DAEHLIE, BETTINI, GJERDALEN, KIRVESNIEMI, LANGLI, AUKLAND, GROENHOLM...

The 45th time is already on track. Italy's Marcialonga di Fiemme e Fassa will concretely get on the snow next Sunday 28 January and a good amount of XC skiing and sport stars will show up at the start of the 2018 edition.

Among the 7.500 registered athletes who will run the 70k course from Moena to Cavalese, there will be the most winning athlete in XC skiing history Bjoern Daehlie, the reigning Marcialonga champion and winner of the past three runnings Tord Asle Gjerdalen, the current Visma Ski Classics female leader Britta Johansson Norgren (the male one in again Gjerdalen!), the Olympic and World gold medallist, and two times Marcialonga winner Anders Aukland (he won in 2004 and 2008), plus big names such as Jerry Ahrlin, Joergen Brink, Toni Livers and Stanislav Rezac. 

Former champion road racing cyclist Paolo Bettini also booked his place at the start of this year's Marcialonga, and so did former super-champions Harri Kirvesniemi (FIN) and Terje Langli (NOR), plus former rallycross driver Marcus Grönholm (FIN).