November 19, 2010 (Gallivare, Sweden) – For the last few days I have been preoccupied with the start of the FIS World Cup cross-country season. Now, with literally hours to go until the opening in Gallivare, Sweden of this year’s World Cup you can feel the excitement building and the sport’s top male xc skier won’t be on the start line – read on.

Gallivare is in Swedish Lapland, about 100 bone-chilling kilometers, north of the Arctic Circle. It’s a relatively small community, a blend of the modern, while embracing it’s rich Sami culture. It’s also a mining town. Gallivare is the Klondike of Sweden and conjures up images of Horace Greeley advising East coasters to “go West young man” and seek their fortunes of gold and silver out of the rugged hills of Nevada and California . This weekend will feature mining stories of a different kind of precious “medal”.

On both the men’s and women’s side of things the town should be great hosts for their national team and I look to Charlotte Kalla and Marcus Hellner to be serious contenders to win. Hellner took the top spot in last week’s 15km race in Bruksvallarna and recently they named the stadium in his honor.

Other Swedes with speed include sprinter Emil Joensson and Johan Olsson for the gents, while the women’s side will feature Anna Haag, fresh from her pair of Olympic silver medals at the Vancouver Games.

Norway is always a factor, but star stud, Petter Northug, will not race in Gallivare as the decision was announced late in the day on Thursday. Northug had a sluggish start in Beitostolen due to sickness and left early. According to the latest report on FIS XC, “Petter is heavy in the legs. He has not completely recovered and when we do not want to take any chances. There is still long way to the World Champs. Therefore, we don’t want to risk anything at beginning of the season in Gällivare,” said national team coach Morten Aa Djupvik.

Their marvelous ski queen Marit “B” was also sidelined recently with a cold but rebounded quickly to win the 10km freestyle race at the FIS opener in Beitostolen and will likely start, but the weather has been chilly in Gallivare over the last few days. Therese Johaug, an Olympic gold medalist, is beaming with confidence, I’m told.

Norwegian biathlon ace, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is also expected to race. Back in 2006 he dominated the season’s first race – he’s a brilliant skater.

Internationally, I’m certain Petra Majdic (SLO) and world cup winner, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) are also likely to be competing for top individual honors. Yet, the strong Finn, Aino Kaisa Saarinen, will not race because of an injury she suffered last week. It’s interesting to note that neither Majdic or Kowalczyk raced in the 10km skate last weekend in Muonio, Finland which opened the door for Italy’s Arianna Follis to take the win.

The Russians could be strong, as both Sergey Shiriaev and Alexy Slepov demonstrated strong form in Muonio and Alexander Legov won the 15km skate race in Bietostolen. Watch for a potpourri of skiers like Lukas Bauer (CR), Swiss skier Dario Cologna, and the French pair-Jean Marc Gaillard and Maurice Manificat – who won his first world cup race last season in Lahti.

The US Ski Team has enjoyed a good start to the season as well. Kris Freeman claimed 1st and 2nd at the FIS 10km classic and 10km skate races in Muonio and looks race ready. Colorado’s Noah Hoffman had a strong performance as well and will be on the start line with Chris Cook and top US sprinter Andy Newell.

Kikkan Randall is fit and strong and Morgan Arritola and Liz Stephen are also ready for action. Ida Sargent, a young Vermonter and senior at Dartmouth will get her first World Cup start this weekend. What a fantastic opportunity for her, and with a relay on Sunday in Gallivare, she’s ready to be competitive.

We spoke with Matt Whitcomb, one of the USST coaches who told us the USA is sharing a hotel with the national teams of Russia, France and Slovenia… “the bandwidth has been devoured,” he said laughingly. I mentioned this was a mining town and under their hotel and the greater region there are some 700km of underground tunnels. At midnight, Whitcomb told me, “The hotel rumbles a dozen times from TNT explosions far below, like clockwork.” But it feels like home to USST wax tech, Peter Johansson, as he lives in Gallivare, driving a truck at the mine during the summer.

Justin Wadsworth’s Canadian squad is also looking perfectly legit with a strong showing by Devon Kershaw on the podium in the sprint and just off the podium in the 15km skate last weekend in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, while Alex Harvey had a 16th (sprint) and 5th (15km). Joining them in Gallivare are Ivan Babikov, George Grey and Brent McMurtry. The rest of the Canucks Stefan Kuhn, Lenny Valjas, Phil Widmer and Fred Touchette will stretch their legs in Rovaniemi at the Finnish Cup races.

Chandra Crawford, who competed at her first sprint race this season in Bruksvallarna and finished 12th, has been a bit ill this week and will also be in Rovaniemi this weekend. She’ll be joined by rising star, Dasha Gaiazova, who had a strong weekend in Sweden with a 15th place finish in the sprint and a 9th in the 10km skate.

This weekend should provide us with some better ideas of the season ahead, but remember it’s a long season with plenty of action and likely unexpected surprises to come.

The Show:
– Nov. 20 – 10km Ladies; 15km Men
– Nov.21 – Relays 4x5km; 4x10km

FIS Fantasy World Cup Contest HERE.