#2 – Sweden: Full Steam Ahead

Nations Cup: 7660 (2^nd)

Men: 4067 (3^rd)

Women: 3593 (2^nd)

THE DEPARTED

Mats Larsson decided to retire after a fairly decorated career. He raced sparingly with only 67 World Cup starts, but managed to win medal on every stage. A 4x10km relay bronze from Torino, a sprint relay silver from Sapporo and three individual World Cup medals. At the age of 31-years old, Larsson was an athlete still very much in his prime and managed to make two World Cup sprint finals in six starts during his final year.

On the women’s side it was Lina Andersson who called it quits after an illustrious career. She had medals from the Olympics, World Champs and eight individual World Cup medals. Last year she did have a very good 5^th place in Otepaa, but her consistently good results were something we didn’t see. However, after 12-years on the circuit, Andersson was on the down swing of her career with her best days behind her and with the new generation of sprinters arriving it was the right time to step aside.

MEN’S SPRINT

What’s their not to like about the Swedish sprint team? They have the best and most consistent sprinter in the world, Mr. Emil Jönsson. Here’s he sprint results from last year (8^th, 1^st, 1^st, 1^st, 4^th, 1^st, 1^st, 1^st). It’s not perfect but it’s pretty damn close. However, some ski fans will contest he still has not done it at the Olympics or World Champs as he was bested by Hellner and Northug and finished 3^rd.

In 3^rd place in the Sprint Cup is the towering Jesper Modin. I don’t want to take anything away from Modin because 3^rd place in the Sprint Cup is a great feat, but when you look at his results, there is a familiar pattern; 6^th places and he racked up five of them last season. This meant that he would make it into the final, but finish last in the heat. Something the giant Swede will look to improve on this season, something an increased aerobic capacity should remedy. Also, he’ll be looking to finish on the podium at least once this season, something he didn’t do last season.

Add another superstar into the mix by the name of Marcus Hellner (15^th ranked); you might have heard of him before, and a healthy Robin Bryntesson and the sprinting core should be strong yet again. Youngster Calle Halfvarsson has a year of World Cup racing under his belt and should move up from his 29^th ranking from last year; as does Teodor Peterson (42^nd).

What surprised me was how well Rickardsson did in the sprints last season. He finished 23^rd in the Sprint Cup last year and included a 5^th in the Otepaa sprints.

WOMEN’S SPRINT

By winning the sprint relay gold at the World Champs, Kalla skied one of the most impressive final legs this blogger has ever seen. But away from the big show, it was sophomore skier Hanna Falk (10^th) who led the Swedish sprinters. There was also Kalla (12^th), Brodin (15^th) who is a future superstar and Ingemarsdotter (16^th) who was only one of two athletes to finish in the top 10 of the final three sprint races of the year. Who is the other skier? Bjørgen of course.

This sprint team that Sweden will put on snow this season is possibly the strongest team they’ve every fielded. Add in Haag (38^th) and that’s five athletes that can fight for the medal on any given day. The biggest problem for the coaches is deciding which two athletes they select to ski the team sprint, not a bad problem to have at all.

MEN’S DISTANCE

After being mocked by Northug and finishing runners up in the 4x10km at the World Champs, the fire to beat Norway in a team event must be at an all-time high. They have the tools, now they must execute. Rickardsson (2^nd), Hellner (7^th), Södergren (27^th) and Olsson (33^rd) are the foursome that are the core of the men’s distance. Rickardsson had a career year, same can be said of Hellner with his triumph’s at the World Champs. Södergren had an average year for him while Olsson took a step backwards after a great 2009-2010 season.

While the core is strong, the talent dips heavily outside those four. Next on the pecking for the first part of the season is 38-year old veteran Mattais Fredricksson who earned a start at the season opener in Sjosjøen with a strong result in Bruksvallarna. Jens Eriksson (68^th) is the other distance athlete that will be World Cup action this year.

WOMEN’S DISTANCE

Like the men, the women were defeated in the team relay by the rivals Norway. With Kalla (6^th) and Haag (8^th) the two main distance skiers, I believe that the relay team is one that its sum is greater than its parts. The other half of the relay team last year was Ingemarsdotter who skied the lead-off leg and did extremely well for a primarily sprint specialist while Johansson Norgren skied the third leg and did well too. Johansson Norgren has always been touted as a talented skier but has always struggled with consistency. In fact, she won’t be making the trip to Sjosjøen this weekend. In her place will be

Maria Rydvist (22^nd) was the surprise athlete of the year on the World Cup. She came out of nowhere and skied her way onto the national team, but her form faltered was replaced on the relay team by Johansson Norgren.

Marathon skier Jenny Hansson will join the Swedish team for the first weekend of racing, but I don’t expect that she’ll be with the team for long after that.

THE FUTURE

Saying the Swedish juniors are looking bleak would be a little strong, but the quality of skiers at World Juniors was lagging behind Russia and Norway by a large gap. The only bright spot was Jennie Öberg who won bronze in the sprint at U23’s. She should have a few World Cup starts this season, but as we know the step from U23’s to World Cup is pretty substantial.

