Tag: La Sgambeda

Saturday Rundown: Lillehammer, Östersund & West Yellowstone (Updated x 4)

Jessie Diggins (U.S. Ski Team) won the second individual World Cup of her career on Saturday in the women’s 5 k freestyle in Lillehammer, Norway, beating four Norwegians by 4.8 seconds or more. (Photo: USSA Nordic/Twitter)

Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers.

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U.S. SuperTour opener in West Yellowstone: Freestyle sprints

[UPDATE] The U.S. domestic season opened in West Yellowstone, Mont., with 1.3-kilometer freestyles on Saturday, and Matt Gelso and Jennie Bender emerged as the day’s winners.

Gelso, of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team, won the men’s final, and two Alaska Pacific University (APU) skiers, Tyler Kornfield and Reese Hanneman, joined him on the podium in second and third, respectively.

In the women’s final, Bender, of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF), held off Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 teammates Erika Flowers and Anne Hart, who placed second and third, respectively.

Results: Qualifier | Women’s Final | Men’s Final

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IBU World Cup in Östersund: 7.5/10 k sprints

[UPDATE] Americans Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee led their teams in 13th and 27th, respectively, and five North American men and four women finished in the top 60 of Saturday’s sprint to qualify for Sunday’s pursuits in Östersund, Sweden. Oh, and France’s Martin Fourcade won his third-straight race (in as many races this season) and his second individual race for his 51st career victory. France made it a double with Marie Dorin Habert winning the women’s sprint.

Men’s report | Women’s report

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FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Lillehammer: 5/10 k classic

Women’s report | Men’s report

There aren’t many 5-kilometer skate races on the World Cup schedule. But when they do come around, Jessie Diggins makes sure to capitalize.

The 25-year-old U.S. Ski Team member and Minnesota native rocketed to the second victory of her World Cup career on Saturday, winning the women’s 5 k freestyle in Lillehammer, Norway, in 12:40.3 minutes and by nearly 5 seconds ahead of anyone else.

After winning her first individual World Cup last season in a 5 k freestyle in Toblach, Italy (then reaching the podium three more times in individual races through March 2016), Diggins achieved her first podium of the season in the fourth race of 2016/2017.

She started 34th of 76 finishers, with top-dog Norwegians like Heidi Weng (who won Friday’s classic sprint) and Marit Bjørgen behind her. Diggins trailed slightly at the first 0.8 k checkpoint, but she drew the race’s attention at 2.2 k, where she overtook Norwegian Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen’s time by 2.1 seconds. At the finish, Diggins bumped Jacobsen out of the leader’s chair by 16.4 seconds, and the American would sit in that seat for the rest of the day.

Except she didn’t sit much. Diggins chatted with teammates and team staff, smiled and waved at cameras, and bustled about the finishing area. After her closest challenging, Weng in bib 60, finished 4.8 seconds off her time in second place, Diggins knew she had done it. Bjørgen had already finished and was third (+15.8), Jacobsen fourth (+16.4), and yet another Norwegian, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg fifth (+17.2).

She hugged Weng and told her she had a great race at the finish.

“Before I started, I knew it!” Weng said to her of Diggins’s win.

Diggins smiled, and later stood on the podium between Weng and Bjørgen.

“I’m so happy with my day today. I’m so lucky to have the most amazing team,” Diggins said in a televised interview with FIS. “When you get to train with such cool people, that belief, that confidence, it opens up opportunities. And I had such a great opportunity.

“My coaches and staff work so hard. so when they gave me this opportunity I really had to take it,” she continued. “… It means a lot that when everything goes right you can ski with the best in the world. Hopefully this will mean a lot back home because I’m not special or different in any way. If I can do it, all the little kids back home, they can do it, too!”

While Norway occupied four of the top five, the team had six in the top 10, with Ragnhild Haga in eighth (+31.2) and Kari Øyre Slind in ninth (+32.0). Finland’s Krista Parmakoski placed sixth (+26.9) and Laura Mononen was 10th (+36.1), and Russia’s Yulia Tchekaleva placed seventh (+27.7).

