in 5th place. Estil was unable to retain the lead for Norway on the second leg, and all 5 teams came in together for the second change, with Fredriksson skiing the fastest leg for Sweden and changing first. Norway 2 were the first to lose contact on the skating legs, followed by Norway 1. Piller Cottrer managed to break away for Italy, giving a 10 second lead over Sweden and Russia into the last leg. Zorzi took over for Italy, and for a while it looked as though the Italians could go away with it. But then Elofsson for Sweden and Villisov for Russia reeled Zorzi in at the start of the second lap, and when they reached the "Murder Hill" Zorzi's race was run. So then it was Elofsson leading with Villisov on his tail, coming in for the last swing past the stadium before the final approach. On the last steep uphill Villisov pulled out and tried to go past and the unthinkable happened for the Swedish crowd. As Villisov drew level the tip of his ski went over Elofsson's, and the Swede fell. By the time he got up and going Villisov was 10 seconds clear. Elofsson dug deep, and managed to pull the lead back to 5 seconds, but the finish was too close and Russia won the last relay of the season. Elfosson was gracious in defeat, the Swedish team put in a protest but it was obvious from the reply on the big screen that they had no case. Italy took third place. Full Results.So now only the World Cup final in Kuopio remaining, long distance mass start this coming weekend.
March 15 - Borlange World Cup
The first ever World Cup at Borlange and a great spectacle for the Swedish public. Something about having their new favourite son Per Elofsson on his way to becoming the overall World Cup champion that brings people out at night in the dumping snow. But first the women's event.
Women 5km Freestyle
The Russian women are always strong, however it has been a while since they dominated a race as they did this time. Eight Russians on the start list, taking the top six places in the race and all within the first eleven. Sometimes struggling for fast skis, this time the Russians must have jagged the right wax or structure or something. Julia Tchepalova gave her overall World Cup aspirations a big boost with her fifth victory of the season, 8 seconds ahead of Elena Buruhina and 12.2 ahead of Larissa Lazutina. World Junior champion from 2000 Ekaterina Stchastlivaia took 4th place, with Sabina Valbusa the first non-Russian in 7th place. Germans Viola Bauer scored her best World Cup result of the season in 9th place. World Cup leader Bente Skari of Norway managed only 14th place, bringing her lead over Tchepalova back to 20 points. Full results on FIS site.Men10km Freestyle
"Per, Per, Per" (pronounced "pair")shouted the crowd, but after 1.8km Elofsson was only in 8th place 4.9 seconds behind fellow Swede Anders Sodergren (who soon worked his way back down through the field). At 5km Elofsson was in 3rd place, 4 seconds behind the leader Rene Sommerfeldt from Germany and 0.8 behind Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy. Elofsson was the earlier starter of the three and he took the lead at the finish ahead of Johann Muhlegg from Spain. Splits were coming in from out on the course that Sommerfeldt had blown up and was dropping fast, and the crowd began to pour into the finish area to celebrate, however Piller Cottrer still lead by a second at 6.8km. A cheer went up as a report from 8km put Elofsson in the lead, but then the noise came down as the speakers announced that Piller Cottrer was 0.7 of a second down with less than a km to go. Everyone watched the big screen as the time counted down and, and... Elofsson wins by 1.8 seconds to Piller Cottrer, Muhlegg takes third. Full results on FIS site.Carl Swenson from the USA had a good start, sitting in 16th place after the first 5km, however dropped down to 37th place at 10km. That was the last race of the season for Carl, as he flew home the next day to begin training for the mountain bike season with his team.
March 13 - Late on Norwegian World Cups
Holmenkollen World Cups, March 7-10
Last year the classic sprint in downtown Oslo was one of the highlights of the season, over 20,000 people and a fantastic spectacle. This year the sprints were moved to Holmenkollen in the afternoon on a Wednesday and there were bugger all people. Great PR move.
