On the day before Vasaloppet, March 6th, Novosibirsk Classic Marathon took place in the heart of Siberia. Skiers competed at two different distances, 35 km and 70 km, whereas the longer distance is part of the Visma Ski Classics Challengers series. Altogether, 211 participants were registered for both distances.
Alexander Bessmertnykh and Vera Ogarko won the race.

The organizer did a good job facing difficult weather conditions. The night before the competition, intense snowfall covered the tracks, and groomers started preparing again at 4:00 in the morning and finished right on time, 30 minutes before the start. 

A strong wind challenged skiers throughout the whole race lap of 35 km as the tracks followed mostly open space areas. Despite the weather conditions, both men and women were able to ski at high speed. 

The winners of Novosibirsk Classic Marathon, Olympic silver medalist Alexander Bessmertnykh and Vera Ogarko managed a break away from the beginning of the race. At the 35 km check point the gap to the second woman was already 8 minutes and 2 seconds, and the gap to the second man was 6 minutes and 18 seconds. 

Five male skiers tried to chase the leader together but didn’t succeed and fought in the end for the podium, with Aleksandr Kalinin ending up on second and Aleksandr Klugen in third place. Both silver and bronze medalist Maria Novoselova and Aleksandra Dultseva had to fight alone throughout the race. 

Alexander Bessmertnykh on his way to victory in Novosibirsk Classic Marathon.

For this season, Novosibirsk Classic Marathon entered into a cooperation for a promotional campaign with Visma Ski Classics Pro Tour event Marcialonga by creating similar race bibs and finisher medals. The event hereby was promoted as “Siberian Marcialonga” also extending the originally 60 km distance to 70 km. At a lottery amongst all finishers, three start spots for Marcialonga 2022 were handed out. 

Results can be found at vismaskiclassics.com/results. All athletes that participated at Novosibirsk Classic Marathon will receive points for the SC Ranking and can check their updated results on MyPages.

The next event in Visma Ski Classics is the Pro Tour event Vålådalsrennet on Saturday, March 20th. A complete calendar of all events can be found at vismaskiclassics.com/the-tour/events. 

Vera Ogarko on her way to victory in Novosibirsk Classic Marathon.