The second U.S. woman in the top 15, Sadie Bjornsen broke through her pattern of 17th in the last three races and place 14th (+41.8). Liz Stephen (USST) scored points in 26th (+51.2) in her first “distance” race of the season.

Caitlin Patterson placed 38th for the U.S., Rosie Brennan (USST) was 48th, and Sophie Caldwell (USST) 59th, and Ida Sargent (USST) 67th.

Canada’s Cendrine Browne (NST U25 Team) 50th, Emily Nishikawa (World Cup B-team) 52nd, and Dahria Beatty (NST U25 Team) 62nd.

Diggins is now third in the mini-tour standings through two days of racing (21.6 seconds behind Weng in first and 0.9 seconds behind Østberg in second), with just Sunday’s 10 k classic pursuit to go, and Bjornsen improved to 12th.

Calle Halfvarsson (c) gets the win for the second day in a row, while teammate Marcus Hellner (l) is pleased to be on the podium for the first time this year. Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov third in the 10 k skate in Lillehammer. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)

In the men’s 10 k classic to start the day, Calle Halfvarsson of Sweden made it two in a row, winning the first distance race of the mini tour by 0.8 seconds over teammate Marcus Hellner. The competition is the second day of the World Cup mini-tour, which will conclude on Sunday with a classic pursuit. Halfvarsson also won the classic sprint on the first day of racing. For Hellner, it’s a strong result for the former World Champion after two straight seasons where he only stood on the podium once a apiece.

Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov slotted into third with a hard closing kilometer, moving from fifth place and nearly nine seconds back at 8.3 k to the podium and only 6.7 seconds behind Halfvarsson at the finish.

That left Norway off the podium, but the home team swept the next three places with Finn Hagen Krogh (+7.4), Simen Hegsted Kruger (+13.2), and Martin Johnsrud Sundby (+13.5).

Alex Harvey was the top Canadian in 10th place (+23.5). Devon Kershaw and Lenny Valjas finished 40th (+1:16.7) and 42nd (+1:19.1), respectively, with Graeme Killick 64th (+1:46.6) and Knute Johnsgaard 73rd (+2:22.0). Bob Thompson and Andy Shields rounded out the Canadian roster in 88th and 89th.

Noah Hoffman led the way for the U.S. men, just outside the points in 33rd (+1:08.6). Erik Bjornsen was 45th (+1:22.2), followed by Simi Hamilton 69th (+1:55.8) and Eric Packer 78th (+2:28.7).

Results: Women’s 5 k classic | Women’s mini-tour standings | Men’s 10 k classic |Men’s mini-tour standings

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Visma Ski Classics: La Sgambeda 30 k Classic in Livigno

Tord Asle Gjerdalen (Team Santander) crosses the finish line first in Sgambeda in Livigno, Italy, on Dec. 3, 2016. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)

The Visma Ski Classics series began last weekend in Pontresina, Switzerland, with 8 k time trials. Racing continued this weekend just down the road in Livigno, Italy, where racers competed in the second race in the series, La Sgambeda. Skiers encountered superb conditions and firm tracks following cold temperatures the night before.

In the women’s race, a mass start over five laps of a 6 k course, Britta Johansson Norgren of Team Lager 157 took the narrow victory over Katerina Smutná of Team Santander, reversing their finishing positions from Pontresina a week before. Norgren finished 1.3 seconds ahead of Smutná after the two of them broke away from the main pack on the course’s final hill. Sara Lindborg of Team Serneke secured third, 17.4 back of Norgren.

The men raced on the same five-lap, 30 k course as the women. The men’s race also came down to a breakaway on the final climb. Tord Asle Gjerdalen of Team Santander took the narrow victory, rebounding from his sixth-place finish in the Pontresina prologue. Ilya Chernousov of Team Pioneer Investments was 1.3 seconds back. Team Leaseplan’s Petter Eliassen was third (+2.7) after leading most of the race.

