VAL DI FIEMME, Italy — In case people didn’t get the hint on Friday, Russia’s Nikita Kriukov reiterated that he’s the world’s best sprinter on Sunday, overtaking Emil Jönsson of Sweden at the finish to win the men’s 1.5-kilometer freestyle team sprint at the 2013 Nordic World Ski Championships.

The 2010 Olympic sprint champion, Kriukov won his first World Championships gold in Thursday’s individual classic sprint and repeated the feat with teammate Alexey Petukhov on Sunday.

Kriukov edged Jönsson by 0.46 seconds for the win, and Jönsson notched his first medal of the week with Swedish teammate Marcus Hellner. Kazakhstan took third (+0.73) with Nikolay Chebotko and Alexey Poltoranin, the latter of which edged Canada’s Alex Harvey for the bronze.

With Devon Kershaw, the Canadians as the defending team sprint champions were just three-hundreths of a second off the podium in fourth. Italy placed fifth with David Hofer and Frederico Pellegrino.

Results

Petter Northug proved he hasn’t been slacking off the past few weeks despite missing the Canadian World Cups. The Norwegian won the 42 k La Sgambeda Marathon nearly two weeks ago in Livigno, Italy, then kicked off the Tour de Ski on Saturday with a victory in the 4 k freestyle prologue in Oberhof, Germany.

Northug beat runner-up Marcus Hellner of Sweden by 6.1 seconds, and Alexander Legkov of Russia was third (+7.2). Defending TdS champ Dario Cologna was fourth (+10.1) and Ilia Chernousov (RUS) took fifth (+10.7). Canadian Alex Harvey finished sixth (+11.3) for his best result of the season just ahead of Maxim Vlegzhanin (RUS) and Martin Jaks (CZE), who tied for seventh (+11.8).

Andy Newell led the U.S. in 21st (+22.2), Ivan Babikov of Canada was 32nd (+25.7) and Kris Freeman (USA) was 35th (+27.0).

Other North Americans: 48. Devon Kershaw (CAN), 52. Lenny Valjas (CAN), 94. Noah Hoffman (USA)

Men’s prologue results

Tour de Ski men’s standings after Stage 1

— In front of 12,000 spectators in Sunne, Sweden, on Sunday night, Petter Northug (NOR) and Charlotte Kalla (SWE) won their respective competitions at the Inge Bråten Memorial rollerski race, a 1.5 k sprint through the town streets. Both victors said in their post-race interviews that they trained straight through the race, both having put in three additional hours on Sunday morning.

“I have trained three and a half hours this morning in Lillehammer!” Northug said, “but I’m very happy with the race today.” 

Langrenn is calling the performance Northug’s “competitive comeback” following his break from racing due to illness in February.

Norway swept the men’s podium, with rollerski champion Ragnar Bragvin Andresen taking second and his teammate Tord Asle Gjerdalen third. Sweski reported that the Swedish favorites were eliminated before reaching the finals; Marcus Hellner was bumped in the quarterfinals, beaten by Anton Hedlund. Theodore Peterson went out in the semifinals and Emil Jönsson got dropped when he lost his pole tips. 

Kalla bested teammate Ida Ingemarsdotter (SWE) and surprise 18-year-old skier Maja Dahlqvist (SWE) in the women’s race. Sandra Hansson and Anna Haag took fourth and fifth, respectively.

— Pierre Mignerey took over as the Cross Country Race Director at the International Ski Federation (FIS) this summer. Mignerey has been the head coach of the French ski team and most recently was the FIS Assistant Race Director. In an interview with Dauphi Nordique this June, which is well worth a read in its entirety, Mignerey discussed the coming season, the Tour de Ski, city sprints, health & safety for wax techs and his overall plans as director.

The future of city sprints is “not in danger,” Mignerey said, though the format is under review this coming winter. He also said the TdS will probably never make a stop in, say, France because it must go through Germany, where TV viewership is high, and “we can like it or not but today a high-level sport cannot live without television. Without substantial television coverage in Germany, Cross-Country skiing, like most winter sports, would get in great difficulties and even probably perish in short term.”

On the topic of TV as the bottom line, Mignerey added that one of the biggest concerns at FIS right now is the proportion of TV viewership claimed by Poland, which has largely been attributable to the success of Justyna Kowalczyk. FIS has already started to think about what might happen when Kowalczyk retires.

“You have to know that for three years, the biggest audience has been in Poland because of the brilliant results of Justyna Kowalczyk. If she stops competing, there will inevitably be a decline… Eight or nine of the most watched races of the last season were the ladies’ races, only because of the results of one athlete.”

— Johan Olsson (SWE) recently gave an interview with Land.se about working through injury, age (he’s 32) and balancing family life with a ski career. Olsson started off strong last winter with a win at the World Cup season opener in Sjusjoen, Norway, but for the remainder of his season was plagued by illness and injury. Before a recent team training camp in Majorca, Olsson had broken bones to contend with again, this time with a broken rib.

