Remi Lindholm, the Finnish skiing surprise of the last winter season, goes to the Ruka cross-country skiing world cup competitions at the turn of the week with moderate expectations.
Timo Uusitalo,
Riikka Smolander-Slotte
The Ruka World Cup competitions are shown on channels. The broadcast of the sports studio starts on Friday at 10:47 a.m. on TV1 and Areena. Sprint qualifying starts at 10:55.
Remi Lindholm24, made bigger headlines a year ago in Ruka, when he made his breakthrough in international cross-country skiing.
With Kuusamo’s hangi, Lindholm first finished 26th in the traditional 15-kilometer race, which he then finished 20th in the freestyle, hard-freezing pursuit race. These were Lindholm’s first personal points rankings in the World Cup.
Over the course of the season, Lindholm jumped from the B national team to the World Cup, the Tour de Ski tour and also to the Olympic team. He has exceptionally good memories of Ruka from last year.
– This year I may be in a slightly different mood. However, last year it was such a new thing for me. Now you already know what this is. Maybe I’ll even go a little bit to improve those (investments), Lindholm said.
Lindholm arrived a little late for the interview on Thursday, but in a gentlemanly manner, he immediately apologized for his actions. The end of his car trip had brought a little extra excitement to the lust trainee.
– I just got there when the car’s fuel gauge showed zero for the last thirty kilometers. It got a little hot, but now I’m here and I can go see what kind of slopes have been created here, grinned the good-natured skier person.
Tonnin Burana didn’t help
Last weekend in the Finnish Cup, Remi Lindholm left big question marks. He stopped the 15 km freestyle competition on Sunday in Taivalkoski.
– Last weekend was hard when the team was sick. I had a bit of a disease myself, but now it should be a little bit better.
– At Taivalkoski, the situation was annoying. In the initial training, I went to measure the fever and took a ton of burana. I thought that if I can survive this, then I can survive anything. However, I didn’t survive that race. At least now I know that I’m not immortal in it, Lindholm stated.
Corona and other viruses are stirring at least among the Finnish cross-country team. Olympic champion Iivo Niskanen announced on Wednesday that he was infected with the corona virus, and in addition to that, there are sick people Verneri Suhonenwho skied to a double victory in the sprint at the Suomen Cup in Taivalkoski last weekend Ollie and Ville Ahonen and a member of the national ski team Vilma Ryytty.
Sprint has not even crossed my mind
This season, World Cup points are awarded to 50 skiers instead of 30, and the importance of victory, at least in terms of points, is reduced. Previously, the winner received 100 World Cup points, the runner-up 80 points and the third-place winner 60 points. Now the difference between the first and the second is only 5 points, the winner and the third place only 10 points.
With the reform, the International Ski Federation wanted to get skiers who invest in normal trips to also participate in sprint competitions. Remi Lindholm is not primarily a sprinter.
– I haven’t even really thought about sprinting. The points system is a bit weird, when the top 50 get points. I will still aim for the top places, no matter how many points I get from them, said Lindholm.
On Friday, the cross-country Ruka mc program includes sprint races, on Saturday there will be intermediate starts for women’s and men’s 10 km (p) trips, and on Sunday, 20 km (v) men’s and women’s pursuits.
With what goals does Lindholm go to the weekend mittels?
– The goal is to reach the finish line both on Saturday and Sunday.