Photo: Bildbyrån
Last year’s Tour de Ski was a fiasco for Ebba Andersson.
Now she is looking for revenge.
– Yes, I absolutely feel it, she tells Sportbibeln.
This season has not started like that Ebba Andersson27, had hoped. She was certainly sharp during the Swedish premiere in Bruksvallarna – and was singled out as the country’s hottest skier before the international start – but since then things have gone rather poorly for the star.
Ebba Andersson’s tough start to the season
In the opening races in Finnish Ruka and Norwegian Lillehammer, she has come 6th, 9th, 7th and 4th. She has been struck by most of all Frida Karlsson and Therese Johaug at the distances that she herself hoped to be able to win. She then skipped the competition weekend in Davos entirely. It remains to be seen if she can reverse the negative trend and find her form again in time for the WC in Trondheim in February-March 2025.
READ MORE: Ebba Andersson’s great injury joy after Therese Johaug’s miss
Before that, this year’s edition of the Tour de Ski awaits, something that Ebba invests a lot in. Last year it went very badly for several reasons. After three really tough initial stages, she chose to cancel the tour.
– It is wiser to throw in the towel, fold in the oars, raise the white flag. I’m not here competing to ride at a medium level. I’ll hop on a flight home, make my way home, land and try to put myself back together. It hasn’t been catastrophic by any means, but I feel like I’m a little too scared of the consequences. What I may need to clean up after this tour, she then told Sportbladet.
Ebba’s goal with this year’s Tour de Ski
This year, she is determined to perform at a higher level. While many other skiers look towards the WC and choose to stand over the Tour de Ski, Ebba Andersson will use the tour to find the form for the world championship.
– The World Cup is what I have primarily aimed at. But the road ahead means the Tour de Ski for me this year. It is part of my preliminary A-plan. But then it also means that when I make room for the Tour de Ski, I have to remove something else, she says in an interview with Sportbibeln.
– So I will still choose to stand over some specific World Cup weekends to also be able to get in some blocks of training between all the competitors. I think that will be needed to be in top shape for the WC, she continues.
READ MORE: Time for Ebba Andersson to wake up after the tough start to the season
Do you choose to bet on the Tour de Ski also because it went the way it did last year? So that you want to get revenge on yourself?
– Yes, I absolutely feel it. But then that is not the only reason why I choose to run the tour. It’s also because the tour is a competition concept that suits me quite well and there are also World Cup weekends during the season that might not appeal to me as much. Then I still choose to go for what I feel gives something and doesn’t mostly cost.
We wish Ebba Andersson the best of luck in the Tour de Ski! She has not started the season in a good way, but now she is supercharged to take revenge on herself.
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