January 2, 2009 – First, to all ski friends at home and around the world…let’s hope for a peaceful and joyous New Year, I send my best. Brrrrrrrrrr…..it’s been cold in Nove Mesto, you can tell by looking at the skier’s breath on the tight camera shots. This is the kind of weather, coupled with a high level of stress that can put even the toughest skier over the edge with a cold or the flu. Some are starting to really feel the effects of racing day after day.

And, lo it hath come to pass here that the Tour is really gelling and we get a stronger sense of who might wear the winner’s bibs at the top of the impossible climb known as Alpe Cermais in Val di Fiemme.

Teichmann winning Stage 4 at Wednesday’s 15km race in Nove Mesto looked very strong and assertive again in his skiing. Yet at the end of yesterday (Thursday) Super Dario continued to hold to the TdS lead. It’s easy to see why people have a fascination with Dario Cologna – he seems uncomplicated and relaxed, however those qualities must bely a fierce competitiveness. Axel was five seconds faster on Stage 4 than Martin Johnsrud Sunby, and third was grabbed with inspired skiing by Nikolay Chebotko (KAZ). He’s been pretty close to the front everyday. You will also note the fine skiing of Vassili Rotchev of Russia who can always ramp it up for a win.

At the women’s 1.2km sprint under the lights in the bitting cold on Thursday (Dec. 1) the racing was again fierce. While Arianna Follis won the stage on man-made snow that proved icy in places, there was one spot – I call it crash corner – where all of the dramatics occurred. In almost every heat someone went out there big time. Justyna Kowalcyzk (Pol) fell into a small gully. She was lucky not to break any equipment.

Anyhow, Petra Majdic (Slo) was second tonight tonight with Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (Fin) in third and Italy’s Magda Geunin in fourth spot. So in the overall GC with two stages to go, Virpi K. still holds the lead, with Saarinen back by a meagre 5.6 seconds, Marit B. is at 23 and Kowalcyk is 47.3 back. This is not over by any means.

In Stage 5 for the men, Norway was 1-2 with Petter Northug demonstrating his sprinting talent followed by Tor Arne Hetland (Nor). Cristian Zorzi (Ita) took third while Norway’s John Kristian Dahl was fourth. Fifth went to overall Tour leader Dario Cologna, who is still skiing with great style..

In the men’s Overall classification Super Dario leads with a total time of 1:26:02.04 with the chasers nearby with Rotchev in second just 23 seconds behind Darion. Eldar R. is 32.5 off the leader, Northug is just 48.5 back with two days to go. For the Canadians, kudos to Devon for holding down 7th place overall, just 1:26 back, Ivan Babikov moves up to 31st and George Grey is in 40th at 4:18 behind.

Tommorrow (Friday) is a travel day to the Trentino region of Northern Italy for a much needed day off at Val di Fiemme, home of the famed Marcialonga World Loppet race, which I skied years ago when Tom Kelly (USSA) and I owned Worldwide Nordic, a ski racing travel company. We never made a hell of a lot of money but we did see the world.

And at the top of the TdS course awaits the final gut-busting climb up the alpine slopes to the famed Alpe Cermais. I notice in Vegard’s (Ulvang) blog he picked Super Dario to win the Tour – he can’t be wrong, can he ?

Again, Happy New Year dear friends ! Onward.

PG