Madshus marathon team racer Johan Kjoelstad (NOR) won the overall Ski Classics title in 2014 and is second in the overall competition after the 15km Pro Team Prologue and the 35km La Sgambeda in Livigno, Italy, in December. Kjoelstad, who races with Team United Bakeries in the Ski Classics, is ahead of fellow Madshus racer Oeystein Pettersen (NOR) in third overall.
Kjoelstad is also ranked third in the Ski Classics athlete ranking, three points ahead of Madshus racer Stanislav Rezac (CZE), while Madshus racer Joergen Brink (SWE) is fifth overall going into the Jizerská 50km on Sunday. In the Ski Classics, Rezac and Brink represent Team Silvani Madshus and Team Lager 157, respectively.
In the Ski Classics overall sprint competition, Pettersen is in second place, 10 points behind first place.
New female racers join Ski Classics
Prior to the Jizerská the competition for the women’s overall Ski Classics champion gets tougher. Three different Pro Teams have entered new female skiers to the long-distance series, including Madshus racer Hilde Landheim (NOR), who will race for Team Coop.
In the Ski Classics, each professional team may enter a total of 10 skiers per season, male and female skiers included. Once entered, the teams may not unregister athletes, but they can enter additional athletes until they reach the maximum of 10 skiers.
Stellar conditions
Last year, the Jizerská races were cancelled due to lack of snow, so event organizers are double excited to put on the races this year and are proud to present stellar conditions on the race course. Promising weather forecasts, decent snowfall in the past week and cold weather have made it possible to produce enough artificial snow to cover the whole course, and the organizers are 100 percent sure that they will be able to run the race as planned given the weather forecast.
“We are happy to see that the weather has turned fine and the winter conditions have finally arrived. The whole Jizerská 50 track is now covered with snow while the race preparations continue to run along at full speed. There are some thirty centimeters of artificial and natural snow at potential critical points: at the Bedrichov stadium as well as the early kilometres of the route,” says Martin Koucky, a member of the Jizerská 50 Organizing Committee.
“According to the weather forecast, it should go on snowing by the start of the Jizerská 50 and the temperature should hover around freezing so that nothing should threaten the race.”
In addition to the 50km Ski Classic event on Sunday, the Jizerská race weekend opens with a 30km skate race and a children’s race on Friday January 9, and also offers a 25km classic race as well as a corporate relay race on Saturday, January 10. New this year is a 1.5-kilometer double-pole sprint race on Friday.
Six more marathons on tap
After the Jizerská 50 on Sunday, the 2015 Ski Classics moves to Switzerland for the brand new event La Diagonela, on January 17th. La Diagonela was introduced to the race series last winter as a replacement for the Jizerská 50 which had to be cancelled, but was such a success that the Ski Classics included the race as a new, permanent race on the Ski Classics calendar for this season. This year, the 65-kilometer La Diagonela race will be held on a picturesque new course through the villages of St Moritz, Zuoz and Pontresina in the Engadin Valley.
After the stop in Switzerland the Ski Classics moves to Italy for the Marcialonga in the valleys of Val di Fassa and Val di Fiemme on January 25. The 70-kilometer race is famous for its notorious final uphill climb, the Cascata, to the finish in Cavalese town square.
From Italy the Pro Teams travel to Germany for the 50-kilometer König Ludwig Lauf in Oberammergau, Bavaria, on February 1.
After the König Ludwig Lauf, the athletes get a well-deserved break from competing until the legendary 90-kilometer Vasaloppet from Saelen to Mora in Sweden on March 8.
After Vasaloppet, the Ski Classics moves on to Norway and Birkebeinerrennet on March 21. The 54-kilometer classic race starts in Rena, crosses to mountains to the finish line in Lillehammer, the host of the 1994 Olympic Winter Games.
The Ski Classics once again ends with the season finale Årefjällsloppet in Sweden on March 28. The 75-kilometer race offers stunning views from the in Vallbo to the finish line in Åre.
More information about the Ski Classics