On the weekend of the World Cup in Les Rousses, distances were skied that will also be skied in the World Cup in Planica, which will start in just over three weeks. Friday’s 10-kilometer freestyle skiing and Saturday’s traditional skiing sprint races did not necessarily give the coaching management clear answers to the selection questions, but Sunday’s 20-kilometer traditional combined start race got the head coach Teemu Pasanen satisfied.
– Ivo (Neck) came back. At least he returned to the podium, Pasanen said and couldn’t hide his smile.
Hardly anyone questioned the fitness of Finland’s number one player, who was sidelined at the beginning of the season due to the corona virus, but the second place in Sunday’s race showed that he also has striking ability.
– All along we’ve known that he’s definitely in really good shape, and there’s no need to worry because of that, Pasanen said.
– But this is a relieving feeling for Iivo himself, and certainly for everyone else, that he will succeed in the race. He could do such a normal performance, and it is known that then the result is good.
Pasanen emphasizes the whole
Pasanen did not want to spoil the World Cup selections or list possible names. He emphasized that the selections look at the whole and the total displays from the entire season are decisive. Les Rousses was only the last race, where for the last time there were the most distances that are skied in the World Championships.
In particular, the last screens were sought for the sprint, as there are those who are willing to sprint the traditional way of skiing in Planica. However, Saturday’s race left a lot of question marks because, for example, on the men’s side, the Finnish heroes of the Oberstdorf pair sprint Joni Mäki and Cross mat Hakola failed.
Hakola returned to the World Cup after a ten-month break. According to Pasanen, who works as Hakola’s personal coach, his protégé has been going step by step all the time and did a decent skiing on Sunday.
When it comes to Hakola, can we talk about Planica with a question mark?
– Let’s look at the situation again. However, he has progressed all the time and was able to train well during the winter.
Hakola announced on Sunday that he will not compete in the Toblach World Cup next weekend, but will return to his homeland to train. Thus, Hakola is no longer giving the last proof of his potential competition condition.
According to Pasanen, even in this situation, the whole is decisive.
– Let’s look at the whole, who we have on any trip.
Next weekend, freestyle sprints and 10 km freestyle competitions will be skied in Toblach. The race weekend will be decided by both men’s and women’s messages.
No help for maintenance from Les Rousses or Toblach
According to Pasanen, you can’t really learn tactics from Sunday’s joint start race, because Planica has a very different style of track, compared to Les Rousses. In France, the track was both narrow and winding, and at the steepest part of the track, you had to take a fork. In Planica, there is a long working section on the track, but not as steep a climb.
– In every joint start race, the shape and profile of the track really affects what kind of race it will be, Pasanen said.
He was satisfied that Les Rousses had a tough enough track, so that there were differences in the race. Pasanen recalled the Lillehammer joint start races, where the differences were only found in the final stretch. In the men’s race, the first 30 finished within 10 seconds.
– Now we saw that the differences in women can be made enough that it no longer accumulates with a long descent. The men’s group also went pretty well to pieces.
The warm weather has affected the snow situation in Central Europe and the World Cup weekend in Les Rousses was again in danger of being cancelled. However, the races were successfully completed and next weekend’s race venue, Toblach, has also received the green light from the International Ski Federation’s snow control.
According to Pasanen, the conditions in Les Rousses and Toblach are not useful for Planica, even though the Finnish service did a great job in Sunday’s combined start race, for example.
– These are of no help in Planica, because the conditions are completely different there. But from what I’ve heard there at the moment, the snow situation is just fine. There is also pretty good natural snow.
The Toblach World Cup can be watched on channels from Friday.