The fifth weekend of the 2005/06 Cross-Country World Cup was held in Canmore, Canada between December 15 and 18, 2005. In the six competitions, two Germans and one Russian, one Italian, one Canadian and one Norwegian triumphed.
Apron
At the same time as the announcement that World Cups will be held in Canada again after a decade, the host cities, Vernon and Canmore , were also announced. For the state of Alberta , which was founded in 1905 and in which Canmore is located, the World Cup races were a highlight of the 100th anniversary celebrations. It was not the first time that Canmore had hosted a World Cup; in 1986 the city had already organized a combined World Cup . In addition, there were the cross-country skiing and biathlon competitions at the 1988 Winter Olympics in the neighboring city of Calgary and the 1997 Nordic Junior World Championship . Most of the facilities at the Canmore Nordic Center date from the time of the Olympic Games and had hardly been renewed because competitions were seldom held on them. In June 2004, the Development Secretary announced that Canmore had received $ 16.6 million to expand and renew the route network. The renovation went according to plan and was finished in time for the World Cup races. The cross-country trails, which were over 70 kilometers long after the renovation, were located at a higher altitude of 1,425 meters, as in Vernon, so that the conditions were again similar to those on the Olympic routes in Turin. During the competitions, the temperature remained consistently below −8 ° C and in some races was even barely −20 ° C. After initially light cloud cover on Thursday, it was sunny at the weekend, the snow conditions on the routes that were praised as well-groomed were more dull than icy due to the heavy snowfall.
As in Vernon, the teams that arrived in Canmore on the Monday before the World Cups were missing the entire Finnish A-team - with the exception of a few sprinters who traveled to Canada at their own expense - because they trained in Italy and competed in low-class races. In addition, of the remaining top ten teams, the teams from the Czech Republic and Estonia did not make the start, so that several of the favorites among the women were again missing.
program
Time schedule
The teams who arrived on Monday were able to train on the tracks between Monday and Wednesday and on Friday, and a test competition was held on Wednesday at the Bill Warren Training Center . Unlike in Vernon, the top ten athletes received their awards on the evening of competition day in downtown Canmore.
All times local time (8 hours behind CET)
- December 14, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: test competition
- December 15, 12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.: Women's singles (10 kilometers), free technique , interval start (30 seconds)
- December 15, 1:00 pm – 1:45 pm: Men's singles (15 kilometers), free technique, interval start (30 seconds)
- December 17th, 12:00 pm – 12:50 pm: Women's mass start (15 kilometers), classic technique
- December 17th, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm: men's mass start (30 kilometers), classic technique
- December 18, 9:45 am – 11:50 am: Women's and men's team sprint (6 × 1.2 kilometers), classic technique
Supporting program
The award of the World Cup to Canmore aroused the hopes of the Alberta Ski Association to hold further competitions in the following years. That is why in December 2004 the association recruited volunteers to plan and prepare the event. In fact, a team of around 350 volunteers was created who organized a supporting program over the weekend, the highlight of which was a one-hour winter rodeo on Saturday. In addition, there were tourist activities and a Christmas program, as Canmore was the last World Cup station before the festival. In addition, an ice hockey game by the Canmore Eagles on Sunday afternoon was linked to the cross-country skiing world cup.
Race course
Men
The Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland , who won the last World Cup race - the Vernon Sprint - and also led the overall World Cup, was originally supposed to start in Canmore, but had to do without due to irritated airways. The team doctor was of the opinion that later season events were more important for Hetland than the World Cups in Canmore and that the Norwegian had to be spared. In addition to Hetland, other Norwegian team members who were well placed in the overall World Cup also did without a race in Canmore, such as Jens Arne Svartedal and Eldar Rønning . Both skipped the individual competition and only started in the mass start. Many sprinters, such as the specialists from Norway or France, had not traveled to Canmore at all. In contrast, almost the entire Swedish sprinter elite competed in Canada. While most of them concentrated on the team sprint, Björn Lind and Mats Larsson also took part in a distance race and won points - for Lind the only World Cup points outside of sprint races that he achieved this winter. Like Finland, Russia only sent a B team to the competitions, Vasily Rotschew and Sami Jauhojärvi were missing . Of the 72 athletes who started in the individual race, only the Japanese Yuichi Onda did not finish, while eleven of the 68 participants in the mass start had to end the race prematurely. A total of 105 men traveled to the three competitions, the largest contingent was the host Canada, who sent 13 athletes into the race in both individual competitions. From the German-speaking countries, between two and six athletes started each race; cross-country skiers from Spain and New Zealand were also there as so-called "exotic skiers", but they missed the points.
