100 days until the FIS Tour de Ski kick off in Oberhof

Wed, Sep  19, 2012 - By FIS

September 19th marks 100 days the seventh edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear starts. The FIS Tour de Ski will be held from 29th December 2012 to 6th January 2013.

Due to the FIS Nordic World Ski Championshis scheduled in Val di Fiemme from February 20th until March 3rd, the Tour will be shorter featuring just seven stages in nine days. Traditionally, the Tour kicks off in Oberhof with a free technique prologue on Saturday and a classical pursuit competition on Sunday. Unlike in the previous editions of the Tour, Oberhof will be the only German host this year.

The last day of 2012 will feature one of the two rest days. On 1st January Switzerland will host the first Tour stage in history. A free technique sprint will be held in Val Müstair, the home of Dario Cologna. After another rest day, it will be time for the first Italian stages in Cortina and Toblach. The men’s free technique pursuit race from Cortina to Toblach and the ladies’ 15km free are on schedule on 3rd January. The day after short classical individual start competitions willl take place in Toblach before moving for the final phase of the Tour in Val di Fiemme.

Traditionally the FIS Tour de Ski will be concluded and the new King and Queen will be crowned in Val di Fiemme. The Final Climb is scheduled on Sunday 6th January. The third edition of the popular competition “Rampa con Campioni” takes place on the same day before the ladies’ competition.

• Prize money: All in all for, 560’000 CHF will be paid out during 9 days for both genders. The winners of the Tour receive 90’000 CHF, runners-up 50’000 CHF and the third athlete on the podium 30’000 CHF. Additionally daily prize money in the pot amounts to 6,000 CHF per stage and gender. The Tour Sprint Ranking will be also awarded with 11’000 CHF per gender and the Tour leader will get a bonus of 1’000 CHF after each stage except for the Final Climb.

• The Tour winner receives 400 World Cup points for the overall victory. In addition, a half of the regular World Cup points (50) will be awarded at each stage which means that a maximum of 750 points can be collected by winning all stages and the overall Tour ranking. Throughout the whole season 3100 World Cup points will be available for ladies and 3220 for the men.

• Bonus seconds will be given in all the Tour stages except for the Final Climb. In the ladies’ competition, it will be possible to win a total of 165 bonus seconds (2min 45 seconds) whilst the men can win a maximum of 180 seconds (3min)

• Starting and finishing at the Munich Airport, the entire Tour de Ski family will drive altogether 1679km, or alternatively 18:00h (Munich, Oberhof, Val Müstair, Toblach and Val di Fiemme)

• 50 km is the racing distance for the ladies during the FIS Tour de Ski, if an athlete makes it to the sprint finals. The men will race 88 km.

• The athletes will have on average of 15 pairs of skating skis and 20 pairs of classic skis with them.

All course maps will soon be available on www.fiscrosscountry.com