Norgren and Gjerdalen are now leading the individual standings, with Gjerdalen’s Team Santander the top team, as the Ski Classics series approaches a month-long holiday break. Racing resumes in early 2017.

Results

December 3, 2016
Ski Classics Opens with Doubleheader in Italy
Last year’s Team Tempo Prologue in Livigno, Italy, which Team Coop (in bib 1) won. This year, the team prologue will again open the Ski Classics series in Livigno on Saturday, followed by the shortened La Sgambeda classic race on Sunday. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)

The 2016 Ski Classics kicks off with a doubleheader in Italy on Saturday and Sunday, and the marathon regulars are chomping at the bit to get started with the long-distance race series.

The 15-kilometer Proteam Prologue in Livigno, Italy, on Saturday opens the show for the marathon series, now called the Visma Ski Classics (with a new title sponsor in place of Swix), which has been extended to nine venues this season.

Seraina Boner of Team Coop (now called Team Exspirit) after winning the 2014 La Sgambeda in Italy last season. (Photo: Ski Classics)

On the women’s side, last season’s Ski Classics champion Katerina Smutna of the Czech Republic will be on the start line for the first races this weekend, but she will face plenty of competition. Team Exspirit’s Seraina Boner of Switzerland is eager to take back the overall title, which she has earned three times (2011, 2013 and 2014), beginning with La Sgambeda.

Poland’s World Cup star and the queen of the FIS Tour de Ski, Justyna Kowalczyk, will be doing several of the Ski Classics long-distance events this season with the Norwegian Team Santander headed by the Aukland brothers. And Britta Johansson Norgren of Sweden, who was on the podium at several of the Ski Classics events last season, is one to keep an eye on. Last season, she raced with the all women’s team Ski Pro Am, and this year she is a part of Sweden’s Lager 157 Ski Team, with teammates such as three-time Vasaloppet champion Jörgen Brink of Sweden.

Among the men, 2015 Ski Classics overall champion Petter Eliassen of Norway makes his season debut in Italy this weekend. He will have to fend off a large and deep field of competitors such as Norway’s 43-year-old marathon veteran Anders Aukland and his Santander teammates, including younger brother Jørgen Aukland, and former World Cup skiers Tord Asle Gjerdalen of Norway and Johan Olsson of Sweden.

Norwegian stayers such as Johan Kjölstad, Øystein Pettersen, Eldar Rønning, and John Kristian Dahl of Team United Bakeries, as well as Ski Classics veterans of Team Exspirit, including Daniel Richardsson, Anders Södergren and Jimmie Johnsson of Sweden and Norway’s Morten Eide Pedersen, will certainly do their best to make it a tough season opener from Day 1.

Two unique competitions in Livigno

The Prologue, in which the teams must field at least three racers to compete, was added last year, and is a team effort where the third person’s time determines the team result. The next day, on Sunday, the skiers embark on the first distance event, the now-24-kilometer classic technique La Sgambeda.

Team Santander’s Anders Aukland (c) after winning the 2014 La Sgambeda in Livigno, Italy. Johan Kjølstad (l) and Øystein Pettersen (r) both of Team United Bakeries, placed second and third, respectively. (Photo: Ski Classics)

Team Exspirit (previously known as Team Coop) won the prologue last year and is aiming to defend the title this year.

“We have had great preparations here in Livigno, skiing on the race course and acclimatizing to the high altitude,” team member Jimmie Johnsson said in a press release on Friday. “Of course, we’re aiming to defend our victory and we’re faster this season than ever before.”

Team Exspirit’s Seraina Boner won La Sgambeda last year after breaking away from the field on the hard climb at the turning point of the course. This year, the course is shortened to from 35 k to 24 k due to lack of snow and is also flatter. While Boner prefers more elevation gain, she was still optimistic before the race.

“The tougher course fits me better than the flatter one we have now,” she said. “But I will do my best, and I am really excited to finally start the long distance season together with my teammates.”

