IDEA
The ski series "Tour de Ski" promises to become a tradition and one of the main events of the sports winter. In eight days, the strongest athletes will start six times. All races - from the sprint to the classic "thirty" - will be held non-stop, almost without rest and the right to make a mistake. Such a busy schedule was previously subject only to the bicycle industry and partly to flying skiers playing the famous “Four Jumps Tour” on New Year's Eve. Now a nomad camp of skiers will go on an extreme path along the snowy tracks of Germany and Italy.
REGULATIONS
Initially, the race was supposed to start on December 29 in Czech Nove Mesto, but due to lack of snow - a fatal problem this winter - the first stage was canceled. Thus, the stage race will begin on the last day of the outgoing year, December 31, in Munich. Then the participants will take a special bus to Oberstdorf, then to Asiago and Val di Fiemme. The winner will be determined by the sum of the results shown in all four stages. The regulations are harsh: a skier who has not finished at least once is excluded from the competition.
PRIZES
The main interest of riders, in addition to testing their physical abilities and bonuses for offsetting the World Cup, is a solid prize fund of one million Swiss francs (more than 630 thousand euros). Numerous sponsors of the Tour de Ski and the International Ski Federation will present champions 140 thousand Swiss francs, 100 thousand silver medalists, and 50 thousand each bronze medalists. The winners of the individual stages will not remain offended: they will receive 5 thousand francs.
EXPECTATIONS
What will be a multi-day race? This is the main question, to which no one still knows the answer. “The competition is new, and how the debut will be held is a big mystery,” Yury Borodavko, head coach of the Russian national team, vaguely remarked. - Of course, everyone studied the rules, but this is not easier. Imagine what endurance you need to have in order to run sprints and distance races equally fast throughout the week! This tour is a challenge for everyone, and most likely, universalists and tactics who will correctly distribute their forces and resources will win. ”
OUR
Our team sent 13 people to intelligence on the Tour de Ski - six women and seven men. The main hopes are associated with Olympic champion Eugene Dementiev and the opening of a new season, world champion among juniors Alexander Legkov. At the World Cup stage in La Clouse (France), both entered the top three winners in the “thirty” by skating, losing only to the famous German Tobias Angerer. For Dementyev, an excellent finisher and strategist, Tour is a great chance to reaffirm himself. No one doubts his capabilities over long distances in a free style, it is unlikely that there will be problems with the sprint, which will take place in a somewhat unusual format - it will not be short, but long (up to 3-4 kilometers). The main doubts are caused by two classic races of 15 and 30 kilometers. Legkov’s problems, like Dementiev’s, are hidden in the “classic”, which he pathologically dislikes. Unfortunately, the winner of the Olympic Games Vasily Rochev, who caught a cold, will not take part in the "Tour". Also in the team are three newcomers who did not take part in the starting stages of the World Cup - Sergey Shiryaev, Ilya Chernousov and Dmitry Osinkin. All proved to be great at the Russian Championship in Syktyvkar.
Women have a more modest picture. Our leading skiers, Olympic champions Yulia Chepalova, Larisa Kurkina and Natalya Baranova miss the post-Olympic season. Even the queen of the Turin Games, Evgeny Medvedev, does not compensate for their absence. In the first stages of the World Cup, the Russians only had silver in the sprint of Natalia Matveeva. But she will not run at the Tour de Ski - the coaches decided to save. The remaining skiers have results in the area of the second or third dozen. Better than others were Olga Zavyalova, Natalya Korosteleva, Irina Artemova and Julia Chekaleva, who were included in the application. To them was added the 35-year-old Elena Vedeneeva, who worked the Russian championship “perfectly”.
FAVORITES
If the chances of our skiers are very vague, then this can not be said about the rivals. For women, Norwegian Marit Bjorgen, Czech Katerina Neumannova, Estonian Kristina Schmigun, Finnish Virpi Kuytunen and, perhaps, Slovenian Petra Maidich will claim victory. Men should closely monitor the Norwegians Eldar Renning and Jens-Arne Svartedal, the Swedes Matthias Fredriksson and Anders Sodergren, the French Vincent Wittose and the Germans Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer. For the last one you need an eye and an eye ...