Tour de Ski 2019/20, Johaug against all, Kl bo for the encore

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Lenzerheide, Dobbiaco and Val di Fiemme. Three locations, seven stages in nine days and the final climb to Cermis, this year for the first time with an online start. Fourteen blues in the race.

Thursday 26 December 2019 5 minutes reading time

The 2019/20 edition of the most prestigious cross-country multi-stage test includes 7 races in 9 days, located in 3 locations between Switzerland and Italy. It starts on the weekend from Lenzerheide, where a free technique distance test is scheduled on Saturday with a start in line, and on Sunday a Sprint, always skating. At this point we will move to Italy, in Dobbiaco, for a distance race in free technique with start at intervals and an alternate pursuit. As usual, the grand finale will be in Val di Fiemme, where a classic mass start will take place, followed by a Sprint in the same technique and the traditional Cermis climb. Unlike what happened in the thirteen previous editions, this year for the first time the climb does not include a start with the gaps accumulated in the previous stages but all competitors will leave together. Here the complete calendar. Coming to the forecasts, in the women's field the athlete to beat is undoubtedly Therese Johaug, matrix of this beginning of the season, with 5 victories to her assets, and already winner of the Tour de Ski in 2014 and 2016, as well as the last edition at which she took part. In the event of a victory, the 31-year-old from Oslo would surpass Heidi Weng and the Finnish Virpi Kuitunen, who have two hits each on the bulletin board, remaining alone behind Justyna Kowalczyk, winner of four editions between 2010 and 2013. Johaug would also bring Norway's streak to seven to seven, succeeding Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, who will make his seasonal debut in Lenzerheide, and Heidi Weng, who appears to be the only true contender for the final victory. For Italy we will see seven athletes in the race: Elisa Brocard, Greta Laurent, Lucia Scardoni, Caterina Ganz, Francesca Franchi, Ilaria Debertolis and Anna Comarella. Also noteworthy is the presence in the start list of the Lenzerheide competitions of the biathlete Selina Gasparin, who then will abandon the TdS to concentrate on the stage of the Oberhof biathlon World Cup. Much more uncertainty seems to affect the male sector, where Johannes KlÃ¦bo will try to repeat the success of a year ago, when he managed to put Sergey Ustiugov and his compatriot Simen Hegstad Krueger behind him. These three, together with the Russian Alexander Bolshunov and the Norwegian Emil Iversen, start with podium ambitions. Dario Cologna does not seem to be a factor, leader of the gold register among men with four successes on Cermis. Martin Johnsrud Sundby, winner of three consecutive editions between 2014 and 2016, will miss the appeal. Italy's ambitions are closely linked to Federico Pellegrino, who in Planica said he was focusing heavily on the Lenzerheide Sprint. In addition to the Aosta Valley we will see Francesco De Fabiani, Giandomenico Salvadori, Maicol Rastelli, Stefan Zelger, Michael Hellweger and Mikael Abram in action.

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