While the Team Prologue is only open to professional teams registered with the 2016 Ski Classics, La Sgambeda on Sunday is open to amateurs and pros alike.

Saturday’s Prologue will be held on the original course, but due to lack of snow in Livigno, the classic marathon on Sunday will be run on 6 k loops.

“Last season, seven of the nine Ski Classics events had to change their courses due to weather issues,” Ski Classics CEO David Nilsson in a press release earlier this week. “We can just cross our fingers that the political leaders at the environmental summit in Paris this week are able to make the right decision.”

For the 2016 season, there are 28 pro teams registered for the Ski Classics series.

After the season opener in Italy, the Ski Classics takes a break until the Jizerská Padesatka in Liberec, Czech Republic, on January 10, 2016. The race series concludes April 2 with Årefjällsloppet in Sweden as the season finale, as it has been for years. New this year is the Toblach/Dobbiaco Cortina, a 50 k classic race in Italy on Feb. 13.

Vasaloppet matters most

For Madshus racer John Kristian Dahl of Norway, who won the Vasaloppet two years ago, the 90 k race from Sälen to Mora in Sweden is the main goal for the 2016 season.

“It’s the longest and one of the oldest races in the circuit, and very special with the flats. That package makes it very unique, and difficult to win, too. In our world, it’s the championships in marathon skiing, and I’m happy that we have it every year,” Dahl said in an interview with Ski Classics earlier this fall.

Live streaming in English

In order for fans to follow the action live, Visma Ski Classics has launched the Live Streaming “Season Pass” available with English commentary on the app or the Tour Live Center at Visma skiclassics.com.

2016 Ski Classics Schedule
1. Dec. 5, 2015: Proteam Tempo Prologue, 15 k classic, Italy
2. Dec. 6, 2015: La Sgambeda, 24 k classic, Italy
3. Jan. 10, 2016: Jizerská Padesatka, 50 k classic, Czech Republic
4. Jan. 23, 2016: La Diagonela, 65 k classic, Switzerland
5. Jan. 31, 2016: Marcialonga, 70 k classic, Italy
6. Feb. 7, 2016: König Ludwig Lauf, 50 k classic, Germany
7. Feb. 13, 2016: Toblach/Dobbiaco Cortina, 50 k classic, Italy
8. March 6, 2016: Vasaloppet, 90 k classic, Sweden
9. March 19, 2016: Birkebeinerrennet, 54 k classic, Norway
10. April 2, 2016: Årefjällsloppet, 65 k classic, Sweden
For race recaps, follow FasterSkier’s marathon blog.
December 4, 2015
Wild Card on the FIS Marathon Cup, Brooks 2nd in La Sgambeda

The La Sgambeda women’s podium on Friday in Livigno, Italy: with Finnish winner Riitta-Liisa Roponen (c), who notched her third-consecutive victory at La Sgambeda, American Holly Brooks (r) in second, and Ekaterina Rudakova of Belarus in third. (Photo: Worldloppet/FIS Marathon Cup Facebook)

They called her a wild card — the International Ski Federation (FIS), that is. And according to Holly Brooks, she wasn’t sure what she was capable of, either.

“The marathon world is a new can of worms for me, and I’m essentially going to a race which I know nothing about,” Brooks, a two-time Olympic cross-country skier and former U.S. Ski Team member, explained in an email earlier this week.

“I don’t have a team, or a regular wax tech for that matter,” she added. “But, I’ve met some great people through the process already, and I have a certain amount of faith that it will all work out.”

Without an early season race to test the waters, Brooks, 32, dove right into La Sgambeda on Friday: a 42-kilometer freestyle mass start in Livigno, Italy.

“I was nervous!” she reflected after the race. “It was the first race of the season for me and I usually don’t wait this long to start racing.”

She flew into Zurich last Saturday and spent her first few days training in Davos, acclimating to the time difference from Anchorage, Alaska.