Freestyle singles
The individual freestyle race was opened by the Canadian Stefan Kuhn , who later took second to last place. This was followed by other hopeless North American athletes from the national group who were well outside the top 30 after the end of the race. The first athlete to complete the 15-kilometer route, 3 laps of 5 kilometers, in under 37 minutes, was US American James Southam from Alaska with starting number 13 ; in 31st place he only missed his first World Cup points by a second. The New Zealander Benjamin Koons , who had celebrated his World Cup premiere in Vernon , was sixteenth and thus the first non-American to enter the race . Although he crossed the finish line almost eight minutes behind the eventual winner and almost two minutes after the penultimate, he spoke of a “good experience” and a “big step”. After that Koons never started again in the highest competition series.
Even the first runners, who already had more experience in the World Cup, missed Southam's time, which still marked the top. The first Swiss Reto Burgermeister finally reached 39th place and was now second, 15 seconds behind the leading American. The first athlete to break Southam's record was Russian Iwan Alypow , starting number 26. He needed less than 36 minutes for the route and was 50 seconds faster than the Alaskan man. The Russian's time stood for only three minutes, then it was corrected by his compatriot Ivan Babikov , who at the time was in the process of being naturalized to Canada. Accordingly, the local fans cheered the fourth-placed athlete as well as their own athletes, of whom George Gray , who started immediately before Babikow, posted the best result in sixteenth - at the same time the best result for a Canadian in 15 years. The next athlete who was as fast as the two Russians was the Norwegian Jan Egil Andresen . Andresen, who, like Alypow and Babikow, took time off the competition especially in the final kilometers, was also the best cross-country skier of a Norwegian team in fifth place, in which the rather unknown athletes achieved particularly good results. Among the last starters who did not belong to the so-called red group were some who also ran times around 36 minutes and thus placed themselves among the top twelve. This also included the Austrian Christian Hoffmann and the German Franz Göring , who ranked ninth and eleventh respectively.
The group of the 21 best in the World Cup to date was opened by the Frenchman Alexandre Rousselet , who, however, played no role in the fight for the top ten places. The Italian Valerio Checchi, on the other hand, was able to place eighth. Even John Anders Gaustad from Norway (car number 59), the race began strongly and sat down temporarily to 6.6 kilometers to the top - even after the end of the race he was still out in fourth place at this intermediate measurement point. In the second half of the race, however, Gaustad lost more than half a minute to the still leading Iwan Babikow and finished the race in sixth place, from which he was pushed to ninth. The Italian Giorgio Di Centa was even faster than the Norwegian on the first kilometers , but fell further behind Gaustad and missed the top ten. Di Centa's compatriot Pietro Piller Cottrer , the reigning world champion over this distance, took the lead in the first split and extended the lead over the remaining kilometers; at the finish he had a lead of half a minute on Ivan Babikov. The six athletes that followed, the best of the winter so far, also failed at Piller Cottrer's record. Among these runners was a German quartet, but Axel Teichmann , Jens Filbrich and René Sommerfeldt disappointed - they only finished 25th to 27th in that order. The Norwegian Tore Ruud Hofstad even missed out on the points as 33rd. The last two athletes attacked Piller Cottrer's time again, but Vincent Vittoz from France and the German Tobias Angerer also failed to achieve victory time. While Vittoz confused his cane on the last hectic kilometers, made a wrong move and then had problems with his back, Angerer was satisfied with his race. With 60 points gained, he secured the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leader from the unstarted goal Arne Hetland and said: “Great, the goal has been achieved, I've got the yellow one back.” The Italian winner dedicated the success to his team, which had been competitive since the start of the season and always just missed the podium. Looking at the Olympic Games in February, he also regretted that the 15-kilometer individual race would not be run in the free but in the classic technique.
