A VINTAGE TASTE FOR 2013 MARCIALONGA.

Marcialonga Story on the eve of Marcialonga 2013 with hundreds of skiers

Franco Nones, 1968 Olympic gold, wears bib number 1

Marcialonga number 40 with 7.500 participants and…fresh snow

Further events on the day before the ski-marathon

 

 

‘Let’s do it vintage’ could be the motto of the 40th Marcialonga di Fiemme e Fassa cross country skiing event, scheduled on the last week-end of January. Vintage simply because on the eve of the ski-marathon, the Marcialonga Story promotional event will take place and hundreds of skiers will turn up to enjoy an 11k long track from the XC stadium in Lago di Tesero to Predazzo town centre. All participants will experience the true, ancient spirit of the discipline (strictly in classic technique), wearing original equipment only and celebrating four decades of XC skiing history. Franco Nones, the first non-Scandinavian and non-Russian male to win a Winter Olympic XC skiing gold medal (Grenoble 1968), will take part in the Marcialonga Story race and he couldn’t but wear bib number 1. Nones will be also wearing the complete 1968 outfit apart from the trousers. ‘Skis, boots and jacket are those from that day, trousers tore apart unfortunately, but I had a perfect copy tailored and they look exactly the same’, said Nones.

Further side events are scheduled during the last week-end of January in the Italian alpine valleys, such as Marcialonga Young, Marcialonga Stars and Minimarcialonga for children.

Italy’s Trentino region, in the north-eastern part of the country, awoke to snow last Sunday, and as more snowfalls are forecast during this week, the thousands of participants and the Marcialonga OC could smile with relief. ‘I hope it will snow quite a lot these days before the race’, said OC President Alfredo Weiss, ‘so we won’t produce further artificial snow and enjoy our mountains naturally covered in white’.

Among the thousands of participants, there will be some of the world’s best XC long-distance specialists such as last year’s winners Jörgen Aukland and Susanne Nystrom, or Swedish Jenny Hansson, Oskar Svärd, Jerry Ahrlin, Jimmie Johnsson, Norwegian Anders Aukland, Jens Arne Svartedal and Simen Ostensen, Czech Stanislav Rezac, and Italian Nicola Morandini, Stephanie Santer (2012 FIS Marathon Cup winner and 3rd in last year’s Marcialonga) and 2006 Olympic champions Cristian Zorzi and Pietro Piller Cottrer. Gold medallists at the 1991 and 2003 Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme, such as Terje Langli and Trude Dybendahl of Norwayand Per Elofsson of Sweden, will also be at the start of the 40th Marcialonga on Sunday 27 January, together with Russian strong Vassili Rotchev.

Marcialonga is part of the FIS Marathon Cup and Worldloppet circuit 2013. Last Sunday the Jizerska Padesatka race took place in Bedrichov (CzechRepublic) and Anders Aukland and Valentina Shevchenko crossed the finish line first. Next Sunday the Dolomitenlauf event will take place inAustria, one week before Marcialonga.

Info: www.marcialonga.it