September 30, 2007 – The summer of 2007 with lots of sports highlights is over, and the winter season is approaching rapidly. The countdown for the second edition of the FIS Tour de Ski is running – as of today, there are fewer than 100 days until the first competition in Nove Mesto na Morave, the Czech Republic.

Today, with this 8th Tour de Ski Newsletter we deliver news and facts around both the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear and the upcoming Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country season.

About Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear
Less than 100 days remain until the start of the FIS Tour de Ski 2007/2008 on December 28th, 2007. In the beginning of September, a team of Tour Board members led by FIS Race Director Cross-Country Jürg Capol visited all the future Tour sites (Nove Mesto, Prague, Oberstdorf, Asiago and Val di Fiemme) to discuss the status of preparations with the local organizing committees and to iron out the logistical details.

“Especially the visit in Prague was important since Prague will be organizing the first-ever World Cup event there. The sprint will take place in the famous old-town area in front of the Prague castle which celebrated its 650th anniversary this year. That is a pretty nice background for a City Sprint and the organizing committee, led by the former top skier Katerina Neumannova, is ready,” says Jürg Capol, FIS Race Director Cross-Country. “But also the visit in Val di Fiemme was a big step forward. Together with the different stakeholders, including representatives of TV, the OC and the rights holder Infront Italy, we optimized the arrangements for the last Stage and especially for the Final Climb to Alpe Cermis.

Besides the logistical details, a big area of focuse on the site visit agenda were several promotional items such as the Tour Village, a Tour Fan Group Special and the look and feel of a Tour Stage. Moreover, the courses were finalized, along with the starting times for each Tour Stage, where the goal was to make the starting times easy to understand for the public-at-large (click herefor a detailed schedule with preliminary starting times).

Tour Sponsors
The first edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear was supported by the Germany-based heating company Viessmann as Title Sponsor and the Swedish sports-clothing firm Craft as Presenting Sponsor.

Both sponsors were pleased with their engagement and are looking forward to continuing the partnership during the second edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear.

Tour Blog by Vegard
We are pleased introduce a new series on the Tour web site www.tour-de-ski.com: the Tour Blog by Vegard. During the next few months, and of course during the Tour itself, Vegard Ulvang – the Cross-Country legend from Norway and one of the ‘Tour’s fathers’ – will provide you with an insider perspective on the Tour. Join Vegard now, before and during the Tour!

100 days to the second edition of the Tour

by Vegard Ulvang

What was totally new for the athletes, organizers, journalists, spectators and members of the FIS Committees last year is about to become a tradition this winter. We feel it already; everyone involved knows what will happen. The athletes will have special preparation for the extreme all-round competition about to take place over 10 days. The organizers are refining details unveiled during last year’s premiere and we already can read stories about the upcoming winter’s main event in the media. Without a Championship this season, the Tour will be the event for the athletes. Click here to read the whole blog.

Tour CI Manual now available
Following the introduction of the FIS CI and Design Manual at the beginning of September, we are proud to present the CI and Design Manual for the FIS Tour de Ski.

Together with caricaturist Thomas Zipfel from Kirchzarten (GER), FIS has developed a distinctive look and feel for the FIS Tour de Ski. All the key visual elements for the Tour, such as poster, flyers and the website share a common appearance as defined in our CI and Design Manual. The Manual is now available for download on the Tour web site; to get your copy, please click here..

Five questions for Cristian Zorzi – the home favorite from Val di Fiemme

35-year-old Cristian Zorzi from Moena (ITA), the reigning Team Sprint World Champion, informed us about his status for the upcoming Cross-Country World Cup season and the Tour de Ski in his home region Val di Fiemme.

Newspower: The winter season is rapidly approaching. How does Cristian Zorzi train? What are his conditions?

Cristian Zorzi: “I’ve just come back from Ramsau, where we found 1.5 meters of fresh snow. Great! I am training well, I must say, although I sometimes have muscular problems, due to heavy working loads. Maybe we have pushed it a little too much, exceeded the limits, but the recovery has been immediate and there are no problems”.

Newspower: This year there are neither the Olympic Winter Games nor the World Championships, and the attention is focused on the World Cup and, inevitably, on the Tour de Ski.

Cristian Zorzi: “In a sense, this will be a quiet season, without the typical psycho-physical burden of the most important event of the year, like the Olympic Games or the World Championships. Everything will be easier, without pressure if a race goes bad. The attention shall inevitably be focused on the Tour de Ski, a sort of really exciting stage race”.

Newspower: What are your expectations for the Tour?

Cristian Zorzi: “Last year, we did pretty well although rhw races favored specialists in the classical technique. We had problems only in the 30 km classical race in Val di Fiemme where we made a mistake with waxes; otherwise things would have gone better for us. For this reason, we have greater hopes than last year, even if in my opinion the favorites for the victory are still the Germans, who are competitive in both styles and fast. I will personally try to win one of the Stages and we will try to do our best as a team, in order to obtain a good result in the special team ranking introduced this year.

Newspower: What about the “Final Climb”?

Cristian Zorzi: “It’s tough, it’s scaring. If you don’t try it you cannot understand. Moreover, it comes when skiers have already raced several kilometers. From the emotional point of view it’s simply incomparable: I still remember the crowd along the track last year, it really seemed to be at the arrival of one of the stages of “Giro d’Italia”.

Newspower: The final stage will be shorter than last year (15 km for the men). Will it make any difference?

Cristian Zorzi: “I don’t think so. The problem is not the length, but the ascent, which is spectacular for the public, but maybe too demanding for a cross-country skier”.

