SKI CLASSICS. The Pro Team Tempo event kicked off the new Visma Ski Classics season 2016 in the sunny valley around Livigno in Italy. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has lately been in a capricious mood, and Livigno is still out of snow. That didn’t hinder the organizers from putting together a great course, which for used for today’s 15-kilometer prologue (3 x 5 km). This event consisted of a mass start for women and a team tempo for men. The best female time was added to a pro team’s third best skier’s time, which was multiplied by three.

Photo by Magnus Östh / Visma Ski Classics

The women started their race quite slowly observing each other until the final loop when Britta Norgren Johansson picked up the pace with her strong double-poling. She did all the work on the course and had to let Lina Korsgren and Katerina Smutna pass her in the finish line. The remarkable fact in today’s race was that all women went double-poling all the way. Britta said that double-poling will be her technique throughout the season while Katerina was under the impression that perhaps a half of her races could still be done by using kick wax.

On the men’s side, the top three teams performed as expected, but the fight for the number one spot was a tough one. Team United Bakeries claimed the victory over Team Santander by 34 seconds. The third place went to Team Exspirit whose team members perfected their pre-race tactic; start fast but not too fast so that there’s still some energy and power left for the final kilometers. That’s exactly what they did, and the team finished a few seconds before the surprise team, Lager 157 Ski Team, led by Jörgen Brink, the three-time Vasaloppet winner.

The top teams all agreed that skiing on a flat course and in high altitude was quite challenging, but this tempo race should work in their favor come tomorrow and the actual La Sgambeda race. All skiers claimed that this was a perfect start for a season that could become the greatest of them all so far.

The action continues tomorrow when the shortened (24 km) La Sgambeda takes off in Livigno, Italy. The final results for the top three teams:
 

    TEAM UNITED BAKERIES                2:16:09

Johan Kjölstad, John Kristian, John Kristian Dahl, Öysten Pettersen, Tore Björnset Berdal, Masako Ishida, Astrid Öyre Slind
 

    TEAM SANTANDER                           2:16:45

Tord Asle Gjredalen, Anders Aukland, Snorri Einarsson, Öivind Moen Fjeld, Katerina Smutna

    TEAM EXSPIRIT                                2:16:53

Morten Eide Pedersen, Daniel Richardsson, Bill Impola, Jimmie Johnsson, Seraina Boner, Annika Löfström, Tuva Toftdahl Staver

press reelase
Visma Ski Classics
Sat, December 5, 2015 3:25 pm
www.vismaskiclassics.com