Men Classic Sprint
Tough qualifying for the finals in a classic sprint in Norway. There were maybe 22-24 Norwegian men out of about 64 starters, and 10 of them made the final 16. Jan Jakob Verdenius was the fastest qualifier, the other "non-Norwegians"(to quote the Norwegian commentators) to make it through were Koukal from Czech, Denisov from Russia, Pykkonen from Finland, and Fauner and Cararra from Italy. The quarter finals. A norwegian party. A gutsy move by Pykkonen to take the inside and lead into the straight, but then he was mown down by two norgs including Toralf Heimdal, a club skier getting one of the national team starts. Alsgaard sat at the back for most of the race then came though comfortably in the straight. Denisov the only non-norwegian to qualify for the semi finals.1st semi final. A fall on the first corner brought down Svartedal and Solbakken, Verdenius at the back just made it around the bodies to join Heimdal in a clear break. Svartedal fought hard to get back in contact, but it took too much out of him and Heimdal and Verdenius went through to the final. 2nd semi, Hjelmeset led most of the way with Alsgaard again back in 4th place, but the man with the mono-brow came through with the goods in the straight again, along with Bjerkeli. So an all norwegian final.
Heimdal led out in the final, but then it seemed as though they were mucking around a bit and no-one really wanted to take up the pace. And so Alsgaard came through to lead up the last hill and no-one was going to come past him from there. Heimdal, Bjerkeli and Verdenius gathered up behind around the back corner, then Bjerkeli fell and Heimdal pulled away in the straight to take second place. Another sprint win to Alsgaard, who said afterwards that he struggled on the hills just as he has for most of the latter part of this season, but had good skis. Heimdal obviously very stoked to come from obscurity for the best result of his life. Verdenius took the overall sprint world cup.
1 NOR Thomas Alsgaard
2 NOR Toralf Heimdal
3 NOR Jan Jakob Verdenius
4 NOR Harvard BjerkeliWomen Classic Sprint
The Finnish sprint team managed to stay pretty much intact despite the doping scandal at the World Championships. Six Finnish girls qualified for the finals, along with 5 Norwegians, 3 Russians, Swedish junior Lina Andersson, and Beckie Scott from Canada. With no Tchepalova in contention the overall sprint world cup already belonged to Bente Skari.A very tough first quarter final with Skari, Moen, Scott, and Lazutina. The pace was hot and Scott couldn't quite stay in contact up the second hill. A very close sprint in the straight between the other three, and it looked like Skari would be the one to miss out until Lazutina failed to throw her foot forward across the line. Some lunging practice needed, Moen and Skari through to the semis. Sirrvo from Finland fell in the 2nd quarter, Manninen won comfortably in the 3rd, Sundqvist led most of the way in the 4th but died in the straight to let through fellow Finn Pienemaki and Lina Andersson. Four Norwegians through to the semi finals.
Skari and Moen made a little break in the 1st semi final, the others caught up on the downhill but Skari and Moen pulled away in the straight, Moen's pig-tails flying. Not much action from the other semi final either, Manninen and Andersson joining the norwegians in the final. Skari lead out in the final, with Manninen hot on her tail. Manninen came out from behind at the right time on the downhill, and pulled up level with Skari as they rounded into the straight. Not much in it, both lunged for the line and Manninen came through with the goods, though she wasn't sure until it came up on the screen. Behind, Andersson came past Moen in the last 50m to take third place.
