The head coach of the Finnish national ski team, Teemu Pasanen, knows that the first races of the Tour de Ski in Toblach are relatively significant in terms of the overall competition.
There is a chance to break the gap in the freestyle sprint and the 10-kilometer traditional split race, but Monday’s 20-kilometer free pursuit is likely to gather the crowd.
– However, if we had skied in the direction of Cortina and back according to the original plan, then everything would have been put together and the first two races would have been reset, Pasanen said.
– Now we ski 21 kilometers, i.e. a 5 x 4.3 kilometer track, so it’s a bit tougher, and it doesn’t necessarily pile up as much.
Pasanen thinks it’s interesting that in Davos, after the free sprint, a 20-kilometer traditional pursuit race is skied, which practically zeroes out the sprint’s bonus seconds.
The head coach has not marked certain competitions in more detail, because the athletes have their own areas of strength. However, Pasanen reminds us of the nature of the Tour.
– Tour is tour, all competitions are skied in it. If you want to succeed in the overall competition, you have to succeed every day. We have women in Krista (Pärmäkoski) and Kerttu (Niskanen) who, if successful, can fight for the top positions on the overall tour.
According to Pasanen, the numerous omissions have mixed up the pack a lot, because it is difficult to predict the top three in both men and women.
– Can’t you find tough men in Norway to be at the top? I believe (Harald Östberg) Amundsen and (Pål) Golberg will be there. In the women’s category (Jessie) Diggins is a very early favorite in my papers, Pasanen said.
The conditions and the success of the maintenance teams give their own spice to the upcoming tour. Finland’s maintenance has had difficulties from time to time, but other teams have also had a lot of changes.
– There have been more differences. But now we have changed to completely different conditions. Here, the snow and conditions are completely different from the beginning of the season. Everything starts again, Pasanen reminded.
Interviewed by Laura Arffman.