Contributed by Newspower

Tour from A-Z

The Final Climb to Alpe Cermis, a famous Alpine Skiing resort in Val di Fiemme, is the venue for the ascent to the summit of ‘Cross-Country’, the finish line of the Tour de Ski. The finish is situated at the middle station of the Alpe Cermis gondola. This year, the Final Climb – with a length of about 3.7 km including some zigzags, the steepest inclication of 28%, average inclination of 12-14 % and altitude gain of 425m – will again set the stage for the last few kilometers of the Tour. The athlete, who finishes there first, is the winner of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear and certainly one of the most complete skiers around.

The Final climb fascinated the spectators on-site and in front of TV. The fastest athlete, Alexander Legkov (RUS), needed 17:30 min for the last 3.7 km to climb up while Kirstin Steira (NOR) currently holds the best time for the ladies with 21:07 min for the last 3.7 km.

During the summer, several individual searched little Tour challenge and feeling and walked up to the middle station with the clock running – 32min is the time to beat currently – so why not come and find out what the Final Climb is all about and try to break the record in these beautiful surroundings!

Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country presented by Rauch

FIS Autumn Meetings

The FIS Autumn Meetings for all FIS disciplines will be take place at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Zurich at the end of September. The FIS Cross-Country section will hold several meetings to discuss and develop the sport of Cross-Country. On Friday, the FIS World Cup TD’s for the upcoming season will have their regular rules update, including discussion to define standard processes and other details around the World Cup.

The annual FIS World Cup Organizers’ Seminar, where also the World Cup TD’s will participate, will take place on Saturday with the focus on ‘Cooperation’ in the different aspects of the World Cup and on enabling the exchange of experiences and reach agreement on the next steps to develop the FIS World Cup.

The Sub-Committee Cross-Country for Lowlanders and Citizen Racers, the Sub-Committee Cross-Country for Youth and Children’s Questions, and the Sub-Committee for World and Continental Cups as well as the Cross-Country Executive Board will meet in Zurich. For the both last mentioned bodies, the Cross-Country World Cup calendar for the season 2008/2009 will be one of the most important subjects, as it will be submitted to the FIS Council for approval after the meeting.

Besides the WC calendar 2008/09, the Committee meetings, World Cup TD seminar and World Cup Organizers’ Seminar will all be ‘fine-tuning’ before the season starts. We will also seek ways for closer and more successful cooperation between the World Cup Organizers to improve the quality and save costs,” says Jürg Capol, FIS Race Director Cross-Country.

Information about the decisions of the Executive Board will be published in the next Newsletter on October 1st.

Preview: Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country 2007/2008

The FIS Council approved the calendar for the 26th FIS World Cup Cross-Country season already during the FIS Calendar Conference in Portoroz (SLO) in May. In the coming season, where no Olympic Games and World Championships will take place, the World Cup will include a total of 27 World Cup races per gender (both the Tour de Ski and the FIS World Cup Final count as one competition) on two different continents (Europe and North America).

For the sixth time, the season kick-off will be on the River Rhine in the German metropolis Duesseldorf (GER, 27th/28th October). After the regular every-two-years stop in Beitostoelen (NOR, 24th/25th November), the Cross-Country World Cup athletes will move to the Nordic Opening, which will take place for the sixth time at Ruka in Kuusamo (FIN, 1st/2nd December). That is one of only three times that all the Nordic disciplines hold World Cup competitions simultaneously at the same venue, the others being Lahti (FIN) and Oslo (NOR).

In December, the calendar features competitions at Davos (SUI) and, for the second time after the successful premiere last season, Rybinsk (RUS).

After the Tour de Ski, the World Cup returns to Canada with competitions in Canmore, the Olympic Venue of 1988. In February, the traditional site of Otepää (EST) is on the schedule as well as the Pre-World Championships in Liberec (CZE). The Liberec races will represent the first time that the new courses in ‘Vesec’ – situated south-west of Liberec – will be used in the World Cup.

The last third of the season includes the traditional Word Cup venues in the North, such as Falun, Stockholm, Lahti, Drammen and Oslo. The Northern Tour will be one of the highlights for the National Ski Associations of Sweden, Finland and Norway all of which celebrate their 100th anniversary in 2008. The season 2007/2008 will conclude in Bormio (ITA), where beside Cross-Country also Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboard will have their FIS World Cup finals. The races will be held in Santa Caterina, where a World Cup last took place in 2000. As an additional season highlight, the finals will be staged as a World Cup Final, or a mini competition series. To download the World Cup schedule, click here; for the preliminary starting time list click here.

Martin Koukal returns to the Cross-Country World Cup

The 2003 World Champion from Val di Fiemme (ITA), Martin Koukal (CZE) had problems with his shoulder all spring and had surgery on June 1st. The top athlete injured his shoulder in a crash in the pursuit race at the World Championships in Sapporo. His shoulder including the ligaments in the biceps were repaired surgically after the World Cup season 2006/2007 and the shoulder fixed with small titanium plates.

Unfortunately, these health problems will not allow Koukal to compete in the World Cup from the start of the season, so he will only return to the World Cup with the start of the Tour de Ski in Nove Mesto. “I am looking forward to my first races in the new season at the Tour de Ski. It will be an ideal start for me. I hope that everything will be good. I’m only a little worried about the strength in my arm, but my physical condition will be good,” said Martin Koukal.

Contributed by Jiri Posvar

Important dates
– 26th- 30th Sept. 2007 FIS Autumn Meetings in Zurich
– 1st October 2007 9th edition of the FIS Cross-Country News
– 17th October, 2007 FIS Day at the Forum Nordicum in Oestersund (SWE)
– 27th/28th October 2007 World Cup kick-off in Duesseldorf (GER)