1 FIN Pirjo Manninen
2 NOR Bente Skari
3 SWE Lina Andersson
4 NOR Anita MoenWomen 30km
Not many details to report from this race due to wax testing for the men's race in the middle of it. Larissa Lazutina from Russia turned the tables on classic race favourite Bente Skari of Norway to win by just on a minute in a time of 1:27:50.2. Olga Savialova (nee Korneeva) from Russia took third place ahead of team-mate Gavriljuk, with Kaisa Varis from Finland(one of the few senior team members left after the doping scandal) in 5th place. Julia Tchepalova, just about the only skier with any real chance of taking the overall world cup title from Skari could only manage 19th, which gives Skari an 102 point lead with 4 races left. However, with three of those races in freestyle technique, Tchepalova still has a fair chance of coming through. The USA team picked up some decent results with Nina Kemppel and Wendy Wagner in 22nd and 23rd place, Wagner's result her best World Cup placing. Full results from Norwegian website.Men 50km
It is almost invariably a Norwegian party in the men's 50km at Holmenkollen, however 3 in the top five and 12 in the top 30 is actually a bit below par. Bjorn Daehlie said that to win the 50km in Holmenkollen (which has eluded Daehlie) is one of greatest achievments in cross country skiing, and now Per Elofsson has joined the club. The 23 year old Swede lead from start to finish to win, 41 seconds ahead of Anders Aukland. Aukland picked up time towards the end of the second 16.6km lap, however Elofsson said that he never was in trouble on his way to two victories in a row (He also won in Russia the week before). Frode Estil picked up third place, with Frederiksson in 4th and Hjelmeset in 5th. Elofsson is now 124 points clear on top of the World Cup standings, and with his current form and three races left looks certain to claim his first overall World Cup victory. Full results from Norwegian website.World Cup Standings
Men, after 17 of 20 races
1. 631 Per Elofsson, SWE
2. 507 Johann Muhlegg, SPA
3. 473 Thomas Alsgaard, NOR
4. 378 Fulvio Valbusa, ITA
5. 363 Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, NOR
6. 324 Tor-Arne Hetland, NOR
7. 320 Christian Zorzi, ITA
8. 293 Pietro Piller Cottrer, ITA
9. 288 Rene Sommerfeldt, GER
10. 264 Giorgio Di Centa, NORWomen, after 16 of 20 races
1. 848 Bente Skari, NOR
2. 746 Julia Tchepalova, RUS
3. 614 Stephania Belmondo, ITA
4. 593 Larissa Lazutina, RUS
5. 435 Katarina Neumannova, CZE
6. 429 Gabriella Paruzzi, ITA
7. 375 Olga Danilova, ITA
8. 352 Kristina Smigun, EST
9. 350 Pirjo Manninen, FIN
10. 338 Nina Gavriljuk, RUSDoping Hot Topic in Norway
Following the doping scandal in Finland there has been renewed discussion in Norway on doping and in particular altitude houses. Many sport commentators believe that using artificial altitude is also doping and Norwegians should step way back from the line. During a debate on Norwegian TV, 38% of viewers who called in believed that their countries' sports people are doping. This comes also with news that the Norwegian team is building an altitude house in Utah for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City next year, capable of taking the altidue both up and down and chosing different heights in different rooms.
January 8 - Late Report on World Cup Sprints
Engelberg World Cups, December 28/29
Men Classic Sprint
Norwegians and Italians made up 10 of the 16 qualifiers, but the fastest qualifier was Lauri Pyykonen from Finland, who was knocked out straight away in the first quarter-final. 3rd fastest qualifier Hjelmeset from Norway was disqualified for changing lanes. In the first semi-final, Norwegians Hetland and Verdenius (Ex-Netherlands) made it through without incident. In the other semi-final it was action a-plenty as Bjerkeli from Norway fell, leaving Schlickenrieder of Germany ahead of the two Italians, Di Centa and Piller Cottrer. Schlickenrieder was looking the goods herring-boning up the last hill, until he tripped himself up and let the Italians through. But it wasn't over as Schlickenrieder came back and threw himself over the line to warrant a photo-finish with Di Centa (or maybe Piller Cottrer, it was nearly two weeks ago), but the two Italians went through.In the final Hetland went out strong and looked unbeatable as they headed round onto the second lap. But then Verdenius pulled back the gap and just got into contact on the top of the big hill. Hetland still led into the straight, but then Verdenius was too strong, and won his first World Cup sprint. Italians after.
As an afternote, in the men's B final Schlickenrieder tripped himself up in almost exactly the same place on the hill. Crossing the line 20s off the pace he pulled a telemark over the line for the camera, and true to recent form fell again. Fallling in a sprint is now called "Doing a Schlicky".
