The team, which roots go back to the Danish National Championships in 2020, where a group of long-distance enthusiasts and skiers got together and started to discuss creating a team focused on long-distance, wants to apply for Ski Classics Pro Team license for the upcoming Season XIV. Thus, they are looking for female athletes motivated to compete in Ski Classics to join them. 

“We are a team of Danish skiers spread around Europe, we are all working, and some have family with kids. It is our common challenge to try to be fit and competitive at the same time, as we manage work and family, aiming to get these amazing experiences with the ski races, the thrill, and adrenaline along with our daily professional lives. It has been and will always be a challenge when you cannot focus 100% on one thing at a time, but it also gives a nice challenge to life, and it is very fulfilling when you succeed. We will continue working beside our passion for xc-skiing and try to see how far we can go even with a lot of training without snow for those based in Denmark,” says team director Björn Toft. 

For the upcoming season, they are looking for motivated female skiers interested in developing the first Danish team in the Pro Tour. 

“We are looking for participating skiers; people that are motivated in start-up projects and are self-going, can take the initiative and see the challenge in combining training, racing, and travel with their daily lives. Being a good double poler and being able to adapt to rollerskiing is obviously a good thing for preparing for next winter. We also hope to participate in some rollerski races this summer and autumn.”

The Danish team already has experience from many Ski Classics events, such as Marcialonga and Vasaloppet. The team is very motivated to become a Pro Team and attend even more races, with the main focus on Ski Classics. Last autumn, they also got together for a successful training camp in Mallorca and hope to do the same this year. 

What were the highlights of this past season for the team? 

“Seasons highlight for the team was definitely the training camp on Mallorca, where we had really good training and spent time together. Then we had some individual highlights, with Sune Elmose, who did a good Vasaloppet and especially at Redbull Nordenskiöldsloppet. Björn had a good experience at La Diagonela and Transjurasienne classic, two really nice and challenging parcours. Joachim had a very good Ylläs-Levi experience in Finland and also discovered that this race was very entertaining, he ended up staying almost a week in Finland and loved the culture with cafes along the tracks, it almost felt like going on road bike training in Italy with coffee stops.” 

What events do you hope to cover next season? 

“We hope next season will not be limited by travel restrictions like the first part of this last season and hence be able to move as we want to cover the prologue, if we are able to get a Pro Team license. Then the Italian first part of the calendar with two races in a row during a weekend seemed last season as being very attractive. The uphill race was really entertaining to watch but for sure looked to be really hard. Then, La Diagonela in Switzerland and Marcialonga.” 

“The next block will be Vasaloppet, obviously, followed by the end of the season races in the far north. There will be room to do individual local races and National Championships depending on where the skiers live and their capacity to race, which can for sure be very demanding every weekend. We have learned this from last season; the recovery and timing of the training are quite demanding and not as simple as cycling in spring/summer. “

Looking for New Talents to Join the Team

The team director Björn Toft states that they are looking for two female skiers and some men with a passion for skiing who would be interested in racing Ski Classics and challenging themselves. 

“They could be like us, working people with a life besides but also wanting to challenge themselves and see if they can get the passion of skiing and racing to fit in their daily lives. They would ideally contribute to our start-up team project of developing the first Danish registered Pro Team and help in the next phase building the team for the coming season.” 

“We will first try to gather a bigger team to be able to go forward with the Ski Classics registration, then apply for more sponsorship. We feel at this point, even though we have had really nice support from the xc-ski environment, especially from Norway, we would need to have the Pro Team license before we can offer something more for sponsors.”

All skiers interested in joining the team can contact Danish Ski Marathon by their social media or email: 

Instagram account @danishskimarathonteam or by email danishskimarathon@gmail.com