“At my age, it is not as fresh as when it was [at] 20-25,” Olsson said. “It’s just that we have a maze of injuries almost all the time. The trick is to train wisely and clear the damage from the road as soon as possible.”

On the importance of camps in his training, Olsson said they enable him to focus completely on skiing, unlike his home routine where caring for his young daughter makes significant demands on his time. But on the other hand, he continued, family life can be a healthy distraction for an athlete.

“It has given me tremendous joy,” Olsson said. “Both in private life but also the joy of skiing. First, there is no pressure of the demands on themselves in the same way anymore that I must do such and such… You might get a little narrow picture of what you’re doing [at a younger age].”

Read the rest of the (translated) interview here.

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – A pair of men who had a pair of the worst days in Saturday’s Stage 8 of the Tour de Ski here had the two best days in Sunday’s Stage 9 – the Tour’s final climb up the Alpe Cermis.

Alexander Legkov (RUS) and Maurice Manificat (FRA) finished first and second in the contest for best time in the final climb, in nearly a dead heat. Legkov finished in 30:38.2 and Manificat in 30:38.3, with Marcus Hellner in third place another second back, in 30:39.9. (The reason the three men weren’t the first to the finish line is because Stage 9 was a handicap-start, with athletes placed higher in the overall standings getting a head start.)

While Hellner started in third place and used his result to climb to second in the overall Tour standings, Legkov and Manificat weren’t situated as well at the start of the day, thanks to nightmare races in Stage 8 here on Saturday.

Legkov had problems with his skis and wax, while Manificat struggled with his body.

After the race on Sunday, Manificat told FasterSkier he had “better legs, and good skis.”

“Yesterday, it was a day without, as we say in French. But it’s like that—the Tour is very long, and you need to be at 100 percent,” he said. “All works today, and so, I finish on good things, and it’s good to continue the season.”

Link to results.

— Marit Bjoergen and Petter Northug (NOR) are both planning on skipping the World Cups in Dusseldorf, Germany and Rogla, Slovenia. The current leaders of the World Cup are instead going to train at altitude in Davos, Switzerland for a 14-day camp to gear up for the Tour de Ski, which begins on December 29.

— The International Ski Federation (FIS) unveiled a new live-GPS tracking system on Saturday, modeled after a similar service available to Tour de France fans. Check the link above for details on how to use the follow selected World Cup athletes around course from your computer or mobile device.

— Marcus Hellner’s (SWE) season is not going as well as he’d hoped so far, and the Swede has begun a ‘contingency plan’ to put it back on track, according to Aftonbladet. Instead of going to the next World Cup, he’s considering changing his schedule for the next few weeks in order to prepare for the Tour de Ski. He’s returned home to Gallivare to put in extra training on snow, and may wait until longer than Monday to reconnect with the Swedish National Team in Davos.

—Marit Bjoergen’s (NOR) and Anna Haag’s (SWE) moms are apparently friends. In a word of advice to Haag’s mother, Bjoergen’s mother said that it took patience to start seeing Marit-like dominance on the World Cup.

Haag agreed. “These kinds of times, it is easy to forget that even Marit Bjoergen had tough years, she is still a couple years older,” she said. “I will continue with patience.”

— Start lists are posted for the first World Cup of the season in Sjusjøen, Norway: 10/15 k freestyle. The first female goes off on Saturday, November 19 at 5:30 am EST, and the men at 7:15 am EST. Inquire within for details on how to watch the races in real time from North America.
Men’s start list | Women’s start list

@FISCrossCountry will also typically tweet updates throughout races.

— The Norway-Sweden Northug-Hellner rivalry is already heating up in the Scandinavian media. “Should Sweden win the relay, they must at least replace the anchor man [read: Hellner],” said Petter Northug.

Marcus Hellner’s response was pretty tame—”We’ll see what we can do in the track,” he said at the Swedish team’s press conference.

— The Canadian women, who were planning on sitting out the Sjusjøen World Cup to do the Rovaniemi, Finland FIS races instead, won’t be racing at all this weekend, as Rovaniemi was cancelled due to insufficient snow. They will continue to train in Ostersund, Sweden.

— Check out the new suits from around the world on the FIS website to keep track of everyone out there tomorrow. Italy will be decked out in blue for the Azzurri look, Norway in the king’s red as per usual, and France will probably be the easiest to spot in their black/neon yellow stripy getup, courtesy of One Way.

— World Cup teams have started to show their cards for the season opener in Sjusjoen:

The host gets to start more skiers than their quota would normally dictate (19 men and 19 women are currently on Norway’s list). Headliners include Petter Northug, Eldar Rønning, Marit Bjoergen and Therese Johaug, as well as several top biathletes.

