Tour the skis just a stopover on the road to the World Cup

The Tour de Ski is the highlight of the World Cup season for cross-country skiers. Actually. It’s different in a World Cup or Olympic year.

Cross-country team boss Peter Schlickenrieder isn’t one to talk big. Even before the 17th Tour de Ski, which begins on New Year’s Eve, the 52-year-old remains modest – even though German cross-country skiers have been on the upswing since the Olympic Games in Beijing and have also had top results in the World Cup this season.

Hennig – It counts at the World Cup

“If we finish on the podium and maybe get two or three top 10 results, we’ll be very happy“He said on Boxing Day in an interview with Sportschau. He doesn’t say the overall victory. Katharina Hennig is definitely one of the extended circle of favorites. However, Schlickenrieder sets the bar low and expects from his exceptional runner “not too much”. Why? “She’s been training a lot. You could see that at the World Cup in Davos. Now it’s about getting back into the race and getting one or the other top result, but in the end what’s important is that she’s in top form at the World Championships Is on the way”said Schlickenrieder.

Schlickenrieder: “Don’t set the bar so high”

At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica (February 21 to March 5, 2023), the Germans are hoping for another coup. Just like at the Olympic Games in Beijing, when Hennig and Victoria Carl surprisingly won gold as a team and the German women’s relay won silver over 4 x 5 kilometers. After many bleak years, the Germans were suddenly world elite and surprised themselves with it. Beijing should not remain a flash in the pan. “Our goal is a medal,” Schlickenrieder makes clear and knows how difficult it will be in the concert of top runners.

He consciously says that he doesn’t want to set the expectations too high for the Tour de Ski. Katharina Hennig has already shown more this season than one could have expected from her. You shouldn’t set the bar so high, but see step by step and bring a good team together again at the World Cup. “Dhat is actually the big challenge that we don’t just have individual runners, but that we can really present ourselves so well as a team again that we can almost match the results in Beijing”he looks ahead to the World Ski Championships.

Crack the World Cup norm on the tour

The multi-day tour is a good stopover on the way there and for some the chance to book the World Cup ticket. Not everyone has broken the norm yet. Schlickenrieder hopes that a large part of the World Cup team will be set after the tour.

What is already certain: The athletes can expect a torture from New Year’s Eve. The tour begins for the first time in the 1600 meter high Swiss Val Müstair. After that, the highlight from a German perspective awaits with the races in Oberstdorf. “Showing what you can do in front of a home crowd is the greatest thing,” says Schlickenrieder, who is happy that spectators will be there again. The winner will be chosen on January 8th. The first on the Alpe Cermis can look forward to a lot of prestige, 450 World Cup points and plenty of prize money. A total of one million Swiss francs will be awarded.

Sprinters are spared the torment of Alpe Cermis

But traditionally only a small part of the starting field makes it to the top of the mountain. The German team will not climb to the top as a whole either. The very young athletes and some sprinters will not run the whole tour, Schlickenrieder announced. Despite all the mountain spectacle: The focus is solely on the world championship.