After the abrupt ending of Visma Ski Classics season X in March, athletes could not participate in any Pro Tour or Challengers events since then.
On Sunday, 30th August, the new Ski Classics Challengers season finally kicks off with a new event in Austria, Salzburg-rollt.
Initially, the first Ski Classics Challengers event to be staged in season 2020/21 should have been Alliansloppet on 29th August. Due to the continuous limitation of maximum of 50 participants for outdoor events in Sweden, the event was postponed to 10th October earlier this summer. This means that the newcomer event Salzburg-rollt, which takes place on the motorsport racetrack Salzburgring in Austria, will be the first Challengers event open to the public in this season.
“With Salzburgring as location, we have the unique opportunity to implement a very sophisticated and high-qualitative security concept. Since there is only one central access to the location, we will be able to measure temperature and collect contact information of each individual entering the premises”, says Ernst Penninger, Managing Director of Salzburgring.
This is to secure a healthy environment for athletes and support teams and facilitate contact tracing if needed.
“Following the current national guidelines, we chose individual start as a race format instead of mass start to facilitate the possibility to keep the minimum required distance between athletes during the race,” explains Event Director, Markus Förmer.
Salzburg-rollt is the first possibility for Visma Ski Classics Pro Team athletes to gain 50 points for a win, which in the end will count in the Champion bib competition.
