Nordic Opening

The Nordic Opening (for sweeps in Ruka and Ruka Triple in sweeps in Lillehammer and Lillehammer triple ) is a competition in cross-country skiing , which in the context of cross-country skiing World Cup will be held at the beginning of the season. Like the Tour de Ski and the Cross-Country World Cup Final , the competition, which consists of several stages, was held with three stages for the first time in the 2010/11 season .

Stages

1st stage (sprint)

Like the Tour de Ski and the Cross-Country World Cup Final, the Nordic Opening also starts with a prologue. The prologue is held as a sprint competition for both women and men. During the qualification, the currently best 30 athletes of the overall World Cup start in a previously drawn order in the first group. Then all other starters with World Cup points go to the start. Athletes without World Cup points start according to their FIS sprint points. Athletes with the highest FIS sprint points start last in the qualification.

For the 30 best athletes who have reached the final, bonus seconds will be awarded for the overall ranking according to the final ranking. The bonus seconds will be deducted from the athlete's end time from the competition.

space	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13-15	16-20	21-25	26-30
Bonus seconds	30th	27	24	23	22nd	21st	16	15th	14th	13	12	11	5	4th	3	2

2nd stage (individual competition)

All participating athletes start in reverse order of the current overall ranking of the Nordic Opening after the first competition. The 2nd stage will be held as an individual competition with an individual start.

3rd stage (individual competition / handicap start)

The last competition of the Nordic Opening is held as an individual competition in the handicap start. This means that the start takes place according to the current position in the overall ranking and with the respective arrears of the athletes on the overall leader. A wave start can occur with very long time intervals. Here athletes with different deficits on the overall leader start simultaneously. The athlete who reaches the finish line first is the winner of the Nordic Opening. The daily rating is created according to the time of day for the specific kilometers of the stage and can therefore deviate from the finish.

time limit

As with the Tour de Ski, athletes who exceed a certain time limit during an individual competition can be excluded from the Nordic Opening. In competitions with a distance of less than 5 km, the time limit is 23% longer than the winning time for women and 20% longer than the winning time for men. For stages longer than 5 km, the percentages are 18 for women and 15 for men. Athletes who exceed these percentages will be excluded from the Nordic Opening. The jury can adjust these values ​​under special conditions.

Venues

season	Stage location
2010/11	Kuusamo
2011/12	Kuusamo
2012/13	Kuusamo
2013/14	Kuusamo
2014/15	Lillehammer
2015/16	Ruka
2016/17	Lillehammer
2017/18	Ruka
2018/19	Lillehammer
2019/20	Ruka

Overall rating

The overall rating of the Nordic Opening is based on the cumulative time from all 3 competitions minus the bonus seconds earned. The athlete with the lowest total time is the winner of the Nordic Opening.

Overall ranking women

season	Winner	Second	third
2010/11	Marit Bjørgen	Justyna Kowalczyk	Charlotte Kalla
2011/12	Marit Bjørgen	Therese Johaug	Vibeke Skofterud
2012/13	Marit Bjørgen	Justyna Kowalczyk	Heidi Weng
2013/14	Marit Bjørgen	Charlotte Kalla	Therese Johaug
2014/15	Marit Bjørgen	Therese Johaug	Heidi Weng
2015/16	Therese Johaug	Stina Nilsson	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
2016/17	Heidi Weng	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg	Krista Pärmäkoski
2017/18	Charlotte Kalla	Marit Bjørgen	Ragnhild Haga
2018/19	Therese Johaug	Ebba Andersson	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg

Overall rating men

season	winner	Second	Third
2010/11	Alexander Legkov	Dario Cologna	Daniel Richardsson
2011/12	Petter Northug	Dario Cologna	Eldar Rønning
2012/13	Petter Northug	Maxim Wylegschanin	Alexei Poltoranin
2013/14	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Maxim Wylegschanin	Alexander Legkov
2014/15	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Finn Hågen Krogh	Sjur Røthe
2015/16	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Petter Northug	Finn Hågen Krogh
2016/17	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Matti Heikkinen
2017/18	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Alexander Bolshunov
2018/19	Didrik Tonseth	Sjur Røthe	Emil Iversen

World Cup points

Twice the number of World Cup points is awarded for the overall ranking. The winner of the Nordic Opening will thus receive 200 World Cup points. Half the number of points is awarded to the first 30 athletes at each stage.

The World Cup points won are counted for the overall ranking and the discipline ratings of the Cross-Country World Cup .

space	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23	24	25th	26th	27	28	29	30th
Overall rating Nordic Opening	200	160	120	100	90	80	72	64	58	52	48	44	40	36	32	30th	28	26th	24	22nd	20th	18th	16	14th	12	10	8th	6th	4th	2
Nordic Opening stage	50	46	43	40	37	34	32	30th	28	26th	24	22nd	20th	18th	16	15th	14th	13	12	11	10	9	8th	7th	6th	5	4th	3	2	1

Prize money

For each stage, 10,000 Swiss francs will be distributed among the first three athletes.

space	1	2	3
Prize money (CHF)	5,000	3,000	2,000

90,000 Swiss francs will be distributed among the first 20 athletes in the overall ranking

space	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
Prize money (CHF)	22,500	17,500	11,000	9,000	6,750	4,500	3,500	2,500	2,250	2,000	1,750	1,500	1,250	1,000	750	650	550	450	350	250

Web links

• Regulations of the Cross-Country World Cup 2018-2019