Aino-Kaisa Saarinen doubts the seams of her Urheilustudio colleague against Petter Northug – this is how fierce they are | Sport

Alpe Cermis will be climbed on Sunday in the Tour de Ski. As far as men are concerned, perhaps the most interesting Finnish competition is seen between TV experts.

The final ascent of Alpe Cermis is a truly exceptional cross-country performance. Urheilu’s skiing expert, who has suffered ascent from the Tour de Ski no less than ten times, knows that Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.

– It involves a hoe and sometimes some technology. It’s really hard on the muscles. At the start I always wonder what I’m doing again, Saarinen illustrates.

The Alpe Cermis stage is roughly nine kilometers long, but the last 3.2 kilometers have an ascent of 400 meters.

– That’s how you get yourself into the pipe. It feels a little different than a normal ski race. It is felt in the muscles more than in the oxygen uptake side. It feels awful in the muscles. It can be seen when the athletes stumble after the finish line in the finish area.

See a comparison of this weekend’s alpine skiing world cup slope compared to Alpe Cermisi:

The Tour de Ski culminates again on Sunday at Alpe Cermis. Both the men’s and women’s overall competitions look set to go to the Norwegian superstar, because Therese Johaug and John Hösflot Kläbo start to hurtle down the legendary hill with such big margins to their competitors.

However, there is already enough excitement during the day, when TV experts from Finland and Norway, for example, measure each other in the Rampa con i Campioni competition. It is a competition organized for skiers, where you ski all the way up Alpe Cermis.

Urheilu’s skiing expert Ville Nousiainen plans to participate in the competition, as does Norway’s TV2 Peter Northug. Nousiainen was already eager to get off her skis during the day at the Sports Studio on Saturday.

According to Nousiainen, he is trying to beat Northug. Both are former top skiers.

– I should go for a run. I’m going to do a finishing workout on a gentle uphill and forge 20 minutes with my breath wide open, Nousiainen squealed on Saturday at the Tesero ski stadium before the women’s combined competition.

in Finland Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was suspicious of his expert colleague’s goal on the Urheilustudio couch.

– If I understood correctly, Petter has practiced more than Ville. Then that means this fight goes to Petter. If Ville starts training now, it will be a bit late, Saarinen laughed.

Northug, who turns 39 on Monday, is one of the best skiers of all time. He won 4 Olympic medals and 16 World Cup medals during his active career. Two of the Olympic medals were gold and no fewer than 13 of the World Cup medals were gold.

Northug shook off the beginning of the year by saying that he plans to aim for the World Championships in Trondheim. Then he talked about his goal to compete in Vasaloppet this season.

However, Northug withdrew from Norway’s season opener in Beitostölen due to back pain. In December, Northug was supposed to compete in Lillehammer in the Scandinavian Cup, but it was canceled due to illness and TV expert work.

Since then, Northug has even hinted in public about changing to represent Liechtenstein in order to compete in the Olympics a year from now. In a more recent twist, Northug assured Iltalehti that he was seriously thinking about competing in Austria’s ranks at the Olympics.

Tour de Ski final ascent Alpe Cermis for men live at 15:15 and for women live from 16:30 on TV2 and Areena. You can find everything about Tour de Ski here!