1 NOR Jan Jakob Verdenius
2 NOR Tor-Arne Hetland
3 ITA Giorgio Di Centa
4 ITA Pietro Piller CottrerWomen Classic Sprint
Junior sensation Pirjo Manninen was the fastest qualifier in the women's classic sprint ahead of Roaldseth from Norway and Henkel from Germany, with Bente Skari the sprint champion from last season in 4th place. Three of these made it through to the finals, with only Roaldseth dipping out and being replaced by Gavriljuk from Russia. In the final Manninen took the early lead and seemed determined to hold it all the way. Henkel unfortunately fell on the first corner and spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. Skari happily sat behind Manninen, standing up rather than overtaking, and finally made her move just before the last hill. One big 20 second burst and Skari made a small gap over the top of the hill, and the race was hers. Manninen took second, retaining the lead in the sprint World Cup.1 NOR Bente Martensen
2 FIN Pirjo Manninen
3 RUS Nina Gavriljuk
4 GER Manuela HenkelMen Freestyle Sprint
Christian Zorzi skied the fastest qualifying time, 2 seconds clear of Rene Sommerfeldt from Germany (Note - see team reports to see that these 2 seconds pushed Paul Murray over 100 FIS points). The action in this sprint started in the third quarter final, Germans Sommerfeldt and Schlickenrieder with Italians Valbusa and Fauner. As they came out of the double pole start (first 60m) it looked as though Valbusa stepped on Schlickenrieder's ski. Valbusa lost balance and veered slightly left, ramming Schlickenrieder into the bunting. Valbusa and Fauner went on to qualify for the semis, where they were both knocked out by Norwegians Hetland and former nordic-combined skier Trond Einar Elden. The other two in the final were Zorzi and another Norwegian, Solbakken. Note this was the second skating sprint final this season with Zorzi and 3 Norwegians.Hetland again went out from the front, with slower tempo than the others but incredible strength. This time no-one was able to bring him back. Zorzi worked his way up through the other Nowegians, pulling up onto Solbakken as they hit the final straight and kicking past to take second place.
1 NOR Tor-Arne Hetland
2 ITA Christian Zorzi
3 NOR Harvard Solbakken
4 NOR Trond Einar EldenWomen Freestyle Sprint
Tchepalova skipped the classic sprint, and in doing so gave up the overall World Cup lead to Bente Skari. However she gave notice she was out to take it back with a 3.5 second caning of the World Cup field in the qualifying time trial, ahead of Manninen the sprint specialist (for now at any rate).Saarinen of Finland led out the first quarter-final ahead of Tchepalova, but fell on the first corner. Tchepalova joined Belmondo of Italy in the first semi, from where both progressed comfortably to the final ahead of Russians Lazutina and Nageikina. From the other semi-final came Manninen, and Paruzzi from Italy.