“It almost felt like ‘coming home’ because of all places in Europe, I’ve spent a lot of time in Davos,” she wrote in an email. “It was also really nice to see all my World Cup friends and of course the U.S. team. It provided a nice transition before heading out into the ‘unknown.’ ”

La Sgambeda runner-up Holly Brooks with her skis and the 15-pound wheel of cheese, which she received as a prize on Friday in Livigno, Italy. (Photo: Holly Brooks/Facebook)

For Brooks, that mysterious-and-nerve-racking first race was all about chasing Finland’s Riitta-Liisa Roponen, the defending FIS Marathon Cup champion who had one the two previous La Sgambedas.

“Unfortunately I was never in contact with Riita Lisa,” Brooks explained. “She had a faster start than me and she got lost in the crowd of men. There were tons of people between the two of us and I couldn’t weave through to catch her.

“Many of these marathons don’t have women’s waves so a big part of the race is eluding the other women,” she added. “I would prefer our own wave but in the meantime I will have to work on my mixed-gender racing tactics. Once gaps open up in the big groups, it’s impossible to ‘ski up’ without a good draft.”

Brooks managed to ski up to second-best for second place overall. While she was 3 minutes, 12.1 seconds behind Roponen (who won in 1:40.42.8), Brooks outlasted Ekaterina Rudakova of Belarus by 8 seconds for silver and a 15-pound cheese wheel.

Three-and-a-half seconds later, Olga Mikhailova of the Russian marathon team finished fourth (+3:23.6) and France’s Aurelie Dabyduk took fifth (+3:39.4).

“Whenever you land on the podium it’s a good day,” Brooks wrote. “After a couple years of racing World Cup you forget what it feels like and honestly, it’s really fun.”

“After a couple years of racing World Cup you forget what it feels like and honestly, it’s really fun.” — Holly Brooks, after placing 2nd in first marathon of season at La Sgambeda on Friday

Benoit Chauvet claimed the La Sgambeda men’s crown in 1:32.11.4, just four-hundredths of a second ahead of fellow Frenchman Robin Duvillard and the Czech Republic’s Petr Novak, who tied for second.

The La Sgambeda men’s podium on Friday in Livigno, Italy: with French winner Benoit Chauvet (c), Petr Novak (l) of the Czech Republic and France’s Robin Duvillard, who tied for second. (Photo: Worldloppet/FIS Marathon Cup Facebook)

Switzerland’s Toni Livers was another 0.6 seconds back in fourth, Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus was fifth (+1.9), and the top-11 men all finished within 8.8 seconds of one another.

“The conditions were AMAZING,” Brooks explained. “Livigno is picturesque – perfect! Pure sun, gorgeous mountains, really perfect. My skis were awesome too… but it was a stressful situation leading up to having great skis.”

The night before the race at the captain’s meeting, she still wasn’t sure who would wax her skis. Fortunately, she found some “local Italians” who were up for the job — a man named Enzo, who spent 16 years on Italy’s national-ski team, was one of them, she explained. She repaid him with an iPhone.

Brooks, who switched from the World Cup circuit to the Worldloppet and FIS Marathon Cup this season, is one of the racers receiving a lot of international attention on the eve of the Marathon Cup opening.

“It will be interesting to see how Holly Brooks, who is fully concentrating on the long-distance scene this season, will do,” a FIS and Worldloppet press release stated before the first race of the season.

Marathon weekend

There are three races this weekend, including the 15 k ProTeam Tempo classic “prologue” on Saturday and 35 k classic on Sunday, both of which are part of the Swix Ski Classics.

Brooks is competing in all three, after recently signing with a Pro Swix Ski Classics team. “But more on that later,” she wrote. Before she knew she’d race the prologue, she was aware two marathons in one weekend was ambitious.

“Sunday’s race course is somewhat of a double-pole derby, and honestly, I’m looking at it as more of a training race for me,” she explained. “Many of those girls train specifically for double-pole, which I do not do.”

