World Cup - Season's End
After a grueling series of races across Scandinavia and then individual sprints in Changchun, China, the cross-country World Cup jumped over the Sea of Japan to Sapporo, the biggest city on Japan's northernmost island. Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympic Games, and is preparing to host the 2007 nordic world championships, making the team sprint and pursuit events at Sapporo into "pre-worlds," a chance to try out the courses that will see medal contests next spring.
On the men's side, little was at stake. The sprint, distance, and overall World Cup titles had already been decided, with Bjorn Lind (Sweden) winning the first and Tobias Angerer (Germany) winning the latter two. Angerer's overall title was Germany's third consecutive overall crystal globe. The only competitors within shouting distance of Angerer's point total are Norwegian and Swedish sprinters who are unlikely to turn into reliable distance-race winners, so continued German dominance is likely. Paired with Axel Teichmann, last year's overall title winner, Angerer in fact finished third in Saturday's team sprint event, behind Norway I (Eldar Roenning and Tor Arne Hetland, who finished third in the overall rankings) and, in a photo-finish win, the Italian team of Christian Zorzi and Loris Frasnelli. Peter Larsson of Sweden I had taken a big lead by charging up the back hill, but his legs betrayed him on the descending corner to the last straight, and he fell 40 meters from the line. In the women's team sprint, Evi Sachenbacher Stehle (Germany) injected stunning pace on her last leg, exploding the field and giving Claudia Kuenzel an easy anchor leg for a 14-second win over Finland (Riitta Liisa Lasilla and Pirjo Manninen) and Sweden II (the youngsters Britta Norgren and Anna Karin Stroemstedt, who impressively recovered from a fall on the last leg). With some improvement at the longer distances, both of the Germans are well placed to compete for the overall title next season.
In Sunday's pursuits, the last events of the season, one minor and one major theme played out. The minor theme was the emergence of a possible successor to Tobi Angerer: the 19-year old Norwegian phenomenon Petter Northug, who had won his first World Cup race, another pursuit, at Falun, Sweden, the week before. Usually decided in a last-second sprint to the line by a large number of racers, the men's pursuit evolved rather unusually. The first, classic leg saw a breakaway by Swedes Anders Soedergren and Mathias Fredriksson and Estonian Andrus Veerpalu. Though these flyers are usually chased down, this one lasted all the way through the exchange at 15km, at which point the fourth-placed racer was a massive twenty seconds down on Soedergren. About halfway through the second, skating leg, Petter Northug attacked the chasing group - which only slid further back - and bridged up to the leaders. With a couple kilometers left, he had caught Veerpalu and Soedergren and seemed poised to unleash his devastating kick on Fredriksson, 13 years his senior and not known as a good sprinter. But somehow Fredriksson managed to elude the youngster and capture the win by almost four seconds, taking his first win of the year. He wound up sevent in the overall rankings, just ahead of Soedergren.
The major theme of the pursuits was the determination of the women's World Cup overall title. Marit Bjorgen had taken the sprint crown by winning at Changchun, and Julia Tchepalova had taken the distance crown even earlier by winning the Holmenkollen 30km. But going into the pursuit, only 66 points separated Bjorgen, first in the overall rankings, from Canadian Beckie Scott, in second. Knowing she had to win - and have the Norwegian finish worse than sixth - to take the title, Scott raced with abandon.
In the classic leg, she mounted a breakaway with Bjorgen and Kristin Stoermer Steira (Norway), and the three put almost 30 seconds into the field by the exchange at 7.5km. On her skating skis, Scott accelerated to assure herself of the win, which she took ahead of Steira. Just as Scott hoped, the spurt broke Bjorgen, who dropped off the back and wound up 42 seconds down at the end of the race - but in fourth place, winning just enough points to take the overall title by 16 points over Scott. The Canadian now plans to retire, though hopefully she will stay involved in the sport to help bring the new crop of Canadian racers to maturity for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver. Said Scott: "It was my last World Cup race. It is a good time to retire with a victory. For sure it would be also very nice to retire with winning a World Cup trophy but Marit was better." Gracious in victory, and now probably aiming to take both a third straight overall title and numerous championship medals in the 2006-2007 season, Bjorgen said, "It is an amazing day for me. To win the World Cup trophy after such a season that is a pleasure. The fight with Beckie for the World Cup trophy was very tough but every time fair."
