How The FIS Can Learn from The IBU

It’s no secret that the FIS is on a mission to make cross-country skiing a more alluring and captivating sport to the masses. With the addition of sprints, pursuits, Tours, the Alpe Cermis and the proposed 5km up/5km down race in Szklarska Poreba, Poland for 2012; the sport is hardly a mirror image of what is once was.

Since the beginning of the year, NordicXplained has begun to catalogue biathlon .torrents along with the cross-country .torrents. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of biathlon in the respect that I don’t have the time to follow the sport. Something I hope to correct in the next few years. What has struck me is how structured the races are. The sprints, pursuits, individual starts and relays all have a fixed distance for both men and women. However, the most intriguing aspect is the mixed relay; two men and two women from the same country make up the racing quartet.

With the FIS showing no signs of slowing down the evolution of the sport, it seems like a mixed relay in cross-country would be a fantastic idea. Just thinking about the format in the cross-country arena makes my mind race with excitement. The tactics, team orders and a twist on an old tradition makes the mixed relay a recipe for success. It wouldn’t have to be a radical change to the schedule either. If the FIS added only one or two mixed relay events per year in the calendar and taking out a team sprint or something else; I’m sure no one would make too much of a fuss.

For distances, it would be easy enough to meet halfway. Instead of a 5km for the women and a 10km for the men it could be a 7/7.5km for everyone.

If the FIS loosened the reigns and allowed teams to order their four skiers in any way they pleased would mean their would be a possibility of men and women racing the same leg. The amount of tactics from teams would make the release of a start-list would carry as much anticipation as a weigh-in before a professional fight.

With the mix of men, women, freestyle and classic techniques, this relay would prove to be the ultimate race to show which is the best distance country in the world. It would be the new staple to show which country is truly the strongest cross-country nation. The thought of a Norwegian contingency of Bjørgen, Sundby, Størmer-Steira, and Northug against a Swedish team of Rickardsson, Haag, Kalla and Hellner would perk up even the most casual ski fan.

With the strong showing in La Clusaz from the Swiss men and the domination of the Russian men in the individual races so far this year; to have them paired with their female teammates would show the true national team colours. It would also allow teams that aren’t powerhouses in the men or women’s division to form teams that could challenge for the win on any given Sunday. The Germans relay could look like Teichmann, Sachenbacher-Stehle, Fessel and Angerer while the Italians could take the form of Longa, di Centa, Piller-Cotter, and Follis with the first two legs for the classic specialist and the final two for the freestylers.

Imagine the tactical battle on the final leg if Northug had to close a three-four minute gap on Italy’s Arianna Follis to take the victory. This would solve the riddle of how to crack the Northug sprint finish when he is at his best too.

For these reasons, I think the FIS has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sprinkling only one or two of these races into the calendar year would spice things up for the FIS without ruining the integrity of the sport and pull it further from its roots. Holding this race format only once or twice per year would make the race a spectacle much like the Drammen sprints or the Holmenkollen 30km/50km.

Will the FIS take note? I’m not sure, I’m just a blogger rambling on about a vision I have. The idea however does seem simple enough to execute and a twist on an old favourite. I personally can’t see anything that could possibly go wrong. That’s just my 2 cents.

From myself on behalf of NordicXplained, I want to wish everyone the very best this Christmas holidays and hope you log many pleasurable kilometers/miles on the trails with friends, family and loved ones.

Davos Sprints: Same Old, Same Old

Sorry about the delay folks, a vicious bout of food poisoning had me doing the old fashion bed-to-toilet shuttle run all of yesterday and last night, but I finally got around to the race this morning so here it goes…

Today (yesterday) saw the continued domination of Bjørgen and Jönsson continued in the sprint arena today. Both won handily in their finals to take the victories 1600 meters above sea level. Since Friday, there had been 40 centimeters of snow that had fallen, but the course staff did an excellent job of making the tracks suitable for racing.

Here’s the play-by-play from the heats…

1/4 FINALS-WOMEN

1. All three Swedes who qualified in the women’s heats were desperately unlucky to be all in the first heat. Bjørgen took the lead and had a ski length lead over Lina Anersson after the first climb up the hill. Visnar, Andersson and Ingmarsdotter chased with Ingmarsdotter over taking Visnar in the finishing straight to earn third. Lina Andersson followed Bjørgen across the finish line for the second.

2. Follis took the early lead but was quickly over-taken by Kylloenen. However, it was Follis who lead through the lap closely followed by Brun-Lie and Falla going up the main hill the second time. Follis pulled away from the pack on the hill the second time and only Falla was able to followed right through to the finish.

