Dusseldorf Preview

This weekend marks the 10^th edition of the Düsseldorf sprints on the Rhine. It’s one of the more exciting weekends on the World Cup schedule with the sprint with numerous thrill and spills in the individual freestyle sprint and the team sprint. There are some big names taking the week off including the current World Cup leaders Marit Bjørgen and Petter Northug. Norway will also be resting Skofterud, Johaug and Jacobsen this weekend. Sweden has also opted to not send Charlotte Kalla and Kowalczyk will also take a break, last year it was the only race she didn’t take part.

Last year, the now retired Arianna Follis and Emil Jönsson were crowned the king and queen of Düsseldorf with the Italian women and Norwegian men winning the team relays. There are no new adjustments to the course from last year and the women will be skiing the 830 meter loop once while the men will go around twice.

On Saturday, it’s the individual freestyle sprint and on the women’s side it’s a rather weak field as Bjørgen, Skofterud, Johaug, Jacobsen, Kalla and Kowalczyk are all out. Bjørgen, Kalla and Skofterud were the three athletes that were on the podium in last weekend’s sprint. For this weekend, Randall is the odds-on favourite to take the victory. Last year she was runner-up in this race and it’s a course suits her to a tee as the American is a much better freestyle skier than classic. In addition, the course rather flat which means she’ll be able to showcase her impressive power. I really have a hard time seeing anyone beating Randall with the current form she’s been in this year.

Other athletes that should be in the mix are Fabjan who finished third last year as well as Falla who was the victim of bad luck last weekend and crashed out of her heat. I’ll be interested to see how well Matveeva does and Crawford should have an outside chance at a top six finish tomorrow. Like Randall, this course suits her as she is powerful and prefers skating.

The Swede’s are expecting to have at least one athlete on the podium this weekend with Brodin, Ingemarsdotter and Falk all racing this weekend. Last year Falk and Brodin finished 5^th and 6^th respectively and the year before Falk burst onto the scene and won her first every sprint.

For the men, Northug will be the main name not racing this weekend and will be continuing his preparations for the Tour de Ski. Emil Jönsson will be making his season debut and will look to repeat last year’s result. Norway will be bringing Hattestad, Pettersen, Brandsdal, Kjølstad, Gløersen and youngster Tomas Northug and Pål Golberg, all who have a very realistic chance of making the finals. Russia has also brought their A-team led by Petukhov who prefers freestyle sprints and has won in Düsseldorf in the past.

UPDATE: Jönsson announced he will not be racing this weekend on his Twitter account.

I’ll be interested in Newell who traditionally qualifies very strong in Düsseldorf; 3^rd, 3^rd and 1^st in the previous three years, but he fail to do much in the heats. Continuing with the North Americans, Valjas should also have a very strong weekend and will be looking to continue his good run of form after his 5^th place last weekend.

On Sunday is the sprint relay and on the women’s side, it should be a tight race between the Finns, Norwegians and Swede’s. The Slovenians will have a good chance too if they have the Fabjan/Visnar working at full speed. Last year, it looked like Slovenia were on their way to the win until Fabjan put her pole between her legs and crashed inside the final 100 meters and finished in 8^th place.

For the men, Norway, Sweden and Russia will probably be putting in two world-class teams each which will make the field one of the most competitive all season long. I have a good feeling for Canada in the team relay and the Canadians have the option of Valjas, Harvey and Kershaw to choose from which bodes very well for a chance on the podium.

That’s it for me, talk to you on Saturday. Stayed tuned to the Twitter machine for updates as news pours in as the weekend nears.

Til Then.

Kuusamo – Ruka Triple Preview

This weekend will mark the second edition of the Kuusamo mini-tour, or the Ruka Triple as it has been named. Last year it was Bjørgen who skied to victory while Legkov took the men’s title in brilliant fashion. This year the workers putting on the weekend have been hard at work making sure there is enough snow produced for the races and enough was made for a 5km the athletes will be skiing on this weekend.

The races get started on Friday with a 1.2km classic sprint for the women and Bjørgen is the overwhelming favourite. The course is the same one that has been run in Kuusamo for many years where all the action will be on the uphill coming back into the stadium. With the first sprint of the season, we’ll get to see some familiar faces we have yet to see this year such as the young Swede’s Falk and Brodin as well as the young Norwegian Falla and Slovakian Prochazkova. Kowalczyk, Kalla, Saarinen and Jacobsen should also be in the mix. I’ll be interested to see how Randall gets on as she is a much stronger freestyler than classic skier, but has had a very stong start to the season thus far so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her in the final come Friday afternoon.

UPDATE: The women’s start-list is out and there is 90 athletes starting tomorrow.

