PREVIEW: Tour de Ski to set down Olympic marker

Dec 30, 2009, 16:58 GMT

   Hamburg - The fourth edition of the Tour de Ski promises to give a good indicator of which cross-country skiers will be challenging for Olympic gold in Vancouver in six weeks time when the 2010 Winter Games get under way.

   The 81 women and 92 men registered for the event will compete in eight races taking place in Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy and organizers will be hoping to match the 100,000 spectators that followed the 2009 event.

   The Tour starts Friday in Oberhof, Germany with three days of racing before moving to Prague on Monday. Tuesday is a rest day before progressing to Italy for further stages in Toblach and Val di Fiemme and ending on January 10.

   The men will have to ski 104.9 kilometres in 10 days with Norway's Petter Northug favourite to go one better than last year and claim the overall Tour victory.

However, the World Cup leader will face strong opposition from Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic, Russia's Alexander Legkov, Tobias Angerer of Germany and last year's winner, Dario Cologna of Switzerland.

Defending overall World Cup champion Cologna was unable to take up training until September because of a thigh strain but showed with his fifth-place finish in Rogla, Slovenia, earlier this month that he is now finding his form.

The absence of Norway's Marit Bjoergen and Swedes Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag means Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk is favourite to lift the women's crown.

Two-time Tour winner Virpi Kuitunen of Finland also can't be ruled out of an event that will see the women race a total of 64.7km.

   After three stages in Oberhof and a sprint in Prague, the Tour will be decided in Italy. Toblach is a new venue for the event with two finishes staged there.

The conclusion takes place with two stages at Val di Fiemme with the highlight once again the climb to Alpe Cermis. The overall winners in the men's and women's events each receive 100,000 euros (143,000 dollars) as well as 400 World Cup points.

One of the new changes to rules means that athletes retain all points earned in the Tour, even if they fail to compete to the end in Val di Fiemme.