Cross-country skiing, the Tour de Ski starts with Pellegrino and de Fabiani

There is also the latest cross-country ace, the Viking Johannes Klaebo, who wants everything at the Beijing Games in February and rehearses a series of stages, as the Tour de ski of narrow skis is called; and for the last time in his career there is Dario Cologna, the Italian-Swiss who triumphed 3 times over Cermis. And there are obviously many Norwegians and Russians, but also a blue contingent of 15 skiers from this season led by Freddy Stauder.

Blue hopes

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It starts from Lenzerheide, arrives in Val di Fiemme and will pass through Germany, Oberstdorf, where they are also struggling with the 4 Trampolini. Tuesday is Federico Pellegrino’s big day, who has triumphed on the Swiss track in other Tours, a review that would be perfect – given the chase races – for the other Aosta Valley champion, Francesco De Fabiani, the alternative to Pelle per le speranze from the podium. After his first convincing result in Dresden, Pellegrino seeks inspiration in Switzerland, where he trained in the summer with a transnational team together with Defa. Everyone thinks about the Olympics, but no one wants to miss the Tour, which in addition to rich cash prizes offers the winner and the winner 400 World Cup points. The defending champions are the Russian Bolshunov, the most complete with Klaebo, and Jessy Diggins, the first American to have hoisted the flag on Cermis a year ago. Italians? Never took the Tour, only the podium. The transition from 2021 to 2022 will be all Tour ..

The program and the blues

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Tuesday (2pm, Eurosport) and Wednesday, Lenzerheide (Svi): Sprint tl, 10 km tc D and 15 km tc U. 31 December-1 January, Oberstdorf (Ger): 15 km tl U and 10 km tl D, Sprint tc U and D. Monday 3 and Tuesday 4, Val di Fiemme: 15 km tc U and 10 km tc D, 10 km tl D and U.Azzurri – Men: Federico Pellegrino, Francesco De Fabiani, Giandomenico Salvadori, Maicol Rastelli, Paolo Ventura, Davide Graz, Michael Hellweger, Alessandro Chiocchetti and Martin Coradazzi. Women: Greta Laurent, Caterina Ganz, Lucia Scardoni, Anna Comarella, Cristina Pittin and Martina Di Centa. Albo d’oro: Uomini: 2007 Angerer (Ger); 2008 Bauer (R.Cec), 2009 Cologna (Svi); 2010 Bauer (R.Cec); 2011-2012 Cologna (Sweden); 2013 Legkov (Rus); 2014 Sundby (Nor); 2015 Sundby (squal. Doping, assigned to Northug, Nor), 2016 Sundby (Nor); 2017 Ustiugov (Rus); 2018 Cologna (Svi), 2019 Klaebo (Nor), 2020-2021 Bolshunov (Rus). Woman: Albo d’oro: 2007 Kuitunen (Fin); 2008 Kalla (Sve); 2009 Kuitunen (Fin); 2010-2011-2012-2013 Kowalczyk (Pol); 2014 Johaug (Nor); 2015 Bjoergen (Nor); 2016: Johaug (Nor); 2017-2018 Weng (Nor), 2019 Oestberg (Nor), 2020 Johaug (Nor), 2021 Diggins (Usa). Formula: Total prize money: 327.102. 1st place: 40,689 euros, 2nd place: 29,999; 3rd place: 20,344 Each stage win is worth 5,000 euros. The Tour winner will collect 400 World Cup points, 50 points in the first stages of the individual stages.