'THUNDERBOLT' RIISE JOINS MARCIALONGA

Cross country skiers about to jump in, Marcialonga di Fiemme e Fassa at the start on Sunday. However, a good handful of other sportsmen will get on the 70k-long track from Moena to Cavalese along with the many – over 7,500 – winter sports' lovers. Former champion road racing cyclist Paolo Bettini will join Sunday's ski-marathon at the foot of the Dolomites and so will Finn former rallycross driver Marcus Grönholm, Russian biathlete Anton Shipulin and Norwegian retired football player John ‘Thunderbolt’ Arne Riise who played in Italy's AS Roma and Liverpool.     

Several further side competitions will take place tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in Italy's Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa, such as Marcialonga Baby in Predazzo, Marcialonga Stars and Story at the XC skiing Stadium in Lago di Tesero plus Minimarcialonga and Marcialonga Young. Another interesting challenge will be the uphills' time count-up using the Strava GPS app and the Skirilonga combined event that sums parents' race time at Marcialonga with children's time of last weekend's Skiri Trophy XCountry.

The 45th Marcialonga di Fiemme e Fassa will kick off on Sunday at 7.50 (women) and 8.00 AM (men).