The tenth edition of the FIS Tour de Ski will take place in January, and in a year with no major championships, the Tour will be one of the top highlights of the season.
Madshus racer Heidi Weng (NOR) is excited for the Tour, and hopes to improve on last season’s success that landed her third place in the overall Tour de Ski rankings 2015.
“Tour de Ski is a huge goal for me this season, and I hope to deliver a lot of good races there, every day during the Tour,” Weng says.
“And I’m still chasing my first overall World Cup victory. I have several second and third places, but I really want a first place now,” says the ambitious 24-year-old.
The Tour de Ski Saga
The story goes that the ski tour concept started in a sauna near Oslo (NOR) more than a decade ago. FIS Cross-Country Committee Chair Vegard Ulvang and former FIS Cross-Country Race Director Jürg Capol were arguing who was the best skier in the world. Was it a distance skier, a sprinter, or an all-rounder in both techniques?
Combining all competition formats and techniques into a stage World Cup, with the iconic Alpe Cermis Final Climb as the last stage, the Tour de Ski concept was born. Ten years after the foundation of the Tour, it is the biggest event on the FIS Cross-Country World Cup calendar.
The 2015/16 season marks the 10th anniversary of the FIS Tour de Ski.
Tour de Ski 10th Edition: Facts and Figures
- Total competition distance 65 km for ladies and 106 km for men
- Grand total prize money CHF 640,000 will be paid out during eight days for both genders
- The overall winner will take home CHF 100,000
- The winner of each stage gets CHF 3,000
- The current leader of the Tour wins CHF 1,000
- The winner of the FIS Tour de Ski sprint ranking will be awarded with CHF 6,000
- 400 World Cup points for the FIS Tour de Ski overall winner, 50 World Cup points for the stage victory
- 255 bonus seconds for ladies, 300 bonus seconds for men