Tour de Ski

The first chunk of the World Cup cross-country ski season is over, and the second, most exciting chunk - the "Tour de Ski" series of eight races in ten days - begins on Friday in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. 


Though no Americans (and only two Canadians) are trying the grueling TdS this year, the U.S. team can feel a halfway decent sense of accomplishment at its results so far. By far foremost, Kikkan Randall won the women's sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, just before Christmas, putting her squarely in the world's elite and ninth in the world sprint rankings. Randall's sprint teammate Andy Newell hasn't made the podium yet, but he has placed well in several races (including a seventh in the freestyle-technique sprint at Rybinsk and a fourth in the classic-technique sprint at Kuusamo), and sprinter Torin Koos is also on the verge of a repeating or bettering his podium result from last season. Among the distance skiers, only Kris Freeman - arguably the best American nordic skier, though Randall's first place might have changed that - has turned in a good result so far this season: a fifth place finish in the 15km classic race at Kuusamo, Finland. (Bad wax and trouble with blood-sugar management in the following two races pushed Freeman, a diabetic, further down the standings in the next two races.) 


The Americans are now back in the states, preparing for the national championships (in my old more-or-less hometown, Houghton, Michigan) over the new year's weekend and a set of races in January at Canmore, Alberta, the site of the nordic events during the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Both the Americans and the Canadians hope for success at Canmore, with the Europeans "over here" and thus dealing with jet lag, unfamiliar surroundings, different food, and all the other circumstances of long-distance travel.


The Canmore races will be the next regular events after the Tour de Ski, which is for most of the European racers the season's main event. Contested for the first time last season, the TdS is both a mini-world championships and a quasi-stage race akin to a big bike race. Mixing short sprint events (including one in the old district of Prague) with distance races and a "final climb" up the best (i.e., steepest) part of an alpine ski hill, the Tour de Ski is a major test of all-round skiing abilities. The lowest total time wins, and the final stage features a staggered start so that the first man and woman to the top of the mountain wins the tour.


This year, both the men's and women's fields are remarkably open. Tobias Angerer of Germany won the inaugural men's TdS last year, but is a bit off form so far this season. His teammate Axel Teichmann, on the other hand, has won two races this year and is well-rounded enough to compete for the win. Czech Lukas Bauer, Russian Alexander Legkov, and Norwegians Eldar Roenning and Tor Arne Hetland are also likely candidates for top spots. Among the women, last year's TdS champion Virpi Kuitunen of Finland is showing good form, but so are the Norwegians Marit Bjorgen and Astrid Jacobsen. At any rate, the competition should be tighter and more unpredictable than last year, when Angerer and Kuitunen came in on a high, won the TdS titles, and consequently won the World Cup overall titles.

Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.