Winter is back

Wed, Nov  21, 2007 - By Vegard Ulvang

The winter is back, earlier than in a long time. After a miserable snow winter last year, it is almost unbelievable that many ski resorts in Europe are already covered with snow.

Listen to this: You are not dreaming, it’s 18th of November, and most of our World Cup resorts already have snow. In Nove Mesto, where we had to cancel the Prologue of the Tour last year, people are skiing in more than 40 cm of fresh snow. This is also true in most of Scandinavia where the temperatures in the last month have been lower than in years. We can only hope that it will continue this way. Everyone involved in Cross-Country Skiing from the youngest recruit to our top athletes, and not least the ski industry, are sharing the same dream.

For the athletes, the focus has suddenly changed. After months of preparation and thousands of hours of hard exercise, the talk is no longer about training hours but about minutes and seconds behind or before, about a slow or a quick start. In Muonio and Beitostølen, we saw the first winners of the season.

Virpi Kuitunen and Marit Bjørgen have both had a good start...Please click here to read the whole blog