Saturday's races in Otepää, Estonia, will be fun to watch. The race format is the oldest of the old-school races (classic technique, interval start, 15,000 meters), it's one of the final distance events before the world championships in late February, the venue is one of the gems of the World Cup circuit, and the Estonian spectators are outdone only by the Norwegians for sheer lunacy. This year, though, the crowd is unlikely to see the hometown favorites - Kristina Smigun and Andrus Veerpalu - on the podium. Smigun's been in poor form all season (just like last year, before she corrected herself with a trip to Egypt and then won two gold medals at Torino), and Veerpalu, recovering from a knee injury, isn't even going to race at Otepaa. (He is apparently planning to test the knee by racing the 57-kilometer [35-mile] Marcialonga ski marathon in Italy instead.) My picks:
women's 10km
1) Virpi Kuitunen (Finland), 2) Marit Bjørgen (Norway), 3) Justyna Kowalczyk (Poland; fresh from winning three golds and a bronze at the Winter Universiade)
men's 15km
1) Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset (Norway), 2) Eldar Rønning (Norway), 3) Sami Jauhojårvi (Finland)