Sotskov Report #3

AUSXC Head Coach Alexei Sotskov reports on the Australian Team racing at the Trondheim and Davos World Cups in December.

Trondheim World Cup

After the first stage of the 2025-26 World Cup series the Australian XC Ski team van travelled 1200km over two days from Ruka, Finland to Trondheim, Norway. Meanwhile, the athletes flew via Tromso and arrived the day before. The host of the 2025 World Championship, Trondheim met us with even a little bit of sun, which is quite unusual for this time of the year in Scandinavia.

In sprint races on Friday, our skiers just could not find a fast gear and performed a bit under our expectations. Lars Young Vik was the fastest, finishing in the 75th position. Unfortunately, both Lars and Tuva Bygrave became sick, and left Trondheim for Oslo to try to recover.

Phil Bellingham in the Trondheim Classic Sprint. Photo by Bildbyran

On Saturday in the Skiathlon (10K classic followed by 10K freestyle with a ski exchange between) there were just three Australians racing but performances began to improve. Rosie Fordham had a solid race finishing in 40th place. On the boys side, Seve De Campo was the fastest one, finishing in 73rd position, with Bentley Walker-Broose in 86th.

We knew that 10K  freestyle race on Sunday is our strongest discipline and the athletes did not disappoint. Rosie and Phoebe got their World Cup points improved significantly, finishing just outside of top 30. Both skiers were within 90 seconds from the winner and achieved personal best FIS points. On the men’s side, Seve and Bentley finished close together just over 2 minutes behind the winner, with Phil and Fedele also not too far back - all four had very solid races.

Phoebe Cridland in the Trondheim 10km Freestyle. Photo by Bildbyran

Next stop Davos, where this coming weekend the team will compete in Team Sprint, Sprint and 10km races, all in freestyle.

Driving from Scandinavia to Central Europe was a tough one. 800km from Trondheim in Norway to Gothenburg, Sweden. Overnight ferry (it is a nice one!) to Kiel, Germany. Then another 1000km+ from Kiel to Davos, Switzerland. Yes, you are arriving in Davos a … bit tired! Again, the athletes travelled by plane, via Oslo, and arrived a day ahead.

Big travel for the coach, but in the end, it was so worth it! The Australian ski team performed brilliantly at the World Cup stage in Davos this year.

Davos World Cup

The event started on Friday with the team sprints, where for the first time Australia entered two teams of each gender (Fordham/Cridland and Lie/Hooker for the women, Vik/Hinckfuss and Bellingham/Walker-Broose for the men). Though with two teams from the strongest nations a top 15 overall (and the finals) was out of reach, counting just the #1 teams we ended up ranked in the top 15 nations (11th for women and 15th for men), which is promising for the Olympics.

The Saturday individual sprints saw Hugo Hinckfuss finish 52nd and Lars Young Vik 55th, only 1/10 of a second apart. Although the places were higher than hoped, both skiers performed very well, with the actual ski time just 8 seconds from the winner and 3 seconds out of the top 30. The other two men, Bentley Walker-Broose and Seve De Campo, finished 72nd and 87th. For the women, Phoebe Cridland was the fastest finisher in 55th, Ellen Soehol Lie was 59th and Maddie Hooker 70th, with Rosie skipping the sprint to focus on the 10km on Sunday.

Hugo Hinckfuss in the Davos Sprint. Photo by Bildbyran

In the men's 10km Seve De Campo skied a very good race, finishing just over 2 minutes behind the winner in 66th place. Hugo ended up in 78th in his first distance race of the season, Lars was 85th and Bentley 98th place. The first three Aussie men were all within 10% of the winner, which indicates their strong form, and Bentley scored his best FIS points of the season.

And then it was the women’s race. We knew that Rosie Fordham is currently in very good shape and this is her favourite distance and style event. Rosie performed brilliantly, posting the best ever for Australian skiers result in World Cup races, finishing in 13th place, just 12 seconds outside the top 10! Huge success for Rosie and the entire team! Phoebe Cridland also had a very fast race finishing in 50th (also <10%), Ellen Lie in 54th (just over 10%) and Maddie Hooker in 64th place with one of her best FIS points.

Rosie Fordham in the leader chair after finishing the Davos 10km

Now we have a break from World Cup until late January. Various athletes will race at other levels over this period, in Austria, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the USA. I'll take a trip to Italy to drop team equipment into storage at the Australian Institute of Sport European Training Centre near Varese, then collect it again early January.

Many thanks to all supporters this winter, and particularly to Colormaker and Peak Learning Adventures who have helped to fund our team van!

AUSXC Team Van in Davos