World Cup cross-country racing is in the middle of a two-week hiatus while competition shifts from Europe to Asia, where the circuit will resume this weekend with distance races and sprints in Changchun, China, and then the World Championships in Sapporo, Japan, soon afterwards. The last races - men's and women's relays at Davos, Switzerland, on February 4 - were tightly contested, but only the women's race probably revealed anything about what will happen in the relays at Worlds.
The men's race was weakened by the absence of the top-level German and Russian racers, though the b-team from Russia made good. Starting his anchor leg in fifth place, more than 30 seconds off the lead, Sergej Shiriaev took off. Having turned in a phenomenal climb on the last stage of the Tour de Ski early last month, Shiriaev's speed was unquestionable, but the lead group of Italy, France, and the Czech Republic must have been surprised to see him bridge up - and all the more surprised when he had sufficient energy to win the finishing sprint, four-tenths of a second up on Italy and five-tenths up on France. (The Czech team finished 0.7 seconds out of first, and off the podium.) Ominously, Shiriaev started his leg about a second behind Petter Northug, Norway I's anchorman and the odds-on favorite to ski the last leg for Norway at the World Championships, but put a huge amount of time into Northug in cruising up to the leaders. If young-gun Petter can't keep up with Shiriaev, what'll happen when he's head-to-head with Legkov or Dementiev in a presumed sprint at Worlds?
On the women's side, the Swedish team dominated the event. Sweden has had a bad season so far, and the men's team is currently mired in strife between the athletes and coach over training, but the four women on the relay squad took no prisoners, leading the race at every exchange by the second. Charlotte Kalla, skiing the third leg, closed an eleven-second gap to Finland and then put more than thirty seconds into the Finns, knocking them out of the lead group and into an eventual third place. Kalla's leg was the fastest of the day by nearly ten seconds. Britta Norgren then outraced Norway's Marit Bjørgen over the five-kilometer anchor leg and took the win by a second. Italy finished in fourth, with emerging star Arianna Follis turning in the fastest anchor leg of the day. If the Swedes are indeed rounding into form, they will be contenders in the women's relay at Worlds, along with the perennial powers from Norway and the Finns, who raced in Davos without their ace, Virpi Kuitunen. On the other hand, the German and Russian teams performed quite poorly, boding badly for their chances at Worlds.