Alpe Cermis's dilemma: should Bolshunov participate in the Tour de Ski before the Olympics

Unlike the biathlon tour, which traditionally takes a break for Catholic Christmas and New Years, leading skiers do not go on vacation after the World Cup in Dresden, which consisted exclusively of sprint disciplines. On December 28, the Tour de Ski, a multi-day race, starts in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, within which they will have to start six times in eight days. It will end with the traditional ascent to the Cermis Alpe, after which only a month will remain until the main event of the last four years - the Beijing Olympics.

In cases where the Tour de Ski is held in the same season with the Games or the World Championship, skiers inevitably face the question - is it possible to combine one competitive marathon with another, or is it better to focus on only one thing. In leap years, there is no such dilemma, and the march becomes a must for everyone. In others, athletes have to face a difficult choice and reflect on the possible sacrifice of New Year's starts in the Alps.

This problem also applies to the leading Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov.

For the past four years, he has certainly participated in the Tour de Ski and twice became the winner.

Performing in a multi-day event did not prevent him from collecting many awards at the Olympics in Pyeongchang and the world championships in Seefeld and Oberstdorf.

However, the leader of the national team is not sure if he will try to defend his title.

“Plans for the Tour de Ski?

I don't know what to expect from myself, the state is incomprehensible.

We will spend the last week in training and see what happens, "Bolshunov told Match TV after the stage in Dresden.

The words of the athlete were later refuted by the senior coach of the Russian national team, Yuri Borodavko.

He said that Bolshunov will certainly perform at the stage race along with other famous skiers.

“Sasha is in a normal state.

He will participate in all Tour de Ski races.

There are no prerequisites for refusing to compete at the moment.

Also, Alexander Terentyev, Alexey Chervotkin, Denis Spitsov, Natalya Nepryaeva, Yana Kirpichenko will go there ”, - quotes the Sport24 specialist.

However, there are several reasons to skip the Tour de Ski and devote the free time to preparing for the Olympics.

The main one is the too tight calendar of the season.

Between the climb on the Cermis Alpe and the Olympic medal competition in the skiathlon, men will have 32 days of rest (women have even 31).

Ski competitions at the Games will begin on February 5 - they have not started so early since 1976, when the Tour de Ski did not yet exist, and the World Cup had an unofficial status.

These 31 or 32 days still have to be spent on getting to China, getting acclimatized and trying out the unfamiliar track in Zhangjiakou. For some of the athletes, this may be the first trip to Asia. In addition, between the Tour de Ski and the Olympics, there will be two more World Cup stages with five medal draws, including three distance races. It is far from a fact that the favorites will honor the starts in Le Rousse and Planica with attention, but they are still included in the calendar.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) has tried to make the Tour de Ski as easy as possible for the participants. The race will end on January 4 - so early it ended only once in history. The number of stages has been reduced to six, which has never happened before. The total distance for men will be 55 km (as well as two sprints) and 40 km for women, which is not such a great distance - theoretically you can run more than 100 km at the Olympics. It was not possible to squeeze the Tour de Ski even more, then the stage race would have lost its meaning and turned into a slightly extended regular stage of the World Cup.

However, concessions from the organizers did not help to avoid withdrawal from participation.

Sergei Ustyugov and Teresa Johaug will not come to the Tour de Ski.

At the same time, the Norwegian national team included the leader of the World Cup Johannes Klebo, and the world champion in the marathon Emil Iversen, and the Olympic champion in skiathlon Simen Kruger.

However, they all missed the stage in Dresden, while Bolshunov went to the start.

The second reason why a Russian skier should follow the example of Ustyugov is his shape.

This season, Bolshunov performs worse than he could.

He won the pursuit, which did not include the Norwegians, and won two bronze medals in the cut and team sprint.

In fact, the 24-year-old, when the Russian had quite strong rivals with whom he would have to fight at the Olympics, he distinguished himself only once.

Of course, this can be explained by blurred preparation for the season due to health problems, and some unfortunate moments, like a failure in sprints, but right now Alexander can hardly be called the best distance skier he has been in recent years, and a contender for victory in Tour de Ski. He himself also speaks of his condition as sub-optimal. The image of a person who does not know fatigue and can always go on the track has been entrenched in him. Only endless competitive practice usually bore fruit for Bolshunov. Now they are gone.

Do not forget about such a factor as a pandemic.

Last season, fans actively discussed or even ridiculed the Norwegians' decision to miss one start after another when the situation was not as dire as it is now.

However, it was precisely this that helped the Scandinavian skiers to prepare for the World Championship without any risk and perform well at it, and no one later recalled the missed World Cup stages.

Refusal to travel to Switzerland, Germany and Italy during the Tour de Ski will definitely help Bolshunov not only to avoid unnecessary health problems, which are not needed in principle before the Olympics, but also to unload mentally.

And five contact races with the risk of injury are also a reason to think about whether they are needed right now by a person who has already won the Tour de Ski twice, but has never won the Olympics.

However, even if the decision to participate in the stage race has already been made for Alexander, he still has room for maneuver.

If after the first two races he feels that he is far from optimal shape, he can simply finish in the training mode, without solving super tasks and without squeezing all the juices out of himself.

How justified was the start of the Tour de Ski in principle, it will become clear only in February.

And it should not be ruled out that Bolshunov will shame the skeptics in pursuit of his dream.