While Brooks is viewed as a serious contender for the long-distance events, she’ll have plenty of experienced competition in her quest for an overall podium at the end of the season.

Italy’s Antonella Confortola, who has competed on the FIS Marathon Cup for years, is no doubt hungry for the overall title and reported to be in killer shape again.

Veteran favorite Seraina Boner of Switzerland will definitely be a very strong contestant for the overall title, but how she does could depend on how many races she enters. The same goes for Roponen, last year’s overall FIS Marathon Cup winner, according to FIS.

Men’s outlook

On the men’s side, last year’s overall winner Tom Reichelt of Germany is not racing after his team dissolved in September. Chauvet, who won Friday’s La Sgambeda and was second overall last year, is eager to make it to the top of the overall podium this season. So is Novak, who was second at last year’s La Sgembeda and second again on Friday.

Aliaksei Ivanou of Belarus, who was third last year, Italy’s Sergio Bonaldi and Simone Paredi, as well as France’s Christophe Perrillat Colomb and Adrien Mougel also raced Friday and all of them finished in the top 15 (with the exception of Paredi in 25th).

Including the World Cup racers

Scheduling La Sgambeda for the day before the World Cup in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday and Sunday allows World Cup racers to race La Sgambeda, as Davos is fewer than 70 kilometers from Livigno.

Accordingly, several World Cup skiers entered the race this year. France’s Jean Marc Gaillard followed teammate Duvillard (who was second) in sixth. The two teamed up for bronze from last year’s sprint relay at the Sochi Olympics. Livers is another World Cup regular, along with Dolidovitch, Spain’s Imanol Rojo, Denmark’s Martin Moeller, and Estonia’s Madis Vaikmaa.

Norway’s Peter Northug won the race last year but did not compete on Friday — no Norwegians did.

Tough but scenic course

The 42 k marathon consisted of two laps on a 21 k course that runs along the Spöl river and winds through all the villages along it: Florin, Pont Lonc, Limina, Tresenda, and runs as far as Campaciol. From the Hotel Forcola at 12.5 k, the course turns back toward the cross-country stadium, which marks the start, finish and halfway point.

Livigno, normally known as having snow from early November on, had to work hard last year to put the 21 k course together as snow was hard to come by. However, this year, conditions were notably better.

“Livingo is amazing. More North Americans should come here!” Brooks summed up.

Next FIS Marathon Cup: The Dolomitenlauf 42 k freestyle on Jan. 18 in Austria

In total more than 220,000 Euros ($274,000 dollars) will be distributed as prize money this season. Each race offers a minimum of 21,000 Euros ($26,150 dollars) worth of prize money per race. Additional prize money of over 31,000 Euros ($38,600 dollars) will be handed out to the top six men and women in the overall FIS Marathon Cup at the end of the season.

Like every year, the FIS Marathon Cup kicked off with La Sgambeda in the Italian valley of Livigno.

This season, the FIS Marathon Cup consists of nine races total, with a new final in Russia: the Ugra Ski Marathon 50 k skate in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, caps the season in mid-April. Khanty-Mansiysk is best known for its biathlon World Cups and World Championships.

Friday’s La Sgambeda results: women | men

FIS Marathon Cup 2014/2015 calendar

1. La Sgambeda (Italy)
Friday, Dec. 12
42 k freestyle

2. Dolomitenlauf (Austria)
Jan. 18, 2015
60 k freestyle

3. Marcialonga (Cavalese/Val di Fiemme, Italy)
Jan. 25
70 k classic

4. La Transjurassienne (France)
Feb. 7
56 k classic

5. Tartu Marathon (Estonia)
Feb. 15
63 k classic

6. American Birkebeiner (Cable/Hayward, USA)
Feb. 21
50 k freestyle

7. Bieg Piastow (Poland)
Feb. 28
50 k classic

8. Engadin Ski-marathon (Switzerland)
March 8
42 k freestyle

9. Ugra Ski Marathon (Russia)
April 11
50 k freestyle

December 12, 2014