In the final it was pretty close between Manninen, Tschepalova and Belmondo, with Paruzzi losing a little ground. Still very close over the top of the last hill with 250m to go, when Belmondo caught a ski and took a bit of a sit on the snow. Manninen got away to claim her second victory of the season, while Tchepalova's second place gave her the overall World Cup lead back from Skari, who gained just 5 points in 26th place
1 FIN Pirjo Manninen
2 RUS Julia Tchepalova
3 ITA Stephania Belmonda
4 ITA Gabriela ParuzziWorld Cup Standings after 8 races:
Men
1. 345 Per Elofsson, SWE
2. 279 Tor Arne Hetland, NOR
3. 273 Thomas Alsgaard, NOR
4. 212 Fulvio Valbusa, ITA
4. 212 Johann Muhlegg, SPA
6. 199 Vincent Vittoz, FRA
7. 189 Jan Jakob Verdenius, NOR
8. 186 Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, NOR
9. 184 Kristen Skjeldal, NOR
10. 170 Frode Estil, NORWomen
1. 462 Julia Tchepalova, RUS
2. 460 Bente Skari, NOR
3. 382 Stefania Belmondo, ITA
4. 337 Larissa Lazutina, RUS
5. 330 Pirjo Manninen, FIN
6. 292 Katerina Neumannova, CZE
7. 248 Nina Gavrijuk, RUS
7. 248 Kristina Smigun, EST
9. 216 Olga Danilova, RUS
10. 204 Gabriella Paruzzi, ITA
December 20 - Last of Pre-Christmas World Cups
Davos World Cup, December 20
Men 30km Classic
Norwegians have always done well in the Davos 30km classic, and were tipped to do so again. But despite fielding 5 skiers in the top 11, the Norwegians were upstaged by one of the biggest favourites for the 2001 Lahti World Championships, Mika Myllylae from Finland. Out of the red group and starting early, Myllylae set the times for the others to chase. The closest to take up the challenge was young Russian Mikhail Ivanov, who kept pace with Myllylae about 30-35 seconds behind for about the last 15km. About 6 skiers - Muhlegg, Fredriksson, Elofsson, Hjelmeset, Estil, and Skjeldal (who lost about 15 seconds when he failed to take a turn and skied off the track) - were in contention for third, but in the end it was Hjelmeset who finished fastest to claim the spot ahead of Estil. The question now is whether Myllylae has come into form too early. It wasn't until January in1999 that Myllylae started to really crank, before his sensational performaces at the World Championships in Ramsau. It was reported that Alsgaard missed the race with a sore throat.After the race Elofsson announced that he would be bypassing all World Cup races before the World Championships. A bold move but good luck to the young lad.
As a short aside, it was apparent on the Eurosport coverage that some skiers took more of a skate than others when changing. There's a distinct difference between a step-turn and a full on skate or two or three. It also seemed that some skiers deliberately took the lap lane and cut across at the last moment when coming towards the finish, saving possibly a second or two. One perhaps for the race jury to look into?
Women 15km Classic
Bente Skari was the favourite for this race, but Julia Tchepalova had other plans. The gap between the two was never more than about 12 seconds, with Tchepalova taking it out by just 3 seconds at the finish. Kristina Smigun returned to some of her form from last season to take third place, ahead of Larissa Lazutina. Generally a faster skater, Tchepalova now seems to be in the best form of her life. Perhaps this time round the Russians will give her a start at the World Championships (In 1999 she was overlooked, and came back to win the final World Cup race in Holmenkollen.).Brusson World Cup, December 16/17
The Seefeld World Cup races were moved to Brusson quite early, but the news of the Kitzbuhel World Cup Sprints also going to Brusson didn't come through (to Obertilliach anyway) until the race appeared on Eurosport.
Men 10km-10km One-day Pursuit
After Per Elofsson posted the fastest time in the10km classic there was little doubt anyone would catch him in the pursuit. The Swede extended his lead over to 31 seconds in the 10km skate to score his third World Cup victory in a row, ahead of Johann Muhlegg, who also held onto his 2nd place from the classic. Elofsson then packed his bags straight for Davos, keeping good his promise to skip the sprint races. Behind Muhlegg was The Pack. The Pack varied in number, but possibly contained places from 3 to 23 at various stages. The big movers in The Pack were Frenchman Vincent Vittoz, who started number 22, and Italian Fulvio Valbusa, number 27. Thomas Alsgaard was in there until his ski came off and he had to go and fetch it. With about 2-3km to go Vittoz let them have it, hammering up a couple of hills to spread the field out and catapult himself off the front. Norwegian Kristen Skjeldal lead the chase after him, but couldn't get back in touch and Vittoz took his first podiu finish. Young German Axel Teichmann did a pretty good job to get home 5th ahead of Estil and Valbusa.Women 10km Classic