Sweden’s squad of 6 men and 6 women will be led by Charlotte Kalla, Marcus Hellner, Johan Olsson and Anna Haag.

— FIS races in Rovaniemi, Finland (November 19 – 20) and Skellefteå, Sweden (November 24) have been canceled for lack of snow. The Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), which just finished racing in Muonio, Finland, had been planning on entering Rovaniemi. As of Sunday, head coach Pepa Miloucheva said they would simply remain in Muonio until their Thursday departure.

— Lucas Bauer (CZE) has a cold and will be missing the first World Cup in Sjusjoen to recover.

— OneWay, lover of neon, unveiled its new service truck on Monday. Thankfully, the only bright yellow is a small stripe on the front of the trailer. If that thing had turned out anything like the Slovenian suits, it would be a driving hazard for oncoming traffic.

— Marcus Hellner (SWE), Petter Northug’s most visible rival both on snow and at the poker table, just signed on to be the public face of the online gaming site PokerStars. In addition to getting him a nice supplementary income, Hellner said playing poker during the winter provides him with a useful distraction from skiing. It also gives him another excuse to talk smack about Northug, whom he beat at their last meeting over the poker table (he says another showdown has been discussed—”I believe that Petter wants revenge.”).

“…You have to keep focused and be alert,” Hellner said of the similarities between poker and skiing. “In addition, one must keep a cool head when it’s a lot at stake, just like I have to do out in the tracks.”

— The wait is over—with the sprint in Muonio, Finland already completed, racing season is officially here. Bruksvallarna, Sweden is also hosting FIS races this weekend, starting with the men’s 15 k skate on Saturday. It will be a stacked field. Joining the Canadian National Ski Team are the top Norwegians, Russians, French and Swedes. Petter Northug (NOR) and Marcus Hellner (SWE) headline a long start list. Today, the course was approved for the calculation of FIS points, so this will be the real deal.

The women’s 10 k skate is on Sunday. Top names include Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag (SWE), with Marit Bjoergen and co. noticeably absent.

— Five Norwegian biathletes will be joining the cross-country field for the first World Cup on November 19 in Sjusjoen, Norway. The host country gets 10 additional start rights for each gender, so Emil Hegle Svendsen, Lars Berger, Ronny Hafsås, Tarjei Bø and Tora Berger are taking full advantage of the opportunity to race earlier than the first Biathlon World Cup (in Ostersund, Sweden on November 28).

“Now I am so tired of just practicing and eager to go skiing,” said Svendsen, a multiple World and Olympic Champion.

— Mathias Fredriksson (SWE) plans on retiring after this season, and wants to go out with a bang. Before each race he enters he will auction off equipment to raise money for UNICEF. Other skiers will also donate their gear to the cause throughout the winter. Bidding will take place online here.

“I wish that my last race of the career will also be the coolest one,” said Fredriksson.

— Marcus Hellner (SWE) hyperextended his right knee last week and had to skip a training camp in Italy. After taking a few days off to let the swelling go down, he is up and running again, and the defending sprint World Champ doesn’t foresee the temporary setback affecting his upcoming season.

— Charlotte Kalla, Anna Haag, and several other members of the Swedish national team are competing in the Lidingöloppet this weekend, a series of races in Lidingö, Sweden. The women entered the relay on Friday (results not yet available) as a warm up for the rest of the weekend’s races, which includes a 30 k on Saturday. While not fielding a full relay team, Anders Sodergren and Emil Jönsson are also competing as individuals.

— Madshus is funding a new Norwegian race team this winter. Comprised of 40 top-tier athletes, the team setup is a unique manufacturer-supported team in that it has dedicated support staff specifically for the project. Thomas Alsgaard is among the list of mentors intended to guide and help the athletes achieve international success.

The project is as much about Madshus’ efforts to reposition its brand as it is about supporting Norway’s cross country and biathlon development, according to Per Wiik, the Global Marketing director for Madshus. Though the team is currently funded entirely by Madshus, Wiik said they are hoping to expand sponsorship down the road.

— Sochi 2014 has raised a record $1.2 billion for the upcoming Winter Olympics, surpassing the record set by Beijing in 2008 and London’s $1.1 billion sponsorship target. This is the first Winter Games in which every venue is being built from scratch. Hilton and Mariott are building brand new hotels by the mountain ski center specifically for the games.

Swedish star Marcus Hellner has decided to skip the last three stages of the season-ending mini-tour in Falun, due to illness, the Swedish news agency TT is reporting.

Hellner qualified for the sprint heats in Stockholm on Wednesday, but skipped them because of a sore throat. According to Swedish Head Coach Joakim Abrahamsson, Hellner stayed in Stockholm and then flew back to his home of Gallivare, while the rest of his team went on to Falun.

Earlier this week, Norwegian Tord Asle Gjerdalen, fresh off his bronze medal from the 50 k at the World Ski Championships, also scratched from the mini-tour due to illness.