The 2006–07 Tour de Ski was the first Tour to take place, from 31 December 2006 until 7 January 2007. It was won by German

Tobias Angerer Tobias Angerer (born 12 April 1977) is a German cross-country skier, and skis with the SC Vachendorf club. He graduated from the Skigymnasium Berchtesgaden in 1996. His occupation is "Sports Soldier". Angerer has been competing since 1996. Bio ...

for men, while Finn

Virpi Kuitunen Virpi Katriina Sarasvuo (née Kuitunen, born 20 May 1976) is a Finnish former cross-country skier who competed from 1995 to 2010. She won a bronze medal in the team sprint event (with Aino-Kaisa Saarinen) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin an ...

won the women's Tour. The first edition of the tour was held in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, with six races spread out over eight days, including two separate days of rest. The prize money for the event amounted to 750,000

Swiss francs The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) i ...

, shared out on both men and women. Men's and women's events were held together on the same days.

Origin

Cross-country skiing had been through a period of renewal from the early 1980s, when the free technique was first introduced to the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

which led to a rush of new events, including pursuit skiing, sprint skiing and eventually long mass start races, to complement the traditional

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

or individual start style of skiing. The Tour de Ski was modelled on the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

of cyclingTour-favoritter i kø
, Tor Kise Karlsen, ANB, published 10 November 2006 and the idea has been reported to come from a meeting between former Olympic gold medallist

Vegard Ulvang Vegard Ulvang (born 10 October 1963) is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier who won three Olympic gold medals, two silver, and one bronze. At the opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games, he took the ceremonial Olympic Oath on p ...

and

Jürg Capol Jürg Capol (born 2 July 1965) is a Swiss cross-country skier who competed from 1988 to 1994 and is marketing director for the International Ski Federation (FIS) . His best finish at the Winter Olympics was fourth in the 4 × 10 km relay at ...

, the

International Ski Federation The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...

's (FIS) chief executive officer for cross-country competitions, in Ulvang's sauna in Maridalen, Norway. Their idea was to create a stage competition consisting of different events which they expected would lead to several days of continuous excitement before the most complete skiers would become Tour de Ski champions.

Ranking

The overall results were based on the aggregate time for all events, as well as bonus seconds awarded on sprint and mass start stages. The two sprint races carried bonus seconds for the finish, which were subtracted from the overall time, as follows: In mass start competitions, intermediate points carried bonus seconds; 15 to the winner, 10 to number two, and 5 to number three. The same number of seconds were awarded at the finish. In the 30 km race there were two intermediate points, in the 15 km race one intermediate point.

Stages

Favourites

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

s Brynjar Skjærli listed Finland's

as the main favourite in the women's event, with

Marit Bjørgen Marit Bjørgen (born 21 March 1980) is a former Norwegian cross-country skier. She is ranked first in the all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings with 114 individual victories. Bjørgen is also the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country Wo ...

the main challenger.

Justyna Kowalczyk Justyna Maria Kowalczyk-Tekieli (Polish: ; born 19 January 1983) is a Polish cross-country skier who has been competing since 2000. Kowalczyk is a double Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier to win the Tour ...

Petra Majdič Petra Majdič (born 22 December 1979) is a Slovenian former cross-country skier. Her best results came in classic style races. She won twenty-four World Cup races, twenty in sprint races, but she also won a marathon (30 km race) in Trondh ...

Kateřina Neumannová Kateřina Neumannová () (born 15 February 1973) is a Czech retired cross-country skier. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics, in the 30 km freestyle event. She is one of five cross country skiers to have competed at s ...

, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, Claudia Künzel-Nystad, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, Vibeke Skofterud and Kristina Šmigun were listed as "outsiders" or dark horses.''Sorry Norge - utlendingene vinner'', Dagbladet, 30 December 2006, pg. 34 In the men's event,

was the favourite, with Yevgeny Dementyev,

Tor Arne Hetland Tor Arne Hetland (born 12 January 1974) is a Norwegian cross-country skiing coach and a former professional cross-country skier. Hetland was born in Stavanger. He now lives in Trondheim. While active he represented Byåsen IL ski club. He was ...

, Petter Northug,

Eldar Rønning Eldar Rønning (born 11 June 1982 in Levanger Municipality) is a Norwegian former cross-country skier. He skis with the Skogn IL club, in Nord-Trøndelag. Career In 2004/05, he achieved three podium finishes in World Cup Sprint events, includi ...

, Anders Södergren,

Jens Arne Svartedal Jens Arne Svartedal (born February 14, 1976) is a Norwegian former cross-country skier who competed in the World Cup between 1999 and 2010. He represented Trøsken IL from Sarpsborg in Norway. His greatest achievement is winning the individual ...

and

Axel Teichmann Axel Teichmann (born 14 July 1979) is a German cross-country skiing coach and former skier. Background Teichmann started cross-country skiing at the age of ten. He completed his secondary education at Bad Lobenstein and, from 1993, at Oberhof ...

all listed as challengers. Frode Estil was named as an outsider.

Stage 1: Sprint Munich, 31 December

This was held at Munich Olympic Stadium in front of 6,500 spectators. ;Women's event, 822 m The listed times were achieved in the qualification race. ;Men's event, 1200 m The listed times were achieved in the qualification race. Northug fell in the first curve of the final, taking Pettersen and Fredriksson with him.

Stage 2: Pursuit Oberstdorf, 2 January

;Women's event, 5 km classical + 5 km free Bonus seconds earned during the race: ;Men's event, 10 km classical + 10 km free Neither Christoph Eigenmann nor Roddy Darragon, number one and three in the overall standings before the race, finished, and were thus eliminated from the overall competition. Bonus seconds earned during the race:

Stage 3: Individual Start Oberstdorf, 3 January

;Women's event, 10 km classical ;Men's event, 15 km classical

Stage 4: Sprint Asiago, 5 January

;Women's event, 1.2 km The listed times were achieved in the qualification race. ;Men's event, 1.2 km The listed times were achieved in the qualification race.

Stage 5: Mass Start Cavalese, Val di Fiemme, 6 January

The sprint jersey was awarded after this stage; Virpi Kuitunen of Finland earned 45 bonus points and won the women's black jersey, while Tor Arne Hetland from Norway successfully defended the men's jersey. ;Women's event, 15 km Bonus seconds earned during the race: ;Men's event, 30 km Bonus seconds earned during the race:

Stage 6: Final Climb Cavalese, Val di Fiemme, 7 January

Athletes started in order of the aggregate standings, and the first athlete to reach the finish won. After the first 15 athletes, the remainder were released in a "wave start" five minutes behind Kuitunen, the leader, but their total time behind Kuitunen was added to the final time. ;Women's event, 10 km ;Men's event, 11 kmFIS Tour De Ski - Overall Ranking Men
, fis-ski.com, retrieved 6 January 2007 A wave start was also employed in the men's event, but the first 30 started according to the time differences in the overall Tour standings. The remainder started six minutes behind Angerer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2006-07 Tour De Ski Tour de Ski Tour de Ski by year Tour de Ski 2006-07 Tour de Ski 2006-07