In this one Bente Skari lead all the way to win her second classic race of the season by a comfortable 26 seconds. Then came the Russians, Danilova, Lazutina, Tchepalova, Savialova, Egorova, all within about 13 seconds. It looked as though waxing was a little tricky, or at least there were some wicked herringbone sections on sugar snow.Men Sprint Freestyle
None of the semi-finals or the qualifying round were shown on Eurosport. I thought the networks were supposed to be asking for more of this sort of thing. Anyway. The news around the traps was that Peter Schlickenrieder tried to come from behind in one of the semi-finals, and threw himself across the line beside Morton Brors, but Brors got the nod from the photo-finish. Schlickenrieder went on to win the B-final. In the main event it was Norwegians Brors, Alsgaard, and Jan Jacob Verdenius (ex-Netherlands, but he has always lived in Norway), and Italian Christian Zorzi. Verdenius and Alsgaard had the fastest qualifying by the way. The four were all very close around the course, with Alsgaard sitting at the back right from the start. Then, seemingly without much effort, Alsgaard glided and free-skated his way to the front on a downhill. Rocket skis or just good use of the slip-stream? Whatever the case, Alsgaard now led into the finish straight and claimed his first World Cup Sprint victory. Verdenius took second, while Zorzi and Brors called for the photo-finish camera again, and according to the Eurosport commentator third place was split between the two.Women Sprint Freestyle
The fastest qualifying skiers were, in order, Kuitunen(FIN), Manninen (FIN), Neumannova (CZE), and Tchepalova (RUS), all within 2 seconds over 1650m. To qualify for the last 16, you had to be within 8.1 seconds. And, in the final? The fastest four all made it through. The two Finns led out, with Tchepalova the slowest out of the start. Then Manninen put her foot down on one of hills and no-one could go with her. The gap see-sawed a little, but Manninen never really came back in full contact. Kuitunen fought Neumannova off for a while, but finally Neumannova got past and set off after Manninen, but it was too late. Kuitunen took third, easily her best World Cup result, with Tchepalova's 4th place giving her the overall World Cup lead from Belmondo(who finished 23rd in the qualifying).The word is now that the Garmish-Partenkirchen Sprint will be on in Engelberg on December 28, with the Engelberg Sprint still on the 29th. Still waiting however for official confirmation.
December 15 - Campra Continental Cup and World Cup Sprints
Campra Continental Cup, December 9/10
The first day of competition was missed here saw over 130 men in the 10km classic and 69 women in the 5km classic. Swiss skiers dominated the men's race but not the women's, in sloppy soft red klister conditions. Not much else to report as we arrived after the fact.
Men 10km Classic
1 SUI 25:42.7 Christian Stolz
2 SUI 26:20.6 Beat Koch
3 SUI 26:58.0 Andreas Zihlmann
4 ITA 27:00.6 Thomas Moriggl
5 SUI 27:02.3 Christian Stebler
FIS point penalty 49.94Women 5km Classic
1 GER 14:37.2 Manuela Henkel
2 RUS 14:41.9 Irina Skladneva
3 AUT 14:43.7 Renate Roider
4 GER 14:46.1 Evi Sachenbacher
5 RUS 14:50.8 Olga Moskalenko
FIS point penalty 37.91A freeze overnight saw sloppy soft change to hard and corrugated. This time the Swiss guys were out of contention and Germans who were lucky to make the first page of results in the classic took the top two spots, Dirk Klessen and Ron Spanuth. The 15km freestyle was won in about 31 minutes, which either says something about the speed of the snow or the measurers of the course. Moskalenko won the women's 10km freestyle ahead of Sachenbacher. Unfortunatley we left before they had printed results.
World Cup Sprint Relay, December 13
Sprint relays are usually action a plenty, so it was unfortunate we missed seeing any live coverage. The course was 750m long, with each skier skiing the loop twice before changing over. The women skied three times each, and the men five times each.
There were 12 women's teams, including 3 Russian, 3 Italian, 2 Finnish, and teams from Germany, Kazakhstan. Norway and Canada. Where are all the other countries, including France and Switzerland who have done well in the sprint relay before? Russia ended up the big success, with only the Italians, Belmondo and Valbusa, breaking up their trifecta. Actually after the very first leg the number one Russian team, Tchepalova and Savialova, and the Italians began to break away, and going off the splits the Russians got out to 7 seconds after the third leg and held that to the finish.