Mass start
The second of the individual race, Vincent Vittoz, was not at the start of the mass start race. The press officer of the French cross-country skiing association FFS said that Vittoz had a problem on his back that was “not serious”, but that the athlete wanted to keep his energy for the rest of the season. Axel Teichmann also waived; with him the reason was an impending cold.
Women
The two Norwegians Marit Bjørgen and Hilde G. Pedersen , both among the top 15 in all races up to that point, had left Canada early and trained at home for the next World Cup. Bjørgen, who had to do without due to illness, led so clearly in the overall World Cup that, even theoretically, she could not have been ousted from the top spot after the two individual races in Canmore.
Results
Freestyle singles
Mass start classic
Team sprint
Overall ratings
These tables show the overall scores after the fifth World Cup station. The ten best athletes in the distance and sprint World Cups as well as the twenty best in the overall World Cup are shown. In the Change column, the tendency is displayed as to whether the athlete, in contrast to the World Cup status, has improved or deteriorated by ranks after the last station.
If the number of points is equal, the FIS rules stipulate that the athlete who has achieved the better top result is better placed in the overall classification.
Men
| Overall World Cup
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Top 20 after 8 of 24 races
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| Distance World Cup
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Sprint World Cup
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Top 10 after 6 of 15 races
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Top 10 after 2 of 9 races
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Women
| Overall World Cup
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Top 20 after 8 of 24 races
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| Distance World Cup
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Sprint World Cup
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Top 10 after 6 of 15 races
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Top 10 after 2 of 9 races
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Nations Cup
| Overall nation cup
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Top 10 after 22 of 58 races
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| rank
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Surname
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Points
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Victories
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Verän-
alteration
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| 1 |
Norway Norway
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3378 |
11 |
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| 2 |
Germany Germany
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2564 |
5 |
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| 3 |
Russia Russia
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1834 |
1 |
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| 4th |
Sweden Sweden
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1607 |
1 |
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| 5 |
Italy Italy
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1147 |
1 |
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| Men
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Women
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Top 10 after 11 of 29 races
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Top 10 after 11 of 29 races
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Web links
Individual evidence
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↑ Mario Felgenhauer: Canada can host World Cups . In: xc-ski.de . May 18, 2004. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
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↑ http://www.canmore2005.com/ ( Memento from December 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
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↑ [1]
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↑ a b [2]
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↑ [3]
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↑ [4]
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↑ http://www.xcountryab.net/news.htm#Item%2011 ( Memento from December 4, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
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↑ [5]
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↑ http://www.canmore2005.com/town-festival.html ( Memento from December 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
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↑ [6]
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↑ [7]
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↑ [8]
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↑ [9]
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↑ a b [10]
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↑ [11]
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↑ [12]
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↑ [13]
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↑ [14]
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↑ [15]
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↑ Men 15 km Free Individual Results
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↑ Women 10 km Free Individual Results
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↑ Men 30 km Classical Mass Start Results
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↑ Women 15 km Classical Mass Start Results
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↑ Men 6x1.2 km Classical Team Sprint Results
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↑ Women 6x1.2 km Classical Team Sprint Results
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↑ WORLD CUP STANDING MEN OVERALL
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↑ WORLD CUP STANDING MEN DISTANCE
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↑ SPRINT CUP STANDING MEN
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↑ WORLD CUP STANDING WOMEN OVERALL
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↑ WORLD CUP STANDING WOMEN DISTANCE
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↑ SPRINT CUP STANDING WOMEN
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↑ a b c NATION CUP STANDING OVERALL
B. Scott
