13 guys are waxing 150 pair of skis per day. Check it out! 

ProXCskiing was invited to the Russian national team wax team trailer after the World Cup sprint in Lillehammer. Those who believe that Russians are stone-faced, must not have met the wax techs in the Russian wax truck. 

To the World Cup in Lillehammer, the wax trailer was staffed with 13 guys working day and night, literally, for the national team racers. They certainly have their hands full. Even before a race is finished, they are already working on skis for the next. 

For every race, the hard-working crew wax, groom and test between 120 and 150 pairs of skis. 

When ProXCskiing visited the Russian wax truck after the sprint race on Friday afternoon, the crew is working hard on getting the skis ready for the skate race on Saturday. They will nail down the basics this evening, but expect to be redoing all the skis on Saturday morning. 

“We prep all the skis tonight. But we will have to rewax them all before the race tomorrow morning, because the weather is expected to change slightly tonight. Of course, that makes a bit of extra work for us, but tomorrow’s race is skating, which makes is easier,” says Urmas Välbe, one of the Russian wax techs. 

“For skate races, we mostly do glide testing, so it’s not that big of a deal that most of the racers have about ten pairs each that we are responsible for. We have enough time for that,” he explains. 

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What is the best wax? 
“In general? Very often, it’s Toko, but today we are using Swix. Swix is always fast in Lillehammer,” Välbe says. 

“And I suppose that is politically correct to say to you, who are Norwegian? But for sure, Swix often performs well here,” he adds with a grin. 

How much are the racers involved in the testing? 
“Not much. That’s our job. We test everything and prepare the skis for the racers. The only thing they do, is to pick up their skis and go to the start, and then race super-fast,” Välbe says. 

Do you see any differences between the various ski brands? 
“Mmmmm. Some. Mostly we see differences between the different skiers. But today, at the sprint, we are seeing that Salomon were fast. Both Maja Dahlqvist and Jessie Diggins ski on Salomon skis. They won all their heats and were first and second in the final.” 

What do you think about the sprint today, seen from Russia’s perspective? 
“This was not a good day for us. We didn’t have any skiers in the final and that’s bad,” says Välbe, and continues: 

“We had expected that Ustiogov, Terentev and Bolshunov had made it to the final among the men. And for the women, at least one of our best skiers, Tatiana Sorina, Yulia Stupak and Natalia Nepryaeva, should have been in the final.”

“But tomorrow, there will be no podium for Russia. We will win,” Välbe says convincingly. 

And who will win? 
“Bolshunov. No question. This will be his race.”

Editor’s note: Simen Hegstad Krüger (NOTR) won the 15-kilometer skate on Saturday, while Alexander Bolshunov ended up in 14th place. The 24-year-old was not content. 

On Sunday, Bolshunov was on the Russian team that finished fourth in the relay, missing the podium by two tenths of a second.