3. Peraelae was the quickest out of the blocks, but it was Jacobsen led at the halfway point. Fessel retook the lead with Jacobsen and Nikolaeva stalking going through the hairpin turn before the main hill. The German destroyed the pack going up the main hill to stretch them out, but Fajban realized this and moved up to third and in contact with the German. However, the Norwegian was able to grab an automatic qualifying spot and hold off the hard charging Slovenian.

4. Majdic took the early lead with Muranen behind and it stayed that way until the second time up the main hill. Then Muranen put in a big burst up the hill and passed Majdic and Sarasoja followed suit. Coming into the finish, Muranan took the direct line which bumped Majdic into third and the Sloevnian was unable to recover. However, it was the fastest heat by far which meant that Majdic and Korosteleva grabbed the lucky loser spots.

5. Kowalczyk and Hermann early leaders going to the hairpin. Kowalczyk led up the first hill, and most of the second lap. Coming into the finish, Randall moved to the front and put in a burst to make sure she won the heat. Kowalczyk had to try hard to hold off Madge Genuin  who was coming up fast on the Pole.

MEN

1. Off the start, Switzerland’s Joeri Kindschi put a pole between his legs and fell down but was able to regain contact with the field before the first hill. Pellegrino was at front and never looked back. He was joined by teammate Renato Pasini and the two opened up a gap on the field along with Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson. At the finish, it was Pasini who took the heat win with Pellegrino beating out Halfvarsson for second place.

2. Newell led through the first half of the race and was joined by Pål Golberg and Hattestad up front. Hattestad takes lead on downhill, Newell and Hattestad have broken with Scola close behind. In the finish it was Hattestad with the win and Scola and Newell lunged for second. It had to go to photo finish to realize that the Italian was a toe ahead of Newell.

3. With two Russians in this heat, it was the 26th fastest qualifier Michail Devjatiarov who set the early pace and was followed by Jönsson, but through the lap the Swede took over from the Russian and went three wide with the Devjatiarov and Hellner. Hellner led up main hill the second time with Dejartov and Jönsson breathing down his neck, but it was a classic Jonsson finish as both the Swede’s went through. Devjatiarov faded late while Petukhov came on strong in the second lap to grab one of the lucky loser spots.

4. Cologna took the early lead with Valjas tucking in behind in second. Cologna opened up a lead on the downhill, but everyone came back together on the second rotation. Behind Cologna, Modin came up to Valjas while Gløersen went through to second on the inside. Great skiing from Modin who went from third to first in the downhill snake turn, to lead into the finish. Modin was able to win the heat with Cologna out lunging Gløersen for second place. However, the heat was fast enough for Gløersen to get the second lucky loser spot.

5. Harald Wurm almost ate snow early on but did not lose much time. Clausen took early lead and was up and over the hill, but Morilov was leading on the downhill. Going through the second time, it was the other Norwegian Brandsdal who took the lead and coming into the finish, only Morilov seemed to keep pace as the Norwegian and Russian easily advanced.

1/2 FINALS – WOMEN

1. Jacobsen was the early leader with Follis and Andersson tucking in behind. Bjørgen was back in fourth position going up the main hill. Going down, Jacobsen and Follis put a big gap in between them and the other four, but Bjørgen had amazing skied and was able to glide right into the back. It was Follis who led up the hill as Bjørgen came through and was in second on the downhill, going through the snake turn Bjørgen seemlessly went by Follis on the inside. At the finish it was Bjørgen from Follis who was able to hold off Majdic. This heat was a startling seven seconds quicker than the quarter-final. Majdic again grabbed a lucky loser spot along with Jacobsen.

2. Muranen lead out, but Kowalczyk took the lead up and over the main hill. Going through the lap, Randall moved into second while Fessel moved into third. Going up the hill the second time, it was Randall and Kowalczyk two wide and were able to burn off the others on the downhill. Coming into the finish, Randall pulled out and easily passed Kowalczyk for the heat win.

MEN

1. Three Italians in the mens first final. Hattestad and Pellegrino led the pack up the hill the first time. The Italians Pellegrino and Pasini pulled and passed the Norwegian. Gløersen tried to take over but it was three Italians in the lead going down the hill. Near fall between the two Italians, Pasini and Pelligrino as they went through the hiarpin turn a second time and got temporarily tangled. At the finish, it was Pelligrino and Scola able to go to the final.

