Nordic Opening

Nordic Opening

Race details
Date	November
Venue(s)	Lillehammer, Norway or Ruka, Finland
Competition	FIS Cross-Country World Cup
Type	Mini-tour
Organiser	International Ski Federation
History
First edition	26 November 2010 (2010-11-26)
Editions	11 (as of 2020)
Men
First winner	Alexander Legkov (RUS)
Most wins	Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) (4 wins)
Most recent	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR)
Ladies
First winner	Marit Bjørgen (NOR)
Most wins	Marit Bjørgen (NOR) (5 wins)
Most recent	Therese Johaug (NOR)

The Nordic Opening is a cross-country skiing event held annually since the 2010–11 season in Ruka, Finland or Lillehammer, Norway. The Nordic Opening is a Stage World Cup event in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and are held as the first or second World Cup race weekend of the season. The inaugural Nordic Opening was held in 2010 and was originally named Ruka Triple. The editions of the mini-tour hosted in Lillehammer is also known as Lillehammer Triple. Each Nordic Opening consists of three stages; a sprint, an individual race and a pursuit. As of 2019, the prize money for the event amount to 240,000 Swiss francs, shared out on both men and women. Men's and women's events are held together on the same days, with the only difference being the distance skied.

The first stages was arranged on 26 November 2010 and were won by Marit Bjørgen (ladies) and John Kristian Dahl (men). Marit Bjørgen and Alexander Legkov of Russia won the first overall Nordic Opening.

Venues

Year	Venue
2010	Ruka
2011	Ruka
2012	Ruka
2013	Ruka
2014	Lillehammer
2015	Ruka
2016	Lillehammer
2017	Ruka
2018	Lillehammer
2019	Ruka
2020	Ruka

Race structure

Ranking

Bonus seconds for the top 30 positions by type

Type		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13–15	16–20	21–25	26–30
Finish	Sprint	30	27	24	23	22	21	16	15	14	13	12	11	5	4	3	2
	Interval start	none
	Pursuit

The overall results are based on the aggregate time for all events, as well as bonus seconds awarded on the sprint stage, which are subtracted from the athlete's overall time. As of 2019, bonus seconds are awarded to the 30 skiers that qualify for the quarter-finals.

The final stage of the race is held in a pursuit format, with competitors starting with the gaps they have in the overall classification, so the first skier to reach the finish line is the overall winner.

Prizes

Prizes and bonuses are awarded for daily placings and final placings at the end of the race. In 2019, the winners received CHF 22,500, while each of the stage winners won CHF 5,000.

Stages

Stage 1: Sprint

The first stage in the Nordic Opening is a sprint. A sprint consists of two rounds; a qualification round and a final round with a knock-out competition format. The 30 fastest skiers in the qualification round qualify for the final round quarter-finals. In the quarter-, and semi-finals, the skiers compete in heats of six and the two best skiers in each heat are guaranteed progression, while the two fastest non-guaranteed progression times move on as "lucky losers". 12 skiers advance from the quarter-finals to the semi-finals of which six advance to the final. The winners are rewarded, as of 2019, 30 bonus seconds. The bonus seconds awarded on the sprint stage are meant to encourage sprinter specialists to go for results in the overall standings.

Stage 2: Interval start

The second stage in the Nordic Opening is an interval start, or time trial stage. Skiers are sent out from the start in 30 second intervals. The interval start stage was 5 km for women and 10 km for men from the first event in 2010, but has since 2017 been a race over 10 km for women and 15 km for men.

Stage 3: Pursuit

The third and ultimate stage of the mini-tour is a pursuit with starting intervals equal to the skiers accumulative times in the overall standings; which means that the first skier to cross the finish line is the winner of the Nordic Opening. The stage's length have in every edition been 10 km for women and 15 km for men. If the overall time differences are big before the last stage, the race jury can decide that the lowest ranked skiers start in a wave start.

