One of the challenges of winter sports in recent years has been the lack of snow. This season, cross-country skiing has been on the brink of an old problem. In the Tour de Skin Val Müstair, the pursuit race had to be raced on a shorter track due to poor snow conditions. There was also little snow at the Oberstdorf Games.
After the Tour de Ski, the cross-country World Cup season will take a break of a couple of weeks, after which the sprints and pair sprints will be held in Livigno, Italy. A week from now, three individual competitions were to be skied in Les Rousses, France.
Les Rousses would be an important display place for the athletes in view of the World Championships in Planica, which will be held at the turn of February-March.
However, the organization of the race weekend is in doubt due to the lack of snow. There is no snow at all in the pictures you can see on the spot. After Les Rousses, skiing in the World Cup before the World Championships is only in Toblach, Italy, on the first weekend of February.
– The most important thing would be to be able to compete that weekend. However, there has been no information yet about the situation of the slopes, the head coach of the Finnish cross country team Teemu Pasanen says.
Competition director of the International Ski Federation Michael Lamplot believes that the organizer has enough know-how to produce snow. The biggest problem is the warm weather. The locality has been promised hard plus sales for the coming weeks.
– The only thing missing is the cold weather, says Lamplot.
There must be a plan b
The Les Rousses competition has had to be canceled before. A year ago, the reason was the coronavirus situation.
– Many countries have dropped out of the World Cup in recent years. It is true that it has been on the calendar many times, but there has never been a competition there, Pasanen states.
Lamplot says that FIS’s goal is to go to France to compete. According to him, everything is being done to organize the race so that the World Cup race can be competed as planned.
– Of course, you have to have a plan b and make sure that you still compete.
France is an important competition venue for the International Ski Federation. For men, France has been a particularly tough relay country for years.
– The public and the fans there deserve the World Cup race, Lamplot reminds.
How would it affect Niskas?
Sports expert Toni Roponen reminds that the weather conditions in Les Rousses can improve quickly. He hopes that the FIS has a race for Les Rousses. Last season, many World Cup races had to be cancelled.
– There must be an alternative place. For the World Championships in Planica, they are really important display places for many. The most important thing is to find a replacement place and with the same competition format.
What also makes the race weekend interesting is that Les Rousses would probably be Iivo Niskanen the next international competition.
Les Rousses’ race program includes traditional sprints, a 10-kilometer free time trial and a 20-kilometer joint start with traditional skiing. The latter two races would serve well for Niskanen’s World Cup preparation.
– The essential thing for Iivo is that he gets competitions as quickly as possible. He will definitely ski somewhere in a week and then it’s the SC skiing. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if they are traditional or free races. As long as he gets tough competitions either in Finland or abroad.
Roponen believes that Niskanen will be able to compete in the World Cup on the last weekend of January.
– The FIS is under a lot of pressure to get some races to it, Roponen refers to the race weekend in Les Rousses.
Roponen says that the FIS should take a model from the International Biathlon Union.
– They have clearly chosen the competitions in such places where it makes sense to organize them. Of course they have snow problems too. We need to think even more carefully about where and when the games will be held. Val di Fiemme and Toblach are excellent examples of the fact that races have generally not had to be cancelled.