March 24, 2013 (Falun, Sweden) – The final race of the 2012/13 FIS XC World Cup season ended as expected with Norway’s Petter Northug Jr. claiming the Falun Mini Tour crown and the overall World Cup Series title.

Final Falun mini-tour podium (l-r) Krogh 2nd, Northug 1st, Sundby 3rd. © Nordic Focus

The most exciting race of the day saw Alexander Legkov (RUS) battle Dario Cologna (SUI) to the line for second over in the World Cup series – and 21,250 vs 12,750 Swiss Francs. Legkov also took home the overall Distance title. It was another Norwegian final podium in the Mini Tour as Finn Haagen Krogh bested teammate Martin Johnrud Sundby for the silver. Alex Harvey was the top Canuck in 25th while Noah Hoffman finished his day as the top American in 27th.

Legkov bests Cologna at the line for second overall

In the overall World Cup standings Canada’s Ivan Babikov, who had a great start to the season, ended up as the top North American in 20th. Babikov had been as high as 15th overall but dropped to 20th as the second half of his season post-Tour de Ski was not as strong as his first half – still a big turnaround over last year’s 52nd placing.

Len Valjas, who had a solid season, improved on his 28th last year ending up 23rd while veteran Devon Kershaw (31st in the Mini Tour), who had a stunning season last year making history as he placed second overall in the World Cup standings to winner Cologna, finished 27th this year with no podiums yet is still sitting in the Red Group.

Top NA skier - Ivan Babikov (CAN) © Nordic Focus file photo

Ironically, Harvey, ended up outside of the top 30 in 35th yet he podiumed at the Tour de Ski and won historic Sprint bronze in Val di Fiemme bringing home Canada’s first individual men’s World Championship medal.

The top American overall was Andy Newell in 29th – now in the Red Group – and he was also 5th overall in the Sprint Cup putting a smile on Newell’s face as he told Trax, “Yes, I’m happy with my season and really happy to have snuck into the World Cup top 30 in 29th. I’m just looking forward to getting a bib with my name on it next year 🙂 .”

“I think I was able to prove myself as one of the top sprinters in the world again this year so I am happy with that and motivated to go into the Olympic season next year. I was the only guy in the world to score points in every sprint race this season, but also the only guy in the top 5 World Cup standings without a podium. So for me that is frustrating. I know I had the fitness and speed to get onto the podium a few times this season but I just never made it happen.”

Canada's Kershaw (l) and Newell... © Nordic Focus

“Looking to next year I need to continue to do a lot of the same things racing, but also find a way to get that extra edge and make it on the podium more often. But all in all I’m very happy with the way the whole season has gone both in sprinting but also at improving at some of the longer races. There’s no way I could have made it into the top-30 overall world cup standings without scoring some distance points so I was glad to have made it into the distance points three times and shown my ability to race relays and mass start classic races. Skating distance is still my weakness but I made a lot of big gains in classic mass start racing this year and relay skiing.

“To have been part of the US team this season was super exciting because of all the team-wide success. We now have one of the biggest teams on the world cup and we for sure have more fun than anyone out there. This season was long but at the same time it went by fast because of having such a great crew, especially kick-ass girls team, on the road with us all winter. The US Ski team has a lot of momentum right now and we are stoked to charge into the Olympic year.”

Hoffman also made great strides placing 48th overall up from 128th last year – a huge increase. “It’s been a good season. I am happy to achieve my goal of qualifying for World Cup Finals and achieving a top-15 result at the World Championships. I am looking forward to a great summer of training and making another step forward next season,” said the Hoff.

Also racing this weekend was the USA’s veteran racer, Torin Koos who finished 35th in the Mini Tour, and Canada’s Michael Somppi who ended up 47th.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Last year the Canadians walked away with 14 podiums but this year expectations were not realized and while there were some  podiums and other successes like Harvey’s historic Worlds bronze, Head Coach Justin Wadsworth summed it up this way.

“You do have to look at the positives and we had some successes with some podiums and a medal at World Championships [Harvey] along with a couple of fourth-place finishes there. The Worlds was a focus for us and given how bad things had been going these results were relatively good.

“The rest of the season had ups and downs with a lot of down periods. We went in with high hopes and we learned some things, and analyzed the season, and won’t make the same kind of mistakes again. The first 5-week period was a lot and we need to pick and choose better.

“Coming off last season everyone was pretty pumped and we came in full guns blazing and tried to do our best but it was too much and we got burned by it. I know this team is more like what we saw last year, than this year, and we’ll be back where we belong,” concluded Wadsworth.

Petter Northug (NOR) © Nordic Focus

The Canadian team is headed back to Canada for the tail end of the National Championships now underway in Whistler, BC, while the US XC Ski Distance Championships run April 4-11 in Tahoe, CA. As the dust settles on another season it won’t be long before the training begins as the focus on the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia in 2014 will add another level of pressure and glory to the playing field.

Men’s 15km FR results HERE.
Mini Tour results HERE.
World Cup Distance Overall HERE.
World Cup Overall HERE.
BMW Overall HERE.
Prize Money HERE.