THE VERDICT

All facets of the Swedish team at the top seem to be going full-bore right now. Their feeder system is dwindling, but that shouldn’t matter for the next couple years with their current crop of super-talented athletes.

Stage 6: Cologna Still Leads

Another day, another great race from Cologna as he skied to a comfortable stage win to maintain his lead on the competition. Before today’s race, Sami Jauhojaervi and Alexander Legkov were the big casualties this year as both felt a little under the weather this morning and opted to not continue in this years Tour de Ski. Other big names to not continue included some sprinters in the form of Morilov, Modin, Scola, Tritscher, Simonlatser and Newell. Johan Olsson also withdrew from the competition before the race. Today’s A to B race format was also a pursuit and the athletes started behind Cologna with their deficit in the competition thus far.

The early going was a very lonely affair for the top four athletes Cologna, Kershaw, Hellner and Northug. They each had sizable time gaps in between each other which meant the first 15 minutes of the race was solo skiing. However, Hellner was slowly reeling in Kershaw for second place and by 12km? the Swede had erased the 32 seconds deficit he started the day with. It was not long before Kershaw let go of Hellner and the Swede continued forward as he was matching the speed of Cologna.

As Hellner left Kershaw, it meant that the Canadian was now again in no man’s land as he was a minute ahead of the chase pack that was 11 strong and composed of Harvey, Jaks, Northug, Rickardsson, Østensen, Perl, Heikkinen, Manificat, Gaillard, Clara and Bauer.

It was another 15km of solo skiing from Kershaw before the chase pack finally caught up to him as they continued to work efficiently and gain time on Cologna. In fact, from 7km to 27km the pack closed the gap from 2:04 to 1:24.

So when the long slightly downhill portion of the course came, it was shocking to see the chasers undo all that productive work as they the gap went from 1:24 back up to 1:56 in only 4km of relatively easy skiing.

They must have got an ear-full from the coaches because in the final nine kilometers of race, they kicked it up a gear and gained another 16 seconds to bring their deficit to 1:40 when they crossed the finish line. Much of the grunt work was done by Bauer and Harvey as they knew that they still have a chance at catching Cologna in the final two days of the competition.

At the finish line, it was Cologna who came across looking like he had just gone for a nice Sunday ski rather than a 36km race. Hellner looked a little wobbly on the skis as he finished a very good day while it was a mad sprint between the chase pack as Northug out sprinted for Jaks for third place.

RESULT
1. Dario Cologna
2. Marcus Hellner
3. Petter Northug

FASTEST TIMES OF THE DAY
1. Roland Clara
2. Jean Marc Gaillard
3. Maurice Manificat

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
1. Dario Cologna  2:59:44.9
2. Marcus Hellner 3:00:56.3
3. Petter Northug 3:01:35.2

What gets me is how composed Cologna in any type of race. Today, he was just as technically at kilometer one as he was as he came across the finish line. It’s very evident when others begin to tired and their balance starts to go and usually start dropping shoulder, but not Cologna. It’s simply amazing to watch.

Great work from Hellner today who actually managed to close the gap on Cologna slightly. Like Cologna, it was a very lonely race for Hellner as he skied the bulk of the race by himself after he overtook Kershaw for second place.

Also, great work from the French and Roland Clara who were 1:30 faster than Cologna over today’s 36km. Great work from them now puts them within two minutes of the lead and sets them up well for the final two days.

Today’s big mover was Vittoz who jumped from 26th to 16th and sits 2:58 behind Cologna. It seemed like the French had very good skis today as they had three of the top four fastest times today.

As for the Canadians, it’s now Harvey who sits in fifth overall as the top Canadian as Kershaw was eaten up by the pack, but still sits in 10th. The time between 3rd to 14th is almost non-existent so that 10th place could very well be 4th. There’s only nine seconds between Kershaw and third place Northug.

Tomorrow is a rest day before the final two days of this year’s Tour de Ski. The athletes will be doing everything in their power to maximize rest.

Til then.

Gällivare 4x10km: A Weekend for Hellner

Coming into the race, the Olympic champions were the favourites to bring home a win on home snow and they did as expected, but it was not as easy as in Vancouver. A sprint between Hellner and Legkov in the final stretch settled iw while Norway I and Switzerland had a battle for the bronze, but a fall by Curdin Perl while coming into the stadium resulted in Norway reaching the podium.

THE RACE

The shape of the race today had a whole new look to it. Without Northug on the anchor, there was not as much emphasis of teams trying to get away from Norway I. Early on, it was Mats Larsson and Evgeniy Belov led the way for most of the first 5km loop. It was bad news for Canada early on as the pack came through the first lap, the majority of the teams were still together, but disappointingly, Canada’s runner George Grey was losing contact with the lead pack.

With two kilometers left, Rønning deemed it necessary to open up the field and turned the crew, but he was joined with sprint-star Jönsson, Jauhojaervi and Kazakhstan’s Poltarinen. Together, the foursome opened up a 10 second gap on the next group of skiers.

