January
27
Tags
Kilian Jornet and Laura Orgué lead the spanish team into the second leg of Skimo World Cup at Catalan Pyrenees
.
.
The Skimo World Cup 2017 reaches its second leg this weekend at Cambre d’Aze. The French Pyrenees welcome again the Spanish team FEDME with Killian Jornet and Laura Orgué leading the squad to glide it out with the traditional Alpine countries: France, Italy and Switzerland.
The races will be held at the facilities of the ski resort of Cambre d’Aze on the north side of Puigmal, a familiar territory for much of the spanish team. Let us go now into detail with the program and favorites for this event in the French Pyrenees, which will see the second individual and first sprint of the 2017 ski mountaineering calendar, whose full scope runs as follows.
_________________________________
.
SKIMO WORLD CUP CAMBRE D´AZE 2017
PROGRAM AND FAVORITES.
.
The World Cup ISMF Skimo 2017 celebrates its second stage in France, at Catalan Pyrenees. Wild and Mediterranean, the ski area is covered in fresh snow powder these days and shows perfect conditions. Around 120 athletes will participate in each competition, representing 14 countries.
The area, in the regional park of the Catalan Pyrenees, is about two hours from the Principality of Andorra, where the World Cup was held in Fontblanca whose race report, results and photos we brought you here already.
.
The plateau of Capcir and Cerdagne and the peaks of Canigou and Puigmal will mark the individual race on Saturday 28th, second of the season. On Sunday 29th the race will be the first Sprint in the the agenda of 2017. The atmosphere is wild and remote in this area, well known by many of the regular mountain skiers in the Catalan Pyrenees.
The land offers the charm of a well-known mountain train – the “yellow train” – which boasts of being the highest in France. The terrain that rises from the foothills of Cambre d’Aze is often referred to as “the donkey’s back”, since it runs along and beautiful crest up to 2750 meters high, which will act as the backdrop for the next races.
The Cambre d´Aze ski resort itself is divided into two parts: The Eyne area, a cozy village at 1,583 m, called by a river that flows nearby and the Saint Pierre dels Forcat. Both have worked hard to design the perfect conditions for both races scheduled at the weekend.
We will have plenty of poder to frame the two races that have just reached 125 athletes from 14 countries for the Individual, which will open fire on Saturday 28. Meanwhile, the countries present for the Sprint Sunday are 13, with 120 dorsales in the starting list.
.
Declarations:
- According to ISMF president Armando Mariotta: “There was a significant and continuous snowfall over the past week, and now the conditions are great.”
- From the French federation we are reminded that: “Cambre D’Aze has a long tradition in mountain skiing. In fact the legendary race – La Trace Catalane – was created here 30 years ago.”
- Kilian Jornet, winner of the Individual 2016 here: “I had great memories of Cambre D’Aze, where I used to train when I lived in Font Romeu”
THE FAVORITES: Most of the teams moved directly from Andorra and have been training for a couple of days in the field. The first male individual ranking of the season arrives with Anton Palzer of Germany ahead of the Italian Damiano Lenzi and Xavier Gachet of France. The French team is again the main women´s favorite, being Laetitia Roux, winner of the discipline in 2016 and winner of the opening event at Font Blanca, followed by her compatriot Axelle Mollaret. The third is Emilie Forsberg, the Swedish who not only made the Individual podium, but also won the first Vertical with a sprint attack. A great result that she will try to repeat this weekend, leaving behind our Laura Orgué that comes third in the ranking.
.
Spain´s national squad by FEDME: The Spanish team comes straight from a Fontblanca event, where silver and bronze senior positions in the vertical race were achieved by Kilian Jornet and Laura Orgué as the best results, along with gold medal achieved by sub23 category skier Oriol Cardona in individual and the silver and bronze medals for Oriol himself and Antonio Alcalde in the vertical.
See below some last minute images from ISMF Skimo as regards last tracks inspections before the race
_________________________________
.
MORE ON SKIMO, TRAIL RUNNING AND MOUNTAIN GEAR
- Our best reviews for selected mountain gear.
- Our video collection with athlete´s interviews, races and more.
- Carrerasdemontana.com offers the best trail info in spanish, since 2007.
________________________________
Info by Mayayo Oxígeno for Trailrunningspain
