Which characteristics are important for Pro Team athletes to optimize double poling? Team Ramudden will test this at upcoming training camps.

“It’s very good that we can use the different strengths of the team’s skiers as a reference,” says Alfred Buskqvist, Team Ramudden, who also works as a test leader at the Winter Sports Center in Östersund, Sweden.

Team Ramudden was responsible for a solid Ski Classics Season XIV. Alfred Buskqvist won the Green Sprint bib overall, Amund Riege the Pink Youth bib, and Emilie Fleten won Vasaloppet.

Last week, Team Ramudden, which has the same line-up for the coming season, had a kick-off gathering between Falun and Högbo in Sweden.

It is time for the season’s first “real” training camp in mid-June, and all the team’s skiers will do tests at the Winter Sports Center in Östersund.

Alfred Buskqvist, who is now preparing for his second season of Ski Classics, works as a test leader at the Winter Sports Center in Östersund (which is linked to Mittuniversitetet – Mid Sweden University):

“We do continuous tests on the national teams in cross-country skiing and biathlon, for example. We in Team Ramudden will be the first full Pro Team tested at the Winter Sports Center. There aren’t many studies on double poling, but we have some publications on the way out,” says Buskqvist.

How will the tests be?

“We do a few different tests. It is partly about submaximal tests where we will, among other things, check the lactate curve because there we have seen little difference if you work with the whole body versus only the upper body. Then there will be speed tests and incline tests with force measurement. The slope tests are becoming more and more relevant in today’s long-distance skiing, where we double pole ‘everywhere.’ We will also get figures on how efficient you are on flat terrain versus an incline. And in conclusion, it will be a maximum test,” says Buskqvist.

Team Ramudden will do a test in June; a retest awaits in September, and there may be another testing opportunity “just before the snow.”

What can you as a skier learn from this?

“As a cross-country skier, you train a lot on feeling. Roller skis are becoming a little more standardized, but it is still the case that they roll differently depending on the temperature. Through the tests, you get tips on training and see your strengths and weaknesses as a skier. It feels fascinating that we can use the group’s figures as a reference here,” says the Team Ramudden’s athletes and adds: 

“We know that Amund is good at flat double poling; what differentiates his poling from others? And I have double poling as my biggest part of development; here I get figures on how Herman and Emilie (Paus and Fleten) work there and which parts can I work on to get closer,” concludes Buskqvist.

Read More – Alfred Buskqvist: “It was a successful first season”