Now the men.With four laps to go there were only 4 teams in real contention, and after Schlickenrieder fell for Germany the two Itlaian teams made it off the front. At the end the combination of Valbusa/Maj won over Di Centa/Zorzi by 0.4 of a second. Sommerfeldt did a lot of work to bring Germany back up to the Russian #2 team, and Schlickenrieder took third place by 1.0 second over the line. Only 7 of the 18 men's teams managed to finish - the others being pulled off the track before they were lapped by the leaders, including the number one teams from Sweden, Norway and Finland.
December 9 - Elofsson, Belmondo lead World Cup
Santa Catarina World Cup, December 8
Results here come courtesy of Swiss Text TV.Per Elofsson from Sweden makes it two in a row with an 8 second victory in the Santa Catarina 15km freestyle World Cup. Elofsson, who skipped the opening classic race, now leads the overall World Cup by 40 points from Thomas Alsgaard. Frenchman Vincent Vittoz took second place in Santa Catarina, his first World Cup podium finish which also puts him to third position in the overall standings.
Julia Tchepalova trounced the field in the women's 10km freestyle, putting over a minute on everyone except 2nd placed Stefania Belmondo. An impressive effort considering the closeness of the field in the last World Cup (top 10 only 16 seconds apart over 5km). Belmondo now leads the World Cup over Tchepalova and Kaisa Varis. Varis must either have not started in Santa Catarina or had a shocker as she scored no points. [Afternote: It was reported on the Wintersport site that Varis fell and injured her shoulder during the race and failed to finish.]
Men 15km Freestyle
1 SWE 37:04.1 Per Elofsson
2 FRA + 8.1 Vincent Vittoz
3 NOR + 14.6 Tor Arne Hetland
4 AUT + 20.3 Achim Walcher
5 NOR + 21.8 Kristen SkjeldalWomen 10km Freestyle
1 RUS 26:09.5 Julia Tchepalova
2 ITA + 25.4 Stefania Belmondo
3 RUS + 1:04.7 Larissa Lazutina
4 CZE + 1:06.7 Katarina Neumannova
5 RUS + 1:07.2 Olga SavjalovaMen World Cup Standings after three races
1. 200 Elofsson, SWE
2. 160 Alsgaard, NOR
3. 116 Vittoz, FRA
4. 100 Valbusa, ITA
4. 100 Hjelmeset, NOR
6. 98 Skjeldal, NOR
7. 93 Repo, FIN
8. 89 Hetland, NOR
9. 80 Estil, NOR
10. 74 Muhlegg, SPAWomen World Cup Standings after three races
1. 220 Belmondo, ITA
2. 182 Tchepalova, RUS
3. 180 Varis, FIN
4. 150 Smigun, EST
4. 150 Lazutina, RUS
6. 135 Neumannova, CZE
7. 130 Skari, NOR
8. 100 Danilova, RUS
9. 84 Gavriljuk, RUS
10. 79 Valbusa, ITASanta Catarina World Cup Relay, December 9.
Just caught a snippet of this on Swiss TV. For the first time the women skied four by 3km, and the men skied four by 5km. With 3km per leg for the women it was all pretty close. Russia got away for the win with Tchepalova, Norway comfortably in second, Russia #2 caught Finland towards the end but Milla Jauho won the sprint for the third for Finland. In the men's race, Norway managed to get clear, but second place came down to a sprint between Hoffmann for Austria and Villisov for Russia, with Hoffmann winning out. There was also a sprint for fourth between Finland and Germany, with Isometsae getting across first for Finland ahead of Sommerfeldt.
December 7 - Eurosport hits Australia
Pirate Eurosport tapes have hit the country in numbers and for the first time Australians are viewing World Cup in Australia within days of the action unfolding. Okay, some exaggeration, at any rate the opening World Cups were viewed by 3 or 4 people. The only problem was that they were in French. Full results from all the opening races are available at the FIS website.
