The first events in the Tour de Ski, the first peak of the World Cup cross-country skiing season, are now over, and some unexpected skiers were on the podium after the freestyle sprints in Munich. Marit Bjorgen managed her racing perfectly, using just enough power to advance through the heats and then blowing the field away in the women's final. Having the "ski queen" in first was no surprise, but Arianna Follis (Italy) and Chandra Crawford (Canada) finished second and third, beating out a dozen or more talented sprinters for the all-important podium spots. (The Olympic sprint champion from Torino, Crawford blogged her race on her personal website.) The men's heats were full of crashes, creating a final bereft of the biggest names. Swiss racer Christoph Eigenmann won a close race, edging Devon Kershaw (Canada) and Roddy Darragon (France; silver medalist in the Torino sprint).
The top finishers in the sprints receive the best starting positions for Tuesday's pursuits in Obersdorf, Germany. Though these events are being run over shorter-than-usual distances (10km rather than 15km for the women, 20km rather than 30km for the men), the need to shift at the halfway point from classical to freestyle technique and the infamous difficulty of the Oberstdorf course makes it unlikely that any of the sprinters - except for Bjorgen - will reach the podium for the pursuit races. My picks:
Women
1. Marit Bjorgen (Norway)
2. Virpi Kuitunen (Finland)
3. Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle (Germany)
Men
1. Tobias Angerer (Germany)
2. Petter Northug (Norway)
3. Axel Teichmann (Germany)