EVENT 6: MARCIALONGA

Marcialonga, the sixt stage of the Visma Ski Classics Pro Tour, starts tomorrow at 7:50 am CET when the women take off to their 70 km long journey, and they are followed by the men at 8:00 am CET. The fast-paced race is expected to have a lot of tactical play, and the field in the men’s and women’s races is quite open.
 
The course has a sprint competition point in Predazzo at 46 km and one Climb point at the finish, the final Cascata Hill. The points are calculated according to the fastest time up the hill instead of the first skier reaching the top as in regular climb check points.
 
Last weekend’s winners Chris Andre Jespersen and Astrid Øyre Slind, both from Team Koteng, are strong favorites to win the race tomorrow due to their impressive performances at La Diagonela.
 
In the men’s race, other possible podium skiers include Team Ragde Eiendom’s Petter Eliassen, last year’s winner, Andreas Nygaard, second in 2019, and Tord Asle Gjerdalen, three-time Marcialonga winner in the past, Lager 157 Ski Team’s Emil Persson, two-time stage winner this season, and Aleksey Shemiakin, Russian Winter Team, who finished third at La Diagonela.
 
Three potential podium skiers are not going to be able to race tomorrow; Ari Luusua, Vltava Fund Ski Team, Ermil Vokuev and Alexandr Grebenko, both from Russian Winter Team. 
 
Marcialonga has also attracted some well-known traditional male skiers to join the long distance race; Dario Cologna, Team Coop, Andrew Musgrave, Team Koteng, Sjur Røthe and Petter Northug from Norway, and Alexander Legov, Eugeniy Dementiev and Nikita Kryukov from Russia.
 
In the women’s race, Lager 157 Ski Team’s Britta Johansson Norgren, who won last year, will challenge Øyre Slind, while Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes, Team Koteng, and Katerina Smutná, ED System Bauer Team, have a great chance to be on the podium tomorrow.
 
The weather forecast predicts clouds in the area, temperature around zero in the morning and light wind about 1 m/s.
 
LOCATION: Trentino, Italy 
DATE: 26th January 2020
LIVE STREAM: play.vismaskiclassics.com
START TIME: Women: 07:50 CET, Men: 08:00 CET
DISTANCE: 70 km Classic Technique
VISMA SKI CLASSICS SPRINTS: 1 sprint (46 km)
VISMA SKI CLASSICS CLIMBS: 1 climb (70 km)
WEBSITES: www.marcialonga.it/marcialonga_ski
                     www.vismaskiclassics.com