— The FIS Rollerski World Cup concluded on Saturday and Sunday in Oroslavje, Croatia. Russia won both the junior and senior women’s divisions in Saturday’s 3 x 2 km team sprint, while the men’s 5 x 2 km had a little more diversity on the podium. Italy’s senior team of Mirko Ceolan and Emanuele Sbabo pulled away in the final round for a win over Russia (2nd) and Slovenia (3rd). France topped the junior men’s race over Italy and Russia. Norway didn’t field a team in any of the four divisions.

Sunday was an individual sprint on a 180 m track. The women’s overall rollerski World Cup title was snatched away from Hanna Seppas (SWE), who led the overall points going into the last day but didn’t qualify for the finals, by Guro Strom Solli (NOR), who finished second in the sprint to Anastasia Voronina (RUS).

The Italians cleaned up in the men’s senior division, with Emanuele Sbabo leading teammates Folco Pizzutto and Mirko Ceolan in second an third. The overall title went to their compatriot Simone Paredi.

— Langrenn.com began a series today on how athletic scholarships from American universities affect Norwegian skiing. In the first installment, Per Nymoen of the Norwegian Ski Federation voiced his mixed feelings on the value of American ski scholarships to Norwegian cross country development. While he said he understands that a quality education enables graduates to get good jobs in the ski industry, he thinks scholarships contribute to a brawn drain of sorts on young Norwegian talent, incentivizing skiers give up an elite career for their country to get an American education, oftentimes remaining in the States, never returning to elite skiing after graduation, or both.

— In a similar vein, Tiio Söderhielm (SWE) is being awarded a scholarship of 10,000 Swedish kroner for simultaneously pursuing higher education and a successful elite ski career. The 27-year-old has worked towards a degree economics at Skiduniversitetet (Ski University) in Östersund, and won an FIS race – a 15 km classic – last December in Skellefteå, Sweden.

— As part of the never-ending fight against performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) approved the 2012 list of prohibited substances and methods on Saturday, which gets updated every year after extensive consultation with scientific experts and stakeholders. Notable updates to the list included a new blood sampling policy, requiring at least 10% of all samples collected to be blood samples (as certain doping methods such as Human Growth Hormone and blood transfusions can’t be detected at in urine), and an initiative to develop the possibility of going paperless with its data collection.

Read more about the new list over at WADA.

— Hanna Sappas (SWE) and Alexander Denisov (RUS) won their respective races at yesterday’s freestyle Rollerski World Cup in Toblach, Italy, site of the sprint and handicap race for the 2010-2011 Tour de Ski.

The women completed a 15 km course, and Sappas held off Ksenia Konohova (RUS) by 14 seconds. On the men’s side, Denisov led a 1-2 finish for Russia, besting teammate Vladimir Fedulov by 10 seconds over 30 km.

The FIS Rollerski World Cup moves next to Oroslavje, Croatia for the final two events of the series, a team sprint on Saturday and individual sprint on Sunday. Currently leading the overall standings are Guro Strøm Solli (NOR) and Sergio Bonaldi (ITA), who overtook the lead in Toblach.

— The first every adaptive ski expedition to the South Pole will take place in January, led by Doug Stoup and Tal Fletcher. Over the course of two weeks, adaptive skiers will cover 100 miles in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Roald Amundsen’s first ever expedition to the South Pole. John Davis and Grant Korgan will make the trip on newly designed backcountry sit skis that can turn on edge, and will also be able to pull 60 lbs of gear.

— The Norwegians may be getting a new wax trailer after this winter, in which case they’ll put their current one up for sale. Now teams with slightly smaller budgets can hope experience the luxury of mobile waxing capabilities; according to Knut Nystad, Russia is already interested.

- On Thursday the Helsinki District Court sentenced former Finnish skier Jari Räsänen to 12 months for lying in a 1999 doping investigation, according to Sports Illustrated. The case opened up when the Finnish news service, STT, reported that Räsänen had taken team-provided performance enhancers during the height of his career, which included Olympic bronze in 1992 and 1994, both in the relay. At the time STT was convicted of libel for having no evidence.  The case reopened in 2008 when former coach Kari-Pekka Kyro went on TV to say that doping had been systematic on the Finnish team in the 1990s.  Räsänen was handed a 12-month suspended sentenced along with his former coach Pekka Vahasoyrinki, who was given 9 months for denying that he had supplied the drugs.

- Svetlana Hvostunkova (RUS) and Simone Paredi (ITA) won the third race of the rollerski World Cup in heavy rain in San Giacomo, Italy, on Wednesday in a 6.5 k classic uphill climb.

- Norwegian Industry Minister Trond Gisk is apparently disgusted with athletes like Petter Northug for participating in foreign poker tournaments every year, reports the NRK. Gisk confronted Northug at a seminar in Stavanger, telling reporters later that “when athletes brought up on the Norwegian sports model do this, they shoot themselves in the foot,” citing the fact that money spent on foreign gambling should instead go to the national sport system that nurtured them.  Northug’s spokesman defended the skier, saying that Northug comes from local sport, and should be allowed to “have a life” outside of skiing.  Northug is planning on coming to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker on July 9.

- On the topic of Northug, there have been no new reports on whether he will officially sign to stay on with the Norwegian National Team, forgoing the millions of dollars offered to him to be the leader of a private team.

- In other news, the 98th Tour de France starts tomorrow at 8 a.m. ET on Versus.  Fasten your heart rate monitors.

Not much substantial happened this weekend in the world of cross-country skiing–at least that we could dig up. What we could find:

–Current Sun Valley Ski Education skier and former NCAA All-American Mike Sinnott will appear on NBC’s game show Family Feud on Tuesday through Thursday. “We filmed a couple months ago in Orlando, and it airs the 28th, 29th and 30th of this month,” he wrote in an e-mail.

–Italian Simone Paredi and Norwegian Guro Stroem Soli won the overall rollerski World Cup titles.

–Marcus Hellner is in Mallorca.

–Stephen Colbert claimed that he cross-country skied all the way to Washington D.C. to deliver his testimony on migrant workers. (If you missed it, click here to watch–priceless…)

–Google engineers once had to cross-country ski for three days to fix fiber optic cables that were shot down by ruffians.