ITALY'S MARCIALONGA MOVES CLOSER

Roughly two months to the 2014 Marcialonga ski-marathon

Punto 3 Craft combined event to kick off at the end of January

Italy’s Arianna Mazzel and Bruno Debertolis won the 2013 running

Worldloppet, FIS Marathon Cup and Ski Classics series right at hand

 

 

In about two months time the Italian long distance XC skiing race Marcialonga will get on its 70k track for the 41st time since 1971. Over 7.500 skiers from all over the planet will enjoy the usual XC feast at the foot of Dolomites in Trentino region, on Sunday 26 January, and the Combined Event ‘Punto3 Craft’ will kick off as well. Three Marcialonga-branded events during the entire year, namely the winter ski-marathon, the road cycling race at the end of June (Marcialonga Cycling Craft) and the Marcialonga Running race (scheduled on 7 September 2014), this is what the Punto 3 Craft mini-series is, and it has been going… strong since 2007.

‘The XC race has reached an amazingly high quality level in over 40 years – claimed OC President Angelo Corradini – and I would love to improve both the road cycling and running events as they both have great potentials’. Reigning Punto3 Craft champions Bruno Debertolis and Arianna Mazzel are of the same view. ‘Every year I try to improve my time – said Debertolis – and it would be more stimulating if even more big names would join the series and compete in the three events. However, I understand that it is hard to match the main international competitions with the Marcialonga ones’. ‘They are all physically demanding – added Mazzel – and it is not easy to get well trained for all of them. In addition, equipment is very important both in the ski-marathon and in the cycling event.’

 

Marcialonga was among Worldloppet founding members in 1978 and the Italian ski-marathon has always been playing a central role inside the international federation since then. Marcialonga is the fifth race of 2013/2014 WL calendar. The first race was the Australian Kangaroo Hoppet last August.

Furthermore, winter Marcialonga is the third leg of the 2014 FIS Marathon Cup series, after La Sgambeda in Italy, and Austrian Dolomitenlauf. Since 1999 Marcialonga has always been part of the FIS circuit except in 2004 when the Italian long-distance XC ski race was included in the World Cup calendar. Marcialonga is also part of the Ski Classics series powered by Swix, a sort of long-distance ski championship consisting of Jizerská Padesátka (CZE), Marcialonga, König Ludwig Lauf (GER), Vasaloppet (SWE), Birkebeinerrennet (NOR) and Årefjällsloppet (SWE).

Info: www.marcialonga.it