03Aug 2020 by DS News Team
Blink Skifestival Shall Be Very Different This Year . This Is How:

Blink Skifestival Shall Be Very Different This Year . This Is How:

Leaders, Newsfeed
“It’s a tough job. Hundreds of athletes and their parents from Norway and from all over Europe were calling me this year to ask whether they could come and take part in the competitions - and I had to tell No to all of them!” Arne Idland, the guy who invented, developed and runs Blink Skifestival sounds truly frustrated. One of the premier events of the international cross-country and biathlon seasons will take place this year as scheduled - but in a highly altered form. The Norwegian rules in place for COVID-19 epidemics are among the strictest in Europe currently and the Blink organizers had to think outside the box What’s going to be business as usual: All Norwegian stars of xcskiing and biathlon plus strongest Visma Ski Classics series…
Read More
25May 2020 by DS News Team
Blinkfestivalen 2020: Out Of City Center, No Spectators And No Foreign Athletes. But With Lysebotn Uphill And Norwegian Stars

Blinkfestivalen 2020: Out Of City Center, No Spectators And No Foreign Athletes. But With Lysebotn Uphill And Norwegian Stars

Newsfeed, Travel & Mass Sport
Blinkfestivalen, one of the world's best organized, best funded and best attended xcski/biathlon events will be held this August but out of town and with massively altered program. With large crowds banned, the competition is now mostly held for the sake of television broadcast. A long time must-have for the national broadcaster NRK, Blink is coming to the rest of Europe this year for the first via EBU (but biathlon races only - the European Broadcastng Union is interested in promoting biathlon, doesn't care about xcskiing) The venue of the Blink events is now Sandnes Arena. Which is not a bad thing at all, neither from athletes point of view, nor television viewers'. The newly built 4.2k facility with a full-size shooting range might be the best rollerski track stadium…
Read More
19Jul 2019 by DS News Team
Blink Skifest: Top Stars Sign Up For Inaugural Lysebotn Doublepoling Race

Blink Skifest: Top Stars Sign Up For Inaugural Lysebotn Doublepoling Race

Leaders, Newsfeed
Some, clearly like it hot. Then there are others who like it "hot all the way" - like in " Lysebotn Double Poling all the way" Just to remind you, that a traditional Blink Skifest Lysebotn Climb is in skating style and involves 6.4 kilometers of constant climb for a total altitude gain of 640 meters - or a crazy average gradient of 10% ! Monsters of doublepoling ( can't think of a better way of putting it) will do exactly same distance - but on slower wheels! Yep, according to latest, skating will be held in the usual Wheels Speed 1 ( fast) while doublepolers demanded Wheels 2 ! All the rollerskis will be, of course, 0 X 0 i.e. no ratchet mechanism in either to prevent "diagonal cheating"…
Read More
14May 2019 by DS News Team
Egor Sorin Comments On Lysebotn Doublepoling

Egor Sorin Comments On Lysebotn Doublepoling

Leaders, Newsfeed
At 33 Egor Sorin is one of the youngest national team coaches. And an old hand at Blink Festival that he started to attend as assistant coach to Markus Cramer [caption id="attachment_11329" align="alignnone" width="747"] Sorin and Sergey Ustiugov at Lysebotn in 2017. [/caption] We had a quick chat about new Lysebotn Doublepoling race that debuts this year [caption id="attachment_11324" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Interesting race. It would be useful to check my athletes' abilities in doublepoling uphill.It's actually more effective to use DP uphill than diagonal stride on many tracks.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_11327" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The technique of uphill doublepoling as well as tempo and rhythm of the movements are very different from those used in more common doublepoling on flat portions of the track.The strength endurance of very different muscle groups is…
Read More
13May 2019 by DS News Team
This New Race Is Totally Bonkers – And We Mean It In Best Possible Way!

This New Race Is Totally Bonkers – And We Mean It In Best Possible Way!

Leaders, Newsfeed
Arne Idland is a man who is never satisfied with his achievements. Turning Norwegian biathlon into gold medals-casting machine? Check. Creating world's biggest rollerski festival, rivaling best World Cup events in both skiing and biathlon. Check! This year Arne and his team came up with a race that's so bonkers - we absolutely love the very sound of it. Forget about Spartan, Urbanathlon or whatever else you thought is an ultimate test of fitness. Forget even about Blink Festival own crazy race, Lysebotn Uphill that leaves world's best skiers ( by definition fittest people on this planet) wreathing in pain at the finish line. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw-K5A0Ba-5/ Because this year Arne has decided to stage Lysebotn Doublepoling Only race That's right - 7.4km to the summit of Lysebotn anybody who signs would…
Read More