Overall winners

Men

Year	Winner	Second	Third
2010	Alexander Legkov	Dario Cologna	Daniel Rickardsson
2011	Petter Northug	Dario Cologna	Eldar Rønning
2012	Petter Northug	Maxim Vylegzhanin	Alexey Poltoranin
2013	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Maxim Vylegzhanin	Alexander Legkov
2014	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Finn Hågen Krogh	Sjur Røthe
2015	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Petter Northug	Finn Hågen Krogh
2016	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Matti Heikkinen
2017	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Martin Johnsrud Sundby	Alexander Bolshunov
2018	Didrik Tønseth	Sjur Røthe	Emil Iversen
2019	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Emil Iversen	Iivo Niskanen
2020	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Alexander Bolshunov	Emil Iversen

Women

Year	Winner	Second	Third
2010	Marit Bjørgen	Justyna Kowalczyk	Charlotte Kalla
2011	Marit Bjørgen	Therese Johaug	Vibeke Skofterud
2012	Marit Bjørgen	Justyna Kowalczyk	Heidi Weng
2013	Marit Bjørgen	Charlotte Kalla	Therese Johaug
2014	Marit Bjørgen	Therese Johaug	Heidi Weng
2015	Therese Johaug	Stina Nilsson	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
2016	Heidi Weng	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg	Krista Pärmäkoski
2017	Charlotte Kalla	Marit Bjørgen	Ragnhild Haga
2018	Therese Johaug	Ebba Andersson	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
2019	Therese Johaug	Heidi Weng	Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen
2020	Therese Johaug	Tatiana Sorina	Ebba Andersson

Records and statistics

Overall winners

Four skiers have won the Nordic Opening two or more times. Marit Bjørgen (NOR) is the only skier to win five times. Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) has won the Nordic Opening four times.

Men Wins Skier Editions 4 Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 3 Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) 2017, 2019, 2020 2 Petter Northug (NOR) 2011, 2012 1 Alexander Legkov (RUS) 2010 Didrik Tønseth (NOR) 2018

Women Wins Skier Editions 5 Marit Bjørgen (NOR) 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 4 Therese Johaug (NOR) 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020 1 Heidi Weng (NOR) 2016 Charlotte Kalla (SWE) 2017

Overall winners without stage wins

The following skiers have won the Nordic Opening without winning any of the three stages: Alexander Legkov (2010), Petter Northug (2012), Marit Bjørgen (2013), Martin Johnsrud Sundby (2016), Charlotte Kalla (2017) and Didrik Tønseth (2018).

Stage wins

4 men and 4 women have won two or more stages in the Nordic Opening. Therese Johaug has won the most stages with 10, followed by Marit Bjørgen's 9 stage wins. Bjørgen (2012) is the only skier to win all three stages in one Nordic Opening. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Martin Johnsrud Sundby have won three stages each, most among the men.

Skiers who are still active are indicated in bold. Skiers with the same number of stage wins are listed alphabetically.

Men Rank Name Country Wins 1 Johannes Høsflot Klæbo Norway 4 2 Martin Johnsrud Sundby Norway 3 3 Lukáš Bauer Czech Republic 2 Calle Halfvarsson Sweden 2 Hans Christer Holund Norway 2

Women Rank Name Country Wins 1 Therese Johaug Norway 12 2 Marit Bjørgen Norway 9 3 Maiken Caspersen Falla Norway 2 Justyna Kowalczyk Poland 2

World Cup points

The overall winner are awarded 200 points. The winners of each of the three stages are awarded 50 points. The maximum number of points an athlete can earn is therefore 350 points.

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Overall	200	160	120	100	90	80	72	64	58	52	48	44	40	36	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12	10	8	6	4	2
Stage	50	46	43	40	37	34	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Sources

• Rules for the FIS Cross-Country World Cup (PDF). International Ski Federation (FIS). 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2019. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Rules for the FIS Cross-Country World Cup (PDF). International Ski Federation (FIS). 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)