20 Days to the Nordic Season
October 22-23 will see the opening of the 2005-2006 cross-country World Cup, four sprint races in Dusseldorf, Germany. The events - men's and women's individual sprints on the 22nd and men's and women's team sprints on the 23rd - are actually prologue to the regular season, which starts in earnest on November 19-20 with distance events in Beitostolen, Norway.
With the season so close, the actual and hopeful elite teams are finalizing their preparations for five months of racing. It's not looking too good for Sweden, which has been trying to return to the upper echelon of international racing now occupied by Norway, Germany, and maybe Russia and Italy. The Swedes' new coach, Norwegian Inge Braaten, recently said that one of his main goals is "to steer the development toward making the Swedes tougher in competitions" and thus more able to figuratively and literally fight for front positions in the increasing number of mass-start races. Braaten, who coached the Norwegian team during their 1990s heyday, thinks that last year's overall cup winner, Axel Teichmann of Germany, is the favorite for the upcoming season. On the other hand, he's got minimal expectations of Per Eloffson and Matthias Fredriksson. Over the past decade, the two Swedes have won quite a few races and a World Cup title or two between them, but both have trained poorly over the summer and can't be thought likely to do terrifically well this winter. Eloffson is still recovering from having overtrained during his runs at the '02 Olympics and '03 World Championships; Fredriksson has just been plain tired. If they were healthy, and Jurgen Brink came back to form, Sweden's men's team would be formidable. As it is, the Swedish men look like an afterthought, and the women's team features a couple of strong sprinters, such as Emelie Ohrstig, but few who can compete over the long-distance races.
The big and supremely talented German team seems to be ready for the season, judging by recent dryland time trials: a running race won by Tobias Angerer (over a 10km course) and Claudia Kunzel-Nystad (5km) and a skate-technique roller-ski race won by Jens Filbrich (over 15km) and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle (9km). In the running race, Teichmann finished well back of Angerer but the champion finished close behind Filbrich in the roller-ski race. Both Angerer and Filbrich are overdue to step up to the top of the World Cup.
The Norwegians, too, are in good shape. The men, including classic specialists Anders Aukland and Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset and skating specialist Tore Ruud Hofstad, seem to be focusing on marathon-length races, which may suggest a big push to win March's 90km Vasaloppet. Though Marit Bjorgen, the '04-'05 World Cup champion, bonked badly in a roller-ski time trail, there are certainly enough good female Norwegian skiers, including Hilde Petersen and Kristin Steira Stoermer, that the team continues to aim for the 2006 Olympics at Torino, where they hope to win six medals, half gold.
And while it's unlikely that the American men are going to do that much damage at the Olympics or on the World Cup, we can dare hope for some good results from the men, as they've been training pretty hard, holding three races - an individual sprint, a team sprint, and an an uphill time trial at Lake Placid. America's top racer, Kris Freeman, won the time trial and was half of the winning sprint team.There's not much news out there in English about other near-elite teams (Russia, Italy, even the women from Finland) or individual racers (Kristina Smigun or Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia, Vincent Vittoz of France).
With the season so close, the actual and hopeful elite teams are finalizing their preparations for five months of racing. It's not looking too good for Sweden, which has been trying to return to the upper echelon of international racing now occupied by Norway, Germany, and maybe Russia and Italy. The Swedes' new coach, Norwegian Inge Braaten, recently said that one of his main goals is "to steer the development toward making the Swedes tougher in competitions" and thus more able to figuratively and literally fight for front positions in the increasing number of mass-start races. Braaten, who coached the Norwegian team during their 1990s heyday, thinks that last year's overall cup winner, Axel Teichmann of Germany, is the favorite for the upcoming season. On the other hand, he's got minimal expectations of Per Eloffson and Matthias Fredriksson. Over the past decade, the two Swedes have won quite a few races and a World Cup title or two between them, but both have trained poorly over the summer and can't be thought likely to do terrifically well this winter. Eloffson is still recovering from having overtrained during his runs at the '02 Olympics and '03 World Championships; Fredriksson has just been plain tired. If they were healthy, and Jurgen Brink came back to form, Sweden's men's team would be formidable. As it is, the Swedish men look like an afterthought, and the women's team features a couple of strong sprinters, such as Emelie Ohrstig, but few who can compete over the long-distance races.
The big and supremely talented German team seems to be ready for the season, judging by recent dryland time trials: a running race won by Tobias Angerer (over a 10km course) and Claudia Kunzel-Nystad (5km) and a skate-technique roller-ski race won by Jens Filbrich (over 15km) and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle (9km). In the running race, Teichmann finished well back of Angerer but the champion finished close behind Filbrich in the roller-ski race. Both Angerer and Filbrich are overdue to step up to the top of the World Cup.
The Norwegians, too, are in good shape. The men, including classic specialists Anders Aukland and Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset and skating specialist Tore Ruud Hofstad, seem to be focusing on marathon-length races, which may suggest a big push to win March's 90km Vasaloppet. Though Marit Bjorgen, the '04-'05 World Cup champion, bonked badly in a roller-ski time trail, there are certainly enough good female Norwegian skiers, including Hilde Petersen and Kristin Steira Stoermer, that the team continues to aim for the 2006 Olympics at Torino, where they hope to win six medals, half gold.
And while it's unlikely that the American men are going to do that much damage at the Olympics or on the World Cup, we can dare hope for some good results from the men, as they've been training pretty hard, holding three races - an individual sprint, a team sprint, and an an uphill time trial at Lake Placid. America's top racer, Kris Freeman, won the time trial and was half of the winning sprint team.There's not much news out there in English about other near-elite teams (Russia, Italy, even the women from Finland) or individual racers (Kristina Smigun or Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia, Vincent Vittoz of France).
posted by Christopher Tassava at Sunday, October 02, 2005
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