Nordic Roundup: Snowstorms continue at Worlds; Adios, Denis; Quo vadis Muehlegg?

Nordic Roundup: Snowstorms continue at Worlds; Adios, Denis; Quo vadis Muehlegg?{mosimage}As the nordic World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, plow their way into their final days, one thing has remained constant: snow. And more snow. Ein mal schnee. Since roughly Valentine’s Day when the teams rolled into the Bavarian resort town near the Austrian border, upwards of a meter of snow has fallen.

That makes great scenics for television, giving Oberstdorf a postcard quality even the locals concede hasn’t been seen for years. They get snow, of course, but this has been an epic run, reminiscent for many of the storms, which pounded Ramsau, Austria, during the 1999 Worlds. Organizers had to call what kids love to hear – a snow day – midway through the second week in ’99 so they could catch-up with the shoveling, cleaning stands, grooming courses, etc. Oberstdorf has been able to stay with it, although the team ski jumping event on the normal hill (HS100) was nightmarish with several holds while volunteers broomed, shoveled and pushed snow out of the in-run.

Finland, which finished an unexpected fourth in the team comp behind Austria, Germany and – if you can believe it – Slovenia, squawked about incompetent event management (manglement?). But the snowfall, at better than an inch-an-hour rate, seemed to almost intensify when the halts were called. The continual new snow hasn’t troubled waxing crews too much for cross-country. No major yelps from any corner.

FIS ousts Belarussian cross-country skier

Carelessness has cost Belarussian Denis Vorobiev a two-year suspension for an alleged doping violation and gotten him a one-way ticket home. In a brief statement , the International Ski Federation announced it had suspended Vorobiev for two years, dating back to December 10 when World Cup organizers in Val di Fiemme, Italy, found his fannypack after he went through doping control. The bag was found to contain a vial of the banned human growth hormone. Vorobiev finished 44th in the men’s 15-kilometer race February 17 which opened the World Championships…and closed his racing career for nearly 22 months.

Speaking of dope: Muehlegg back

Maurizio Pozzi edged defending champ Marco Cattaneo by seven-tenths of a second Sunday to win the 22nd Gran Fondo Val Casies in Italy’s Alto Adige of Sudtirol.

That’s nice for Pozzi, but – speaking of dopes and doping – the race was more notable for the guy who finished 17th, four minutes off the winning pace – discredited blood doper (and alleged author) Johann Muehlegg, the German who skied for Spain and was nailed at the end of the 2002 Olympics for doping. He went from champ to chump, was stripped of his medals and received the mandatory two-year ban. Now, after saying he was retired and then a couple of abortive attempts to resume racing, he’s making his way back. And peddling his new book, Einer Gegen Alle (One Against All).

He went to Spain after the 1998 Olympics because he’d worn out his welcome with the German national team, and Spain dropped him as soon as he was caught cheating in 2002. Now, he’s racing again as a German citizen and for Kneissl skis; he reportedly won a marathon.

And while Muehlegg tries to come back, Virpi Kuitunen, the 2001 pursuit champion from the controversial doping-laden World Championships in Lahti, Finland, is well entrenched back on the World Cup, including a victory in Reit im Winkl, Germany, on the eve of the World Championships in Oberstdorf. In 2001, she was caught a few days after her gold medal in a surprise sweep by the World Anti-Doping Agency, served her two years off without a whimper, and has returned . She won the classic sprint World Cup race the weekend before the championships opened. At Worlds, she was sick and didn’t start the pursuit but returned Tuesday and was fifth in the 900-meter classic sprint.