January 4, 2010 – Before Xmas the theme of the World Cup was change and uncertainty. There were lots of new faces popping up at the top of the results list for both the men and women and some of the strongest skiers from the past were absent.

By the last WCup race in Rogla, Slovenia before the Xmas break however, we were beginning to see some familiar faces at the top of the results list again. This trend is now continuing after the first three stages at the Tour de Ski.

For the women, Justina Kowalczyk (POL), Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN), Petra Majdic (SLO), Kristin Stormer Steira (NOR) and Arianna Follis (ITA) are the top five women overall after three races. These are all familiar names and top performers in the past. Finland’s Virpi Kuitunen has started to come back and is now in 6th place. A good rest for her over the holidays seems to have worked wonders. She’s been on the top step of the podium at the Tour and looks much better than in December. Latest reports are that Kuitunen has elected to head home to train for the Otepaa, Estonia WCup – read more here.

Marit Bjoergen is not racing the Tour de Ski, opting to stay at home and train and race in Norway. I think that this is a good idea for her considering her problems with illness in the past. All that she is missing from her resume is an Olympic Gold medal so I am sure that she is focusing on being healthy and ready for Vancouver.

Fellow Norwegian Petter Northug continues to dominate the men’s races winning the first two stages – the pursuit in a dramatic sprint finish – and placing 2nd in the stage 3 sprint race. He continues to amaze me with his ability to come from behind and win a final sprint. He has a 9-second lead in the overall standings over Germany’s Axel Teichmann who’s yet to win a TdS stage. But he’s been very consistent and can ski distance and sprints well in both techniques.

Sweden’s Emil Joensson sits in 3rd overall is over his pulled muscle showing that he’s not just a good sprinter. He’s having his best ever classic results and did pretty well in the distance race too. Another well rounded skier is Elder Roenning (NOR) who won the sprint race and can ski distance races as well. His sprint race win should get him a spot on the Norwegian Olympic team. With so many talented skiers, Norway’s sprint team may be the hardest squad to make for Vancouver 2010 – they have at least 10 men who could be on the podium at the Games.

What’s wrong with communications on the Finnish men’s team? How can the coaches not know how many laps the skiers have to ski in a race? Matti Heikkinen was told by his coaches that the 2nd race of the Tour was four laps when it was really 5. He took off from the pack in the 3rd lap and got a 50 meter lead only to be reeled in later. He did manage to hang on and finish 3rd but he could have won this race. This kind of miscue happens in local club races NOT on the World Cup.

I do not agree with the relegation of Russia’s Ivan Alypov in the final of the 3rd race – the men’s 1.6km sprint. Joensson slipped going around the last 180 degree turn into the finish – what a stupid place for a 180 degree turn – and lost all of his speed. Alypov was trying to come by him on the inside and they ended up bumping and Joensson went down. Take a look at this video by www.skierpost.com yourself here and see what you think. There was no place for Alypov to go when Joensson lost all of his speed.

Tour de Ski Stage 3 – Men’s Sprint Final by Skierpost.com


The Canadian men have started the TdS much better than before Xmas. The distance race saw Devon Kershaw ski through the field to finish 10th. Ivan Babikov also went from 50th to 23rd. Both George Grey and Alex Harvey finished in the top 20 in the prologue and it looks like this team is starting to move forward. Sara Renner continues to finish between 20th and 30th at in the first three races, a continuation of her results before Xmas.

The USA’s Andy Newell was a commendable 8th in the sprint race and although he sits 41st overall he has shown that he can perform in the distance races as well as the sprints.

The Tour de Ski continues with a skating sprint in Prague on Monday, before the skiers travel to Italy for the final races ending with the hill climb in Val di Fiemme on January 10th. Canada’s Babikov had the fastest time last year on this hill – he loves the hard races, I wonder if he can repeat?