By Teemu Virtanen
Tord Asle Gjerdalen has been a driving force in Visma Ski Classics for years, and his innovative approach has contributed much to the sport. He was one of the first Pro Team athletes to use longer poles in double-poling, and his example was followed by many. This Sunday, he found out that his longtime employer Team Ragde Eiendom is shifting their focus, and their new plan has no place for him anymore. The man who finished second in the Hertz Champion competition this season is now looking for a new team.
Tord Asle sounds a bit weary but still optimistic about his future when he talks about the matter on the phone while babysitting his young children who are at home due to the ongoing lockdown in Norway.
“It’s only been a few days since I heard the news,” he proclaims. “So, I have no idea about my future, but I will continue racing. I’m lucky to have a great family that supports me in whatever I decide to do. I still have a great desire to achieve more in professional skiing. There are so many races left to win like Birkebeinerrennet and Vasaloppet and many more that I’d like to win again.”
Jørgen Aukland, the manager of Team Ragde Eiendom, mentioned on langrenn.com that Tord Asle contributed a great deal in the team’s development. When asked about it, Tord Asle replies quickly.
“I introduced the idea of using longer poles. They argued about it first but after a while realized that it was the right solution. And not just using longer poles but the double-poling technique that comes along with it. Very soon other skiers heard about it and started copying us. Petter Eliassen heard it from me and used longer poles at Birken. At some point, he even used poles that were longer than his regular skating poles. Right now, I think the optimal length, if possible, would be 5-10 cm longer than diagonal striding poles, but they can be even more depending on a race course. I also brought in CamelBaks for us to use in long races, which effectively reduced the number of service people in any given race.”
Tord Asle still has fond memories of his former team, and he says that he also learned a lot from his team members. According to him, the Aukland brothers’ gang was the best team for him when he entered the arena of long distance skiing in 2015. Before Visma Ski Classics, he was a successful standard distance skier with two relay gold medals and two bronze medals in individual races at the FIS World Championships. In his first Visma Ski Classics season, Season V, he finished third in the overall Champion competition and won Marcialonga that year as well. Since then he has been one of the top skiers in long distance skiing with his two Hertz Champion titles.
“I’m now searching for the best possible team and surroundings so that I can be at my best when the new season begins. This year was quite alright, but so many things went wrong from a tactical point of view to the fact that the three last races got canceled. Those would have been really good ones for me. I like racing, but not just that. The coolest thing about this sport is the preparation phase beforehand, all the aspects that go into it. I love that so much!”
Tord Asle is a firm believer in improving one’s strengths rather than weaknesses, much like Team Ramudden’s director Gustaf Korsgren.
“I agree with Gustaf. You should work on your best abilities and skills and make them even better. That’s what makes you a winner. If you focus on bettering your weaknesses, you will only become an average skier who cannot win races. Of course, there are certain conditions where we see surprise winners. But if you think about the cream of the crop in our sport, we all have our own edge, a special skill or skills. However, you have to keep in mind that when you start focusing on one thing, you will spend less time with another. You can’t do everything! I will analyze my season and training methods and change my plan accordingly. You shouldn’t just repeat what you’ve done previously. You need to change things around every year.”
This Norwegian Pro Skier is really keen on sharing his views on potential developments for the Pro Tour and Visma Ski Classics in general. He says that there should be more skating races, not just one like last year, to attract more Central-European skiers, and there should be more extreme challenges, for example races back-to-back or ultra-distances.
“One great addition could be to have different options for all participants during a race. Let’s say that we have the last long climb to the top of the alpine slope at Ylläs-Levi. Elite skiers would finish up there, but regular folks could decide whether they want to do it or not during their race. If they felt that they were up to it, they could climb up the hill, or if not, just stop where the finish is right now. We need to push the envelope and give people some extreme challenges and experiences. And for us Pro Team athletes, let’s make the tour so hard that we all suffer. We could have a minitour, like Tour de Ski for Visma Ski Classics, where we have several long distance races within a week ranging from 50 km to 100 km or even more. That would be extremely cool!”
Those are very interesting ideas, and something that you would expect from Tord Asle. He has always been the one who goes the extra mile while wearing his famous aviator sunglasses, his eccentric trademark. We better watch out as he will come back with a vengeance come the new season, and a comeback for a skier who was the second best in the game this winter can only mean being the number one when the new season kicks off.
