MARCIALONGA: TRACK ALMOST COMPLETED BUT...'

Yesterday evening, the members of Marcialonga’s board of directors held one of the usual pre-event meetings and examined the conditions of the track and weather forecasts, according to which cold and sunny days are to be expected in the immediate future, with no significant snowfalls.
The fact that snow is scarce in Northern Italy is nothing new: So far the rare snowfalls have negatively influenced sports events everywhere. In the valleys of Fiemme and Fassa (Trentino region, Italy) the situation is much the same. Low temperatures have enabled the organisers of the 44th Marcialonga (scheduled for next 29th of January) to produce artificial snow and since Christmas a long part of the track has been open to skiers and tourists: A long stretch of snow in an almost autumn landscape, about 50 km long, with the exceptions of towns.
During yesterday’s meeting, experts explained the difficulties in preparing the track from Moena to Mazzin. The decision was therefore reluctantly taken to shorten the track to 57 km and to move the starting point to Mazzin. The same happened in 1976 (50 km), 1993 (55 km), 2007 and 2015 (57 km).
“The costs associated to the production of artificial snow for the first 13 km, explained Marcialonga chairman Angelo Corradini would have been too high and we therefore decided to focus on the track quality instead of its length”.
Due to this change, that start has been postponed to 8.55 a.m. for elite ladies and to 9.00 for men, followed by all other participants, according to the tested “Real Time” system. Marcialonga Light will also be shortened (33 km).
“We are confident that competitors, local authorities, our partners and our 1200 volunteers will understand and support our difficult decision”, said Gloria Trettel, Marcialonga CEO.
Efforts will now be focussed on preparing the new starting area, on improving the conditions of the existing track and on preparing the last part of the track, with the Cascata hill and the segments going through the towns.