Norwegians lead pack ahead of XC opener

It’s just 48 hours to go for the start of the World Cup cross-country ski season -- and Olympic year -- and, oh, what a season it should be.

The U.S. cross-country team has come off a very positive last weekend of racing at the town of Beitostolen, Norway with Kris Freeman’s pair of fifth places and Kikkan Randall’s fourth place. So I talked with U.S. skier Andy Newell two days ago to get us caught up on the upcoming opener.

“The snow is amazing at Beito, which has made the last week of training really productive," he said. "It’s just a small ski town, so there’s not a lot going on, but the team is enjoying some Scando cabin living with skiing right out the door.” Beitostolen is just over 200 kilometers from Oslo.

On the terrain of the ski tracks, Newell said, “The profiles for the courses are not super tough -- I don’t think by World Cup standards -- but there still is a lot of climbing and one substantial hill between three and four kilometers. There are some tricky downhill corners where we could see some action during the relays.”

The Canadian team has been training and racing in Sweden and Coach Dave Wood says all is fine with his camp. They plan on spending the holidays in Europe and then going to the Tour de Ski. Devon Kershaw scored his first win of the pre-Cup season in a 15km skate event, and Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford returned to racing for the first time in over a year.

Canadian phenom, Alex Harvey, whose father Pierre was one of Canada’s skiing champions in the 1980s wrote to me in an email, “I am excited to get this World Cup to start. I know I am not in great shape yet. It seems to take me a little longer than others to reach top form. I will use the first World Cup period to train and get more fit. It should get better week to week.”

I’m thinking he will reach his peak form about February, what about you?

On home snow, expect the Norwegian men and women to be dominant. Petter Northug won last’s week 15km, Martin Johsrud took the 10km title, and they have much depth. Marit Bjorgen -- the overall women's World Cup winner in 2005 and 2006 -- was off to a flying start last weekend, as was Kristin Stormer Steira with a second-place finish. The youthful talent of Marthe Kristoffersen was third. Her first World Cup race was in Bietostolen in 2007. Then there’s Vibeke Skofterud, and more depth -- i.e. Therese Johaug.

The Swedish team also had a flying start in races last weekend at home in Bruksvallarna. Charlotte Kalla won her first big race of the winter over Anna Haag. Polish skier and overall World Cup champ, Justyna Kowalczyk took the sprint win, while the Swede Emil Joensson won for the men.

World Cup runner-up last season, Petra Majdic will be on hand for the first race, as well. She had been racing in Sweden.

Finnish coach Magnar Dalen is expecting a "medium start" for his charges but expects to be very strong on the home snows of Kuusamo at the second World Cup stop. His women’s team is also crazy fast: Watch for the likes of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen.

Squadra Italia trainer Silvio Fauner said his teams are led by Pietro Piller Cottrer for the men and Arianna Follis, Marianna Longa and Fulvio Valbusa on the women's side. Not much of a surprise there. Injured skier Renato Pasini, told me this week that though his shoulder is not ready for racing, he has been training in Norway and hopes to return to the tour at Dusseldorf.

Defending World Cup champion Dario Cologna from Switzerland will race but did have an early fall injury that hampered his training.

The FIS says that 28 nations will be represented in Norway and an expected field size of 240 skiers.

-- The USA Nordic Combined team is back soaring on snow, instead of plastic, and started jumping in Park City this past Tuesday. The K90 is in awesome shape, and the team gave a big shout out to Jamie Kimball and his entire crew at UOP (Utah Olympic Park) for getting the hill ready. Head coach Dave Jarrett, who celebrates his birthday this week, said they expect one week of training in Park City before they head to Lillehammer. Many jumpers are on the Park City hills this week including Project X (the developmental program) and the women’s U.S. jump squad.

Coach Jarrett was also happy to report that, “Johnny Spillane took his first jumps since August and that the knee seemed to handle everything fine. Also we expect Anders (Johnson of Project X) and Eric (Camerota) to be jumping by December 1 or earlier.” Both have been sidelined with injuries. The U.S. combined team also skied on a pass outside of Steamboat Springs, Colo., and had a weekend of skiing at White Pine in Park City.

-- With less than two weeks before the FIS World Cup ski jumping circuit opens in Kuusamo, Finland, my sources have told me that the German ski jumping squad has been decided upon for the opener. Martin Schmitt, Michael Uhrmann, Michael Neumayer, Georg Spath, Andreas Wank and Pascal Bodmer are expected to be jump starters for head coach Werner Schuster's star-studded squad. The German team is training in Klingenthal and will arrive in Finland on Nov. 24. It is being reported that the German jumpers may enter the start of the World Cup season without any jumps on snow. They have been doing all their training so far on the icy in run and plastic jumps.

Team USA's Project X team will also go to Finland with Johnny Lyons, Mike Glasder, Nick Fairall and Nick Alexander.

-- I leave you with one final thought on what Andy Newell said this week about the U.S. cross-country squad: ”Kris and Kikkan both had great results this past weekend, which will be great for their confidence going into this weekend. I think the whole team is pretty stoked right now with the way things are going. We don’t put too much stock in results for these first FIS races; it’s just to get a feel for racing. We’ve made it through the first week without any illness, which is exactly what we wanted to do to prepare for these first World Cups.”

Well said, Andy, well said.

Let the races begin! It should be a great season, and I wish you all good luck and great racing and flying.