Johhnsrud Sudby continued the good work that Rønning started and only Finland’s Lehtonen was able to stay with him early on. Sweden I’s Olsson was working hard to pull back time and after 4km in the second leg, the Swede was joined by Vylegzhanin and together they were able to join the front two at the 34 minute mark. After Sundby and Lehtonen were caught, Sundby completely let off the gas and the pace momentarily became pedestrian and gave a chance for more chasers to catch up. At one point the lead pack had ballooned to eight athletes but then thinned out to four teams; Russia I, Sweden I, Norway I, Kazakhstan,USA and Switzerland thanks to Cologna’s extremely fast second leg.

Vylegzhanin put in a sprint coming into the exchange to give Sedov a lead, but the advantage dissolved when Sedov realized it wouldn’t be smart to try to expand it with a group ready to hunt him down only seconds behind. Cologna also had a fantastic second leg for Switzerland and erased the 20+ second deficit he was left by Livers. Freeman also had another strong outing and had a great 10km which meant that when he handed off Hoffman, he was with the top six teams.

The third leg had a solid group of six consisting of Sweden I, Russia I, Kazakhstan, USA, Norway I and Switzerland, but the first to falter was the least experienced skier in the group. Noah Hoffman began to feel the hardships at about 4km and at the end of the first lap was nine seconds off the pace. Behind the young American was Sweden II skier Jorgen Brink who was in no-mans-land but could not real in the American.

Shortly after the start of the second lap, Kazakh Nikolay Chebotko was the next to find the pace being set by Rickardsson too much. But it was Sedov who was tactically superior on the leg. With a couple hundred meters before the 7.2km mark, Sedov pulled out and put in a burst of speed going up and over the timecheck which broke Jespersen and Rischer from the lead. Rickardsson appeared to be caught, but was able to recovery on the downhill and latch on for the ride into the exchange.

The final exchange had Sweden I and Russia I with no difference while Norway I and Switzerland were 16 seconds behind and in a fight for the final medal. At the exchange, Hellner was tagged first, but made sure Legkov led the way out. About 4km in, Legkov had enough and insisted on Hellner going some of the grunt work, but coming into the stadium, Legkov retook the lead.

A little further back, the battle for third between Sjur Røthe and Curdin Perl continued with Røthe leading the way for the majority of the first lap. On the second lap, Perl overtook the Norwegian but no attack was mounted.

Coming into the stadium, Hellner made his move and took over Legkov going into last left-hander. Credit to Legkov who didn’t make life easy for the Swede and going around the final right-handed into the straight stretch, Legkov tried to go wide and almost got tangled with Hellner, but Hellner did well and put in a burst to hold off Legkov for the win.

The race for third ended prematurely as Perl fell in the soft snow going around the left-hander which made life easy for Røthe as he was able to ski the last couple hundred meters easily to collect the bronze medal.

Results
1. Sweden I
2. Russia I
3. Norway I

REFLECTION

A very exciting race, especially if you are a casual American fan tuning in late on Eurosport, you would have been filled with false hope as Goldstrom and Dixon mistook Curdin Perl for Chris Cook for the entire final lap when in fact Cook was dropping places rapidly as the race progressed.

Regardless of the commentators’ blunder, what a great first three legs performance by the American men. A lot of attention was put on Freeman’s great performance, but had Newell not posted the 10th fastest time of the opening leg, the gap would have been too large for Freeman to close and would not have regained contact with the lead group. Hoffman tried valiently to stick with the leaders in the third leg, but was simply outclassed by the likes of Rickardsson and Sedov who shed anyone who tried to stick with them. Cook was the week link on the US team and lost 11 spot for the States in the final leg and were almost beaten by their friendly neighbours from the north..

As for Canada, well their Twitter account say it all. It was simply a week to forget and hopefully they can regroup and have a better outing in Kuusamo in four days time.

For Hellner, it was a great weekend double on home snow and thus far, it appears like he’s hit the ground running. With Northug being tested for potential mono, Hellner could make the most of the opportunity with Northug out even though the Swede has already said that he wants to win against the best, and that includes his Norwegian rival.

I’m unsure what happened to the French but Vittoz dropped out of the second leg with DNF’d the team for the day.

Some interesting performances included Bjørndalen who posted the fastest third leg, but no plaudits for his performance since Norway II was already out of contention by that point. Great race from Finland’s Juha Lallukka who posted the third best anchor leg and pulled Finland from 14th to 11th. Overall, a sub-par performance from the nation who is missing Heikinnen after his horrendous 82nd from yesterday. Hopefully he’ll find the form he had last year at this time sooner than later.

Jönsson impressed me with his opening leg today, he was able to stick with the leader group for the 10km. Last year he showed in the Tour de Ski that he does have the ability on a good day to mix it up in the distances.

Once again Jan has his split analysis and you can check it out here for the men’s relay.

Til Next Time.