The men will be skiing a slightly longer 1.4km loop for the sprint. The big news is that Emil Jonsson will not be taking part this weekend as he is still recovering from a thigh injury which opens up the field a bit. Other than that all the big names will be in the field. We will get to see the big names like Petukhov, Morilov, Modin, Hattestad, and the rest of the Sprint Gutta. All-rounders like Northug, Harvey, Cologna, Hellner and Jauhojaervi will be making a bid for a podium spot in the very deep and talented field.

UPDATE: The men’s start-list is out and the field is massive with 126 athletes expected to start tomorrow!

On Saturday, it will be very short 5km freestyle (course profile) for the women and time for distance skiers to come to the fore. Johaug will be the big mover on the day as her sprinting abilities are on par with paint drying when compared to the likes of Bjørgen. I expect to see Kalla have a very strong race as skating is her bread and butter. We will be able to get a better idea of who will be on the podium for the Ruka Triple by the time the day is over.

For the men, it will be 2x5km (same 5km loop as the women) for them and distance specialists such as Bauer, Olsson, Legkov, Vylegzhanin, and Manificat will looking to climb the ladder. It will be difficult as Harvey, Northug, Cologna and Hellner look to be in great shape and this type of  race weekend plays right into the all-rounders favour.

Sunday it the final day and the women will be 10km classic pursuit. I expect Bjørgen to have the mini-tour wrapped up by now and the real race will be for second place as it will be a hunter-style pursuit. The race between Johaug, Kalla, Kowalczyk, Jacobsen and Saarinen will be a very enticing affair and will come down to mental toughness.

The men will be going 15km in the stride-n-glide and numerous scenarios could play out. 1). Northug will be in the lead group and wait until the final hill to make his move to gain the lead and dictate the pace until the home stretch and out sprint the others. 2). Harvey, Legkov, Hellner or another athlete see the writing on the wall if they don’t make a big move in the race and attempt to break the field open. Regardless of if they do, it will make for a much more interesting race for the viewers and will thin the field out so very few are left if a sprint finish is in the cards.

A minor note is that Tim Tscharnke was not added to the German team for the weekend. I’m not sure if it’s due to injury or poor performance, but definitely perked my interest when he was absent from the names of German athletes racing this weekend.

And last but not least, remember to enter your picks for WhoWins. Last weekend there was an amazing 234 people. I had a pretty poor opening weekend and finished just inside the top 100 in 95^th. Like Sedov and Chernousov, I will be looking to redeem myself and put in a more solid effort. You can see how you stack up against this blogger as I’m under the NordicXplained username this year.

That’s all I got for now. Talk to you on Twitter and back here after the sprint races!

Sjusjøen Relay Preview

Sunday is relay day and the teams are set. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and expect a very exciting race on the men’s side while the women’s race will be very predictable with Norway winning.

WOMEN

Unless something drastic happens, Norway I (Skofterud, Johaug, Steira, and Bjørgen) should easily win tomorrow’s relay. The real race will happen for the fight for second. I expect that it will come down to Norway II (Jacobsen, Østberg, Berger and Kristoffersen) and Sweden I (Ingemarsdotter, Haag, Rydvist, Kalla) for the battle for silver after they drop Finland I (Lahteenmaki, Saarinen, Roponen, Sarasoja) in the third leg.

Looking at the start list tomorrow really drives the point home at how stacked some countries are compared to others. After Norway, Sweden and Finland, the talent for other countries drops off considerably. Russia use to be up there too but we all know how they’re getting on lately.

Predictions

1. Norway (Skofterud, Johaug, Steira, and Bjørgen)
2. Norway II (Jacobsen, Østberg, Berger and Kristoffersen)
3. Sweden (Ingemarsdotter, Haag, Rydvist, Kalla)

MEN

This should be a very entertaining race tomorrow and with new looks for all the big teams, it makes the race very unpredictable. Let’s start with Sweden who swapped Södergren for Halfvarsson after Halfvarsson’s great race today. Sweden has also reshuffled their order putting Hellner on the lead-off leg and Halfvarsson on the anchor.  Olsson is usually the lead-off, but by winning the freestyle race today, Sweden has opted to put in on the third leg. Rickardsson will be skiing the second leg.

Norway has also made changes to their Norway I team for tomorrow by putting in Krogh on the second leg and Berger on the third leg. Rønning and Northug will be skiing the lead-off and anchor legs respectively.

Italy has put Clara and Hofer on the third and fourth legs while Piller-Cottrer and di Centa will be first and second leg while Russia has demoted Sedov and Chernousov to their second team in place of Belov and Turychev. Canada also has a new look to which Valjas will ski the anchor leg. Harvey will not race tomorrow and will be replace by Nishikawa.

Predictions

1. Norway I (Rønning, Krogh, Berger, Northug)
2. Sweden (Hellner, Rickardsson, Olsson, Halfvarsson)
3. Switzerland (Livers, Cologna, Fischer, Perl)