Friday we start with the sprint race
Swiss and French with a focus on the sprint, Italians with the aim of leaving their mark in the individual. These are the premises of the Italian stage of the Skialp World Cup scheduled for Friday 16 and Sunday 18 December in the Pontedilegno – Tonale ski area.
There is great anticipation for the pre-Christmas appointment with ski mountaineering, organized for the third time by the Adamello Ski Team, with great interest in the short race, which represents an Olympic preview, taken to one of the symbolic resorts of the world skialp, theater for over fifty years of events of absolute international level.
The sprint race on Friday 16 December will take place on the parterre of the track overlooking the town of Ponte di Legno, and will include large steps, inversions and a final descent with a jump. All with day lighting, given the evening dispute of the event. Among the favorites for the victory are first of all those who have already climbed on the podium in the inaugural race in France, namely the French Emily Harrop, the Swiss Marianne Fatton and the Italian Giulia Murada in the women's field, then the Swiss Arno Lietha, Iwan Arnold and Thomas Bussard, leading players in the challenge staged in Val Thorens. In an Italian key, the Italian patrol will also see the presence of Mara Martini, Ilaria Veronese, Lisa Moreschini, Alba De Silvestro, Silvia Berra, Samantha Bertolina, Giulia Compagnoni and Katia Mascherona at the opening sprint.
In the men's field, the two French Robin Galindo and Thibault Anselmet should not be underestimated, then the Spaniard Oriol Cardona Coll, while the blue team is made up of Luca Tomasoni, Ernesto Nicolò Canclini, Giovanni Rossi, Robert Antonioli, Nadir Maguet, Michele Boscacci, Alessandro Rossi , Rocco Baldini, Matteo Sostizzo, Marco Salvadori, Andrea Prandi, William Boffetti, Matteo Eydallin, Pietro Festini Purlan, Sebastien Guichardaz, Federico Nicolini and Alex Oberbacher, while the individual starting list will be made official on Saturday afternoon.
Remaining on the subject of the individual challenge on Sunday, the organizers, led by Alessandro Mottinelli, have defined the race route, which will start from Passo Paradiso and will see the finish line in Capanna Presena. It is a route that will be tackled twice and which will see the ascent up to an altitude of 3,000 meters in the initial part, with a particularly spectacular final stretch on foot in a gully. After the set-up change, the athletes will descend to the knee of the glacier, and then further lower in altitude below the Capanna Presena off-piste. Another skin change and ascent towards the edge of Lago Scuro, descent towards Passo Paradiso and another climb towards the finish line to face the second lap. These are particularly spectacular passages that the public will be able to see even at high altitudes, using the Paradiso and Presena cable cars.
The program foresees tomorrow (Friday 16 December) from 17.15 the reconnaissance and training by the teams, then at 17.45 the women's and men's qualifications with individual start. The knockout matches will kick off with the quarter-finals at 6.30pm, followed by the women's semi-finals and finals at around 8.30pm and the men's at 8.40pm. Saturday rest and training, then Sunday morning space for the two individual races starting from Passo Paradiso. At 9.45 the start of the men's categories and at 10.15 of the women's on two tracks with different distances.
Important news also regarding the visibility of the two stages of the World Cup. The main phases of the sprint can be seen in live streaming, like the other stages, on the tv.ismf-ski.org website, and two separate summaries of both the sprint and the individual are also planned on RaiSport Hd in the days following the race.
The challenge can be followed in live streaming on Youtube.