No rest for XC team to start 2025

It has been a hectic start of the 2025 for our cross country skiers with athletes competing across Europe and the northern hemisphere with no signs of slowing down as the season moves into top gear.

TOUR DE SKI
Bentley Walker-Broose, Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham took on the iconic Tour de Ski in Italy, a seven-stage event which is a true test of cross country skills, technique endurance.

Walker-Broose fought hard to make it through the first six stages, while his compatriots made it all the way to the final climb at Val di Fiemme.

De Campo (52nd) finished his second straight Tour de Ski with his highest stage finish coming on the final day, while Bellingham was 57th on Tour debut.

Simply finishing the Tour is an amazing achievement with more than 40% of starters dropping out or being eliminated at various stages of the event.

US NATIONALS
The US National Championships have long been an event targeted by Australian athletes, particularly those based in North America.

This year’s event took place earlier this month in Anchorage, Alaska with some fantastic results.

Beijing Olympian Hugo Hinckfuss scored a treble of top 10 finishes - 4th in the 10km Free, 8th in the Sprint Classic and 10th in the 20km Classic.

Rosie Fordham also performed strongly, her best result coming in the 10km Free where she finished just four seconds off the podium in 5th place.

WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES
A team of seven athletes are in Torino-Pragelato in Italy for the 2025 World University Games.

Starting tonight, a five-event program is in store over the coming week taking in the 10km Free, Sprint Classic and 20km Classic in the individual events. There will also be a team sprint and 4x7.5km relay.

The team consists of Adam Barnett (Swinburne University of Technology, Bentley Walker-Broose (University of Canberra), Fedele de Campo (Australian National University), Hannah Price (Australian National University), Isabella Moon (Australian National University), Noah Bradford (Macquarie University) and Vincent de Souza (University of Sydney).

Walker-Broose and Moon were also given the honour of carrying the Australian flag into the Opening Ceremony.

All races will be streamed live via fisu.tv .

FIS WORLD CUP
Following a short break following the Tour de Ski, the FIS Cross Country World Cup resumes this week in Les Rousses, France.

Fresh from his strong performances at the US Nationals and the US Super Tour, Hugo Hinckfuss makes his first World Cup start of the season alongside Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham.

Following that, six more World Cups remain on the 2024/25 calendar along with the World Championships at Trondheim, Norway in February/March.

NORWEGIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
A number of World Cup athletes will be taking on the highly-competitive Norwegian Championships in Gaasbu which start tonight.

Lars Young Vik, Ellen Soehol Lie and Tuva Bygrave will all be in action. Phoebe Cridland is a late withdrawal but is expectedt to join the World Cup squad next week.

PARA NORDIC
Just over 12 months out from the Winter Paralympic Games, Australia looks set to rejoin the Para Cross Country World Cup scene.

Visually-impaired skier Taryn Dickens has been training hard with guide Heather Bundy as she looks to qualify for Milano-Cortina in Cross Country and biathlon along with sitting skier Matt Brumby.

At the end of this month, they will all contest the biathlon and cross country races at the Para Nordic World Cup in Val de Fiemme, Italy, before following up with more racing in Pokljuka, Slovenia and Toblach, Italy in February.

SKI MOUNTAINEERING

It wouldn’t be an update with bringing you up to speed with the start of the SkiMo season as the athletes attempt to qualify for the sport’s Olympic debut in Milano-Cortino next year.

Innika de Rosa was 57th in her opening Sprint Race of the season of Courchevel, while Phil Bellingham was 53rd. He then backed up his Tour de Ski finish by returning to SkiMo with a career-best 41st in the Sprint race in Azerbaijan.

While SkiMo is also contested across the Vertical and Individual disciplines, athletes are concentrating on Sprint racing as it is this event which will be held at next year’s Olympic Games.