By Theresa Fugger
Visma Ski Classics Season X starts in only a few weeks with a record number of German-speaking Pro Teams: three German, one Swiss and one Austrian. All Pro Teams have athletes from different nationalities, many of which will fight for the Youth Bib during the upcoming season.
Female Pink Bib diggers
One of the German Pro Teams – xc-ski.de A/N Skimarathon Team – counts on female youth power. Melina Mayer from Switzerland has already collected some long-distance ski experience in Season IX. This year again she is planning to put her full focus on Visma Ski Classics and is training intensively to further improve her performance.
The second Swiss female in the Pro Team is Katja Bieri who will start in Visma Ski Classics for the first time in the upcoming season. Katja has trained rigorously with the Swiss Ski Federation for professional cross-country skiing until she had to pause for a longer period because of several injuries. But now she is back to her full strength and wants to focus on long distances.
The third woman in the Pro Team, Franziska Müller, is already experienced with Visma Ski Classics. After she switched to Team Forever Nordic last season, she is now back in her old team. Last year she finished in Top 15 in the Youth competition and is aiming for more in Season X.
Tough beginning of 2020
Germany’s brand-new Pro Team, Team Nordic People, that has acquired some known names of the former Team Forever Nordic, is active with not only two women but also two men in the fight for the Youth Bib. Although Ann-Cathrin Uhl and Jessica Wirth both can’t put full focus on the upcoming season as they are occupied by studies and family business, they are confident to earn some valuable points in the Youth competition.
The Pro Team’s young men on the other hand, Christian Winker and Michael Kuisle, are both in the midst of their studies and have enough time to incorporate their daily training in order to compete in most of the 12 events of Season X on a high level. “In the men’s competition, if you’re aiming for Pink in a race, it is possible that you actually also win the race”, says Michael and sounds like he has some ambitious plans for the upcoming season. “The biggest challenge in our age is the high density of competitions between Kaiser Maximilian Lauf and Jizerska Padesatka”, he adds.
It sounds like Pro Teams of the German-speaking market aim high this season in the Youth competition and prepare well in the last few weeks before it starts. Stay tuned for more Youth news from the other German-speaking teams.
