The roller-ski racing season is upon us, and our Pro Team athletes and World Cup skiers have actively been testing their shape against each other. Toppidrettsvekan in Norway is going on as we speak, and Team Ramudden’s Max Novak shone there yesterday as he won the 55 km mass start race. Today, the skiers will challenge themselves in a three-kilometer uphill race.

Petter Northug has announced his comeback, or at least some kind of a return to racing, and he competed yesterday as well. He was more than nine minutes behind Novak, but he is back in action and enjoying the perks of cross-country skiing. He has also said that he is open to the idea of doing more long distance ski races, particularly Visma Ski Classics ones, even next season.

To back his argument up, he is now going to race at Alliansloppet in Sweden next weekend, our Challengers event. The 48-kilometer roller-ski race takes place in Trollhättan on Saturday 28, and it is the biggest roller-ski event in the world. Northug will face a tough field as yesterday’s winner Novak and many other top skiers will be there.

Among them, we can find famous names such as William Poromaa and Oskar Svensson, the rising stars of Sweden, Emil Persson, the Visma Ski Classics Champion from last winter, Morten Eide Pedersen, who finished third yesterday, and two French heroes Maurice Manificat and Jean-Marc Gaillard. Naturally, there will be many more hard-to-beat Pro Team athletes standing on the start line as well.

“Next week I’m going to race at Alliansloppet. There are many Swedes waiting, and I may get some flashback from Falun. It’ll be fun to recall those memories,” Norhug says.