The 18th edition of the Tour de Ski approaches its end. Jessie Diggins has worn the yellow leader’s bib since stage two. Fellow pre-Tour favorite Harald Østberg Amundnsen continues to lead an all-Norwegian podium for the men. The leaders, and those athletes who remain, now journey to the final stop of the Tour de Ski, in Val di Fiemme, Switzerland. Here is when some increasingly tired athletes will navigate some increasingly difficult races:
World Cup (local time at venue: Central European Time. This is 6 hours ahead of the East Coast and 10 hours ahead of Alaska.)
| date | race | time (AK) | time (EST) | results |
| Saturday, Jan. 6 | W 15km classic | 1:30 a.m. | 5:30 a.m. | here |
| M 15km classic | 5:25 a.m. | 9:25 a.m. | here | |
| Thursday, Jan. 7 | M final climb | 4:30 a.m. | 8:30 a.m. | here |
| W final climb | 5:45 a.m. | 9:45 a.m. | here |
Who is racing for the Americans?
Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Sophia Laukli, Novie McCabe, and Sammy Smith, for the women (updated with withdrawals through stage five).
Kevin Bolger, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, Scott Patterson, and Gus Schumacher, for the men. JC Schoonmaker withdrew before stage one due to illness. The two Alaskans carry the flag for the American men headed into stage six.
What do they think going into these races?
Find out more on the Americans’ pre-Tour thoughts and hopes here.
Who is not racing in this year’s Tour de Ski?
Two-time defending champion Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, unfortunately joined by several other notable names. Find out more about some high-profile withdrawals here.
Who’s going to win the Tour de Ski?
2021 champion Jessie Diggins got the pre-Tour nod from the oddsmakers, by a substantial margin, with Ebba Andersson, Frida Karlsson, Rosie Brennan, and Heidi Weng, in that order, as the second through fifth most likely candidates.
Harald Østberg Amundsen was the odds-on favorite for the men with Klæbo out, followed by a perhaps-still-sick Pål Golberg, Didrik Tønseth, Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, and Jan Thomas Jenssen, in that order. You may sense a Norwegian theme here. Calle Halfvarsson and Andrew Musgrave are the bookies’ favorite for a non-Norwegian overall winner.
How can you watch the races?
I have thoughts on this. TLDR, pay Ski & Snowboard Live (link) $8 to $9 per month throughout the season if you would like to be assured of being able to watch the races, with good quality, and audio commentary in American English, and so on. For as little as $0/month, depending on VPN cost, get a VPN that will let you geo-locate to Canada, then watch the free livestream on the FIS YouTube channel, with commentary in British English. Find out more about that here. You might want to try Windscribe as a VPN; a free trial with them should allot you enough data to make it through the Tour.
You can also take your chances with what gets uploaded to YouTube after the fact, which is free but not always as reliable, and subject to pesky take-down notices. Find out far more about all of these options, including some VPN how-tos, in this article:
Enjoy the races.
— Gavin Kentch
Financial real talk: I worked my butt off for the first year of this website, and took home a net profit of all of $1,500. Inspiring stuff I know. And that was only thanks to the $3,000 that I took in from readers through my GoFundMe. On the one hand, I’m not going very hard on soliciting donations right now, because this is fundraising week for the NNF’s Drive for 25, deservedly so. On the other hand, the money from the GoFundMe is the only reason that I had a profit instead of a loss for the first year of Nordic Insights, and is in turn why there is a second year of Nordic Insights that you are currently reading — I was on board with doing this for very little money out of a love for American nordic skiing, but didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing this.
So. If you would like to support the second year of Nordic Insights, last year’s GoFundMe is still up here. I will update this with a new fundraiser soon/once Drive for 25 ends; for the time being, just mentally substitute in “World Cup” for “Houghton” (basically the same venue tbh). All the money still goes to the same place. Thank you for your support, and thank you, as always, for reading.
