Andorran Skiers Show Mixed Results in Tour de Ski Opener

Andorran cross-country skiers Irineu Esteve and Gina del Rio kicked off the Tour de Ski on Sunday in Dobbiaco, Italy, with mixed results in the opening freestyle sprint. Del Rio finished 31st in qualifying with a time of 2:55.64, just 0.22 seconds shy of the top 30 cutoff held by France's Margot Tirloy and missing the finals by a narrow margin. Esteve placed 116th out of 121 in the men's event, clocking 2:48.98—16.47 seconds behind the last qualifier, Spain's Jaume Pueyo—and well outside contention.

The Tour de Ski, a highlight of the Cross-Country World Cup calendar, features six stages this Olympic season, down from the usual seven. It began in Dobbiaco with four events through January 1: Sunday's freestyle sprint (qualifying at 11:45 a.m., finals at 2:15 p.m.), followed by Monday's 10km individual classic races (men at 11:45 a.m., women at 2:45 p.m.), Wednesday's novel 5km freestyle heat race (men at 11:30 a.m., women at 2:30 p.m., with staggered starts and individual timing), and Thursday's 20km classic pursuit. The circuit then moves to Val di Fiemme for Saturday's classic sprint (qualifying at 12:15 p.m., finals at 2:45 p.m.) and Sunday's grueling 10km mass-start climb up Alpe Cermis (men at 11:30 a.m., women at 3:30 p.m.).

Del Rio arrived in strong form as the under-23 World Cup leader with 195 points, fresh off 13th in the Davos sprint and a career-best 12th in the 10km freestyle there. She trained at La Rabassa thanks to recent snow and plans to compete in only the first three stages, viewing the shorter, more explosive format as a potential fit. "It's frustrating to miss the final by so little," she said, while noting positive and negative sensations from the race. FAE cross-country director Xabier del Val praised her confidence post-Davos, aiming to stay near the top 30 without risks in this Olympic year.

Esteve, a Tour de Ski veteran with six of his eight World Cup top-10s here—including fifth on Alpe Cermis last year—faces a tougher start after missing Davos and early-season results of 41st in Ruka's 10km classic, 63rd in the 20km skate mass start, 45th in Trondheim's skiathlon, and 39th in the 10km freestyle. He described the event as a buildup for the Olympics, targeting gradual improvement: "Tomorrow's 10km classic is where the real Tour starts for me." Del Val echoed that Esteve's peak often comes post-Tour, prioritizing rhythm for late-January or February peaks.

In related news, alpine skier Carla Mijares set a national women's slalom record at Sunday's World Cup night race in Semmering, Austria, finishing 18th—better than Vicky Grau's 19th from 1998 in Park City. The 23-year-old earned 13 World Cup points, 6.47 seconds behind winner Mikaela Shiffrin, with 24th in the first run (amid 39 DNFs) and 17th in the second. "I'm thrilled—we fought through tough days to get here," Mijares said. Coach Josh Alayrach called it a "warrior" performance.