2. Petukhov was in last at the end of the first lap, but moved up to the front by the end finishing straight. However, it as Jönsson who uses his trump card again, but Petukhov took the victory just a toe ahead of Jönsson as they both stepped off the gas with ten meters to go. The heat was fast enough for both Morilov and Cologna to earn lucky loser spots

FINAL-WOMEN

Majdic led out with Follis and Bjørgen right behind, Randall was in fourth. Majdic continued to lead with Bjørgen moving right in behind Majdic coming through the lap. Bjørgen moved ahead through the lap and was followed by Kowalczyk, with Randall trying to keep up with Follis on her tails. Coming into the stadium, Bjørgen had a healthy lead but behind Follis was pulling through for second. On the other side, Randall was coming up on Kowalczyk and appeared to be passing her before Kowalczyk completely cut her off. This meant that Kowalczyk temporarily earned third place. However, the jury quickly relegated Kowalczyk to sixth place which meant that Randall earned her second podium finish in as many weekends.

RESULT
1. Marit Bjørgen
2. Arianna Follis
3. Kikkan Randall

MEN

Jönsson and Pellegrino took the initial lead, but coming around the hairpin up the hill it was Petukhov who took the lead to dictate the pace. Down the hill and into the stadium for the lap, he was followed by Cologna. Jönsson was able to squeak by Petukhov going around the hairpin with a great bit of ++italicize++ track-craft to take the lead up and over the hill while Petukhov and Cologna scrambled to try to minimize the damage. Coming into the finishing straight it was Jönsson from Petukhov and Cologna and that did not change at the finish line. Jönsson put on the turbo to hold off the attack from  Petukov and Cologna.

RESULT
1. Emil Jönsson
2. Alexey Petukhov
3. Dario Cologna

REFLECTION

I feel like I would be wasting words if I talked about Bjørgen and Jönsson’s awesomeness. At this point in the season, it already feels like beating a dead horse when I talk about them and their dominance.

The team that has really impressed the past couple weeks is the Italians. Led by Follis, the men’s sprint team has emerged from nowhere to be a dominant force. They had four men including top qualifier and junior athlete Federico Pellegrino in the top 30 today. Pellegrino and Scola made it all the way to the final, but failed to make it onto the podium. As for Scola, another very impressive performance with his fourth place. Hopefully his good run of form will last a little longer. It’s always great to see fresh faces on the sprint scene.

For the Italian women, there were three women; Follis, Genuin, and relative unknown Elisa Brocard to make it into the top. I´m not sure how much the wax technicians have to do with it, but watching the race, the Italian skis were flying. Regardless, another great team effort.

The majority of the talking points today, came in the women’s final with Kowalczyk and Randall. I was glad to see the FIS take such swift action on Kowalczyk after her blatant and dirty block on Randall. If you thought it was harsh to relegate the Pole to 6th place, then sorry, but you are an idiot.

Rightfully so, Randall got on the podium after a very good day for her. I’m sure the reaction will be beaten to death over at FasterSkier so I won’t go into the details. Apparently, the Polish Ski Association have filed an appeal on behalf of Kowalczyk, but frankly, I have no clue what purpose this is going to serve except a massive waste of paper-work. If you have seen the incident, Kowalczyk was in her own lane, but as soon as Randall started to come up on her right side, she moved into the American’s lane for no reason. There was nothing to cause Kowalczyk to move lanes other than the fact that she was going to be past and knocked off the podium.

It’s interesting to note that Randall and Kowalczyk were in all the same heats, and in all the heats, Randall passed Kowalczyk in the final straight stretch each time expect the final.

Another skier that has me slightly worried is Majdic the past couple weeks. Her fourth place today is awefully flattering as she advanced to the final with lucky loser spots and hasn’t shown the dominant Majdic we came to expect last year. Hopefully she’ll turn it around in time for the Tour de Ski in less than three weeks.
Finally, when was the last time a World Cup sprint final didn’t feature any Norwegian men?

Til next time.

Davos 15km: A Kazakh Surprise

While it was the usual running in the women’s race, no one could have predicted what happened in the men’s 15km classic today. Heavy favourites included Dario Cologna and the Russians before today’s proceedings, but at the finish line, it was the 23-year-old Alexey Poltoranin to take the win for his first ever World Cup podium.

THE RACE

Like the women’s race, the men’s red group started in the middle of the 81 strong start list instead of at the end because of the snow conditions. Before the red group started, there were some very strong starts, most notably Italy’s Giovanni Gullo who led for a while at the first time check.