On the men's side, little was at stake. The sprint, distance, and overall World Cup titles had already been decided, with Bjorn Lind (Sweden) winning the first and Tobias Angerer (Germany) winning the latter two. Angerer's overall title was Germany's third consecutive overall crystal globe. The only competitors within shouting distance of Angerer's point total are Norwegian and Swedish sprinters who are unlikely to turn into reliable distance-race winners, so continued German dominance is likely. Paired with Axel Teichmann, last year's overall title winner, Angerer in fact finished third in Saturday's team sprint event, behind Norway I (Eldar Roenning and Tor Arne Hetland, who finished third in the overall rankings) and, in a photo-finish win, the Italian team of Christian Zorzi and Loris Frasnelli. Peter Larsson of Sweden I had taken a big lead by charging up the back hill, but his legs betrayed him on the descending corner to the last straight, and he fell 40 meters from the line. In the women's team sprint, Evi Sachenbacher Stehle (Germany) injected stunning pace on her last leg, exploding the field and giving Claudia Kuenzel an easy anchor leg for a 14-second win over Finland (Riitta Liisa Lasilla and Pirjo Manninen) and Sweden II (the youngsters Britta Norgren and Anna Karin Stroemstedt, who impressively recovered from a fall on the last leg). With some improvement at the longer distances, both of the Germans are well placed to compete for the overall title next season.
In Sunday's pursuits, the last events of the season, one minor and one major theme played out. The minor theme was the emergence of a possible successor to Tobi Angerer: the 19-year old Norwegian phenomenon Petter Northug, who had won his first World Cup race, another pursuit, at Falun, Sweden, the week before. Usually decided in a last-second sprint to the line by a large number of racers, the men's pursuit evolved rather unusually. The first, classic leg saw a breakaway by Swedes Anders Soedergren and Mathias Fredriksson and Estonian Andrus Veerpalu. Though these flyers are usually chased down, this one lasted all the way through the exchange at 15km, at which point the fourth-placed racer was a massive twenty seconds down on Soedergren. About halfway through the second, skating leg, Petter Northug attacked the chasing group - which only slid further back - and bridged up to the leaders. With a couple kilometers left, he had caught Veerpalu and Soedergren and seemed poised to unleash his devastating kick on Fredriksson, 13 years his senior and not known as a good sprinter. But somehow Fredriksson managed to elude the youngster and capture the win by almost four seconds, taking his first win of the year. He wound up sevent in the overall rankings, just ahead of Soedergren.
The major theme of the pursuits was the determination of the women's World Cup overall title. Marit Bjorgen had taken the sprint crown by winning at Changchun, and Julia Tchepalova had taken the distance crown even earlier by winning the Holmenkollen 30km. But going into the pursuit, only 66 points separated Bjorgen, first in the overall rankings, from Canadian Beckie Scott, in second. Knowing she had to win - and have the Norwegian finish worse than sixth - to take the title, Scott raced with abandon.
In the classic leg, she mounted a breakaway with Bjorgen and Kristin Stoermer Steira (Norway), and the three put almost 30 seconds into the field by the exchange at 7.5km. On her skating skis, Scott accelerated to assure herself of the win, which she took ahead of Steira. Just as Scott hoped, the spurt broke Bjorgen, who dropped off the back and wound up 42 seconds down at the end of the race - but in fourth place, winning just enough points to take the overall title by 16 points over Scott. The Canadian now plans to retire, though hopefully she will stay involved in the sport to help bring the new crop of Canadian racers to maturity for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver. Said Scott: "It was my last World Cup race. It is a good time to retire with a victory. For sure it would be also very nice to retire with winning a World Cup trophy but Marit was better." Gracious in victory, and now probably aiming to take both a third straight overall title and numerous championship medals in the 2006-2007 season, Bjorgen said, "It is an amazing day for me. To win the World Cup trophy after such a season that is a pleasure. The fight with Beckie for the World Cup trophy was very tough but every time fair."
posted by Christopher Tassava at Monday, March 20, 2006
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