With the cross country World Cup's return to Russia now complete, the tour moves on to Otepää, Estonia, for the traditional interval-start distance races in the classic technique and, this year, classic-style sprints. Though Otepää, like almost every other venue, had suffered from a lack of snow, the events have just been confirmed and will go on as planned at the famous Tehvandi ski stadium.
Putting the races on has entailed only a lot of snowmaking, so the Estonian organizers have not had to duplicate the efforts put forth at Rybinsk, where soldiers cut blocks of ice from the Volga, placed them cobblestone-style on the ski trails, and then covered everything with manmade snow. It was not smooth or pretty.