Last year’s Russian “Man of Mystery” was Artem Zhmurko, it looks like Alexander Bessmertnykh is in the running for this year’s award as he started with bib eight in only his second World Cup start of his career and at 1.6km, was 16th fastest after all 81 starters had gone through the check point.

Gullo wasn’t the only Italian that started strong though, as both di Centa and Piller-Cottrer both came through the time check near the top. Next it was Northug who came through and was well within the mix and only two seconds down on the current lead.

The best time started dropping at 1.6km when Rønning finally bested Gullo’s time but not long after it was Bauer to take 1.5 seconds out, then Rickardsson another 6.5 seconds out. After all the athletes went through the time check, it was the final four starters of the red group who held the four fastest times.

Further down the track, it was the Bessmertnykh who had a massive lead on the early skiers at 5kms with Gullo’s fast start appearing to be too fast as he started to slip off the lead.

After a great start and lead at 1.6km, Rickardsson began to struggle and was found wanting as his five second advantage over Legkov at 1.6km turned into a 12 second deficit at 5km. Legkov, seemed to be pulling away from the field and at 5km and had Cologna three seconds back and Bauer nine seconds back.

Skipping ahead in the action a bit, the race really started to take shape when Gaillard came through the 7.0km mark fastest. However, The leaders were all starting to rise to the top including Jauhojaervi who took the leaders chair from Gaillard after a slow start.

Just as Jauhojaervi finished, it was the Kazakh Poltoranin to take the lead at the 7km time check after a quiet but comfortable start. It turned out that Legkov was the only athlete to ski faster than him through the halfway point of the race.

Out on the course, it was Vylegzhanin who was turning screw and his pacing seemed to be great as he was the leader at the last time check; four seconds over Legkov and Poltoranin. However, something horrible went wrong on course as the Russia lost 15 seconds in the final 3.4km.

The Kazakh continued to have an incredible race, and at the finish, had a six second advantage on the current leader Jauhojaervi. From the leaders chair, the Kazakh watched as 15 more athletes came across the finish line trying to best his time but ultimately failed. The closest was Legkov who desperately lunged but came up 0.9 seconds short of the win.

RESULTS
1. Alexey Poltoranin
2. Alexander Legkov
3. Dario Cologna

I know some might be skeptical, but when I was watching the race, the two athletes that looked the smoothest through the first intermediate time check for me was Poltoranin and Sundby. Obviously, I thought Poltoranin would have dropped off and finished around 15th or so.

A truly memorable race from Poltoranin who continues his great start to the season. His first two races in the Ruka Triple were great but failed to put it all together in the pursuit. Today, he put that behind him to win his first World Cup in 38 attempts. His pacing was perfect, and while never in first at any intermediate splits, was always in the top 10 spots.

It did look like the victory was going to Maxim Vylegzhanin at the last time check, but I’m not sure went wrong with him. He lost a monumental amount of time in the last 3.4km and some think he must have crashed on a downhill.

Other highlights were the Finns in Jauhojaervi and Heikkinen who had great races. Jauhojaervi was the fastest athlete over the last half of the race and as he was down 22.5 seconds at 7.0km, he finished only 5.9 seconds behind the win.

Much of the Norwegian attention was on Northug and after a strong start, he finished a respectable 13th on the day. Northug lost 39 seconds in the final 10km after being ahead of Poltoranin after 5km.

However, props to Sudby and Rønning who finished sixth and eighth today. A lot of publicity was directed at how the Norwegian men tend to do poorly in Davos, so to have two athletes in the top ten is a step in the right direction as the Norwegian men continue to find the form of their team from years past.

Thanks to Jan at WorldofXC, it’s now easier than ever to analyze the race thanks to his split analysis, which is why this is the first race of the inaugural Teichmann Award in honour of Axel Teichmann slow starts and strong finishes. This award will be handed out to the athletes who skied a “slow and steady wins the race” mentality. Today’s recipients are Russia’s Petr Sedov and Devon Kershaw were 40th and 50th respectively after 1.6km but at the finish line were impressive 9th and 15th.

For you trivia nerds, today was the first World Cup race that Petr Sedov finished outside the top 10 in an individual start.

Finally a random musing, anyone see Roger Aa Djupvik today. It was the first time I took notice of him and he looks like a hybrid of Sundby’s upper body and Rønning’s legs in terms of technique. Anyone agree with me or do I just watch too much cross-country skiing?

Til Tomorrow.