Fun to read about XC-skiing on Cyclingnews, but it is very easy so see that many of you really don't know the sport at all. How many of you have even tried XC-skiing, and tested professional waxed skis, and the difference between perfect skis and average skis?
1. The skis are extremely important! The Norwegians discovered stone grinded skis in 1989, on a training camp in West Yellowstone. They did a test race and the ones who used stone grinded skis, were 2 minutes faster than the ones without. I think it was a 15km.
Norway managed to keep this secret until 1993, but even tough the rest got to know about it they didn't have the expertise the Norwegians had build up. And they managed to keep this advantage for almost the rest of the 90's.
You can see the result of this during the 1991 world championship in Val di Fiemme. The Norwegians had much betters skis than the rest. It was very easy to see on the relay where Norway was leading with 43seconds after the 1.leg by Skaanes on 10km.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDQvvGPkGhw&feature=related
It was the same during the Olympics in 1992. Dæhlie said he felt sorry for Mogren when he past him during one of the races. They had skis from the same factory, but Mogren had no stone grind, and his skis were useless compared to Dæhlie.
The same thing happened a lot of times during the 90's. Especially on difficult klister conditions, the Norwegians had an extreme advantage. Even in 2000 this was still the case.
In the 2000 world cup race at Beitostolen, the Norwegians had 10athletes among the 12 best. The best foreigner was 8!
The same thing happened in Kupio in 2001, where Elofsson was the best foreigner as number 9!
Good skis compared to less good skis are often between 45sec-3minutes on a 15km.
2. One Vo2 test can't be taken too serious. Espen Harald Bjerke, an average Norwegian skier, tested 94. But that year everybody tested high numbers on that machine, which they after some time found out were calibrated wrong.
That being said, XC-skiers tend to test higher Vo2 than runners and cyclists since they also use arms when training. You can find about 30 Norwegian skiers today that will test over 80 in Vo2.
3. Listening to what Kyro says is crazy. Of course he defend himself by saying that everybody use doping. If you read all the facts, there is no indication, no proves, that Norwegian or Swedish skiers used doping. And since skis and technique are so important, clean athletes can beat dopers. One example is Per Elofsson in the world championship in Lahti in 2001. Another is Thomas Alsgaard in the 1994 Olympics. On the 30km skate, Alsgaard had much better skis than the rest, and much better technique.
But even if Norwegian skiers didn't dope in the 90's, they used everything that was allowed, such as asthma medicine and artificial altitude training.
However Norway is among the few countries that have now forbidden the use of altitude training in tents or houses.
A lot can be said about this topic, but I can guarantee that no systematic doping exists in the Norwegian or Swedish national teams now. Petter Northug doesn't even use asthma medicine.
XC skiing is now a pretty clean sport, with a few exceptions. The history has been pretty dirty, but it must be remembered that there is not a lot of money involved in skiing. In Norway for example you make more money working at McDonald's than being on the national team, except for Northug and Bjørgen and a few more.
But in Russia, the situation is very different.
http://blogs.fasterskier.com/worldcup/2010/10/30/return-of-russian-dopers-spurs-debate-in-norway/
Technique and ski equipment can't be compared to cycling technique and equipment. The difference is much, much bigger.