Beitostolen World Cups, November 25-29
The men's opening 15km classic World Cup in Beitostolen was incredible. Norwegian after Norewian lunged across the line, taking the lead from each other. Hetland had it, Aukland took it, Sorgard ran with it, Bjonviken grabbed it by a second, Alsgaard claimed it, and finally Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeseth won it. Seven Norwegians took the top seven places, with three more squeezing into the top twelve. It is not the first time that Norwegian men have dominated classic World Cup races (often with conditions around 0 or warmer), however probably the most convincing. What are those Norwegians eating? And do they put the same stuff on their skis? Is this the beginning of the end for World Cup?Bente Skari (nee Martensen) won the women's 10km classic comfortably, with Kaisa Varis from Finland edging out Belmondo for third place. Estonian Kristina Smigun, who lost the overall World Cup to Martensen in the last race last season, finished 4th. No Russians in the top 5, though 3 in the top 10.
It was probably no surprise the next day when three Norwegian teams broke clear in the men's relay after the two classic legs, however it was a relief when some other countries managed to ski back into the race on the skating legs. Norway #1 did win comfortably, but Finland won the sprint for 2nd, just 1.6 seconds ahead of Austria in 6th place.
The most exciting event to watch (even in French) in this opening weekend was the women's relay. With almost total Russian domination in the 90's, the only interest in the women's relay has often been how long can the Norwegians hang on ,and can Belmondo bring the Italians up to the podium on the last leg. Not so this time when Sweden (with three up and coming youngsters) and Finland (with in-form Varis and 2000 junior sprint star Manninen) joined the pack after the first leg. Then held on to the Russians and Norwegians on the second leg. Then hung on the the Russian's on the 3rd leg whil Norway dropped behind. Finally Sweden fell off on the last leg leaving Varis and Russia's Julia Tschepalova to fight it out. Varis broke away over the top of a hill with about 2km to go, but Tschepalova had fast skis and took the lead back on a long downhill. As they rounded the last corner it looked like Tschepalova had it, but Varis sprinted past to take Finland's first World Cup relay victory since 1991. Sweden held on to 3rd place against a fast finishing Skari and Belmondo. About time too!
The Lillehammer World Cups were moved to Beitostolen due to lack of snow. Luckily the races were freestyle and hence the Norwegians didn't dominate.
Per Elofsson from Sweden won the men's 10km freestyle World Cup ahead of Sami Repo from Finland, who has consistently scored his best World Cup results in November. Alsgaard took third place and with it the overall World Cup lead. For the second race in a row, Johann Muhlegg from Spain was up there early and faded to finish outside the top ten. Look out for when he lasts the distance.
In the women's 5km freestyle Kaisa Varis scored her second World Cup victory (the first was in Krylatskoe last January) less than a second ahead of Belmondo, with less than 5 seconds separating the top 5. Varis now leads the overall World Cup ahead of Belmondo.
The next World Cup in Santa Catarina on the 8th of December.
New Websites
Cross country skiing news sites are booming this season after the presence of only a couple of regularly updated English language sites for the past few years. Surprisingly enough, Norway seems to have discovered there is a market for xc ski news, lots of sponsors have kicked in, and sites are popping up complete with their own set of resident Norwegian racers. The most regularly updated of these is Wintersport, which manages a daily update of news, results, gossip, hearsay, mostly from Norway but also with links to other websites from around Europe. If you are looking for a snippet every day, or the latest report from a World Cup, this is the place to look. Another promising site is XC-Skiing, which endeavoured daily updates for a while but took a long break in the middle of November.For complete start lists and results lists for World Cup, the official FIS site is probably the place to go, so long as it manages to maintain regular updates. Unfortunately the results from other FIS races don't seem to be as readily available. For North American results and news, Cross Country Ski World and Cross Country Canada have the bases pretty much covered, and will also pick up most of the World Cup news within a day or two.
This World Racing News section will be updated from time to time, usually a day or two after news breaks and with an Australian perspective. Hopefully not too ill-informed. Enjoy the season!
XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.
