Maricalonga 2010

February 12, 2010

Lavaze Loppet

Light frost, blue sky, perfectly prepared tracks. What else do you need to make the cross country race an exciting experience, giving joy and satisfaction?
The 33rd edition of Lavaze Loppet took place traditionally at picturesque Passo di Lavaze, 10km up from Cavalese. The course there is quite demanding for citizen skiers. The altitude ranging from 1750 to 1870 m makes your breething faster on long climbs which total 540 m. There are also few technically difficult descents with S-shape curves. This makes 22 km race more than just a warm up before Marcialonga which takes place 3 days later.
The race was very fast and the winner Giorgio di Centa from th Olimpic Team of Italy completed the course in 52:42. As usually IAWLS members were also participating  in the race.

MARCIALONGA - Scandinavian race in Italy

1931 skiers from Norway out of 5396 participants took part in the 37th edition of Marcialonga surpassing the number if Italian skiers -1729 persons. Swedes and Norwegians accounted for 54,5% of total number of Marcialonga skiers. The popularity of this race worldwide is also reflected by the number of nations participating, which in 2010 were 25. It is the beautiful scenery of Dolomites, nice weather, big number of supporters along the course and spectacular finish along narrow streets of Cavalese that make this race a unique experience.

These statistics not only reflect the popularity of this race but also mean that with increasing number of skier from Scandinavia the average level is growing. No wonder, citizen skiers from Nordic countries are still more than a match for other nations. Marcialonga has started to be a classic race from the 30th edition and since then the number of skiers from the north of Europe has been growing. The decision to switch from free style to the classic was certainly a right one as overtaking is much easier on the narrow sections of the course.

The organizers, as usually prepared the course very well and snow conditions were close to perfect. Speaking about the organization it is worthwhile to point out that despite excellent start arrangement which has already been praised on the web site, the number of overtaking was huge. This is mainly due to the increasing number of fast skiers from Norway and Sweden who race abroad very rarely thus they cannot provide evidence of Worldloppet races to be seeded correctly and start in late groups. The 37th edition of the race was accompanied by Marcialonga light of 45 km distance with finish in Predazzo.  500 skiers choose the “light” option.

The race was quite fast this year though not the record one. Oskar Svard of Sweden completed the course in 3:02:28. Some results of IAWLS members are here below.

Marcialonga Light (45 km CT)

This page was last revised on March 12, 2010