A great star will appear at the starting line of the 44th Jizerská 50: for the third time in a row, the five-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion Thomas Alsgaard will come. While the Norwegian came sixteenth in 2009, he surprised with the second position last year. How will he do on 9 January 2011?
While in 2009, the now thirty-eight-year-old legend came to Bedřichov mainly to participate in the race, this in January 2010, he was fighting for victory until the very last metres. One of the icons of cross-country skiing takes his return to cross-country skiing seriously - he is a part of the large team of United Bakeries.
"Our team has grown a lot; ten of us are going to come to Jizerská 50 - six racers and four service persons," Thomas Alsgaard said for the website of the race at www.jiz50.cz. "I am looking forward to Czechia very much; the Jizera Mountains remind me of the landscape north of Oslo and I like the tracks very much. My memories of the last race are mixed - due to weather, the conditions were really demanding but the service persons did a great job and I was saved by fantastically prepared skis. And the second position? That was a very pleasant surprise to me."
The second season after his return to the world of cross-country skiing is awaiting Alsgaard. He races exclusively on the marathon tracks of the FIS Marathon Cup series; besides Jizerská 50, he also participated in Marcialonga in Italy or in the famous Vasaloppet in Sweden.
"I train in the same way as last year, approximately 50 hours per month. Regrettably, I do not have more time for that," he regrets. His training is certainly not a typical one: he engages in physical exercise on gymnastic equipment; he also tried out a flight simulator.
At present, the registrations for all the upcoming 44th Jizerská 50 races have been stopped. If there are any free starting places left they will be available for registration at the OC Nisa shopping centre on 6-8 January 2011.
The limits were reached for Jizerská 50 for the first time ever. In all, 4,000 numbers are ready for Jizerská 50 of ČSOB Pojišťovna, 1,000 numbers for Jizerská 25 of Intersport, and 500 competitors will take part in Bedřichovská 30 of O2.
www.jiz50.cz