Francesco De Fabiani's season starts well in the traditional opening of the World Cup in Ruka, Finland, with good feelings and excellent materials.

Kuusamo, Finland – Nov. 29th 2020 • We’re back in business with the international cross-country skiing, with the canonical Finnish event “Ruka Triple”, three racing days with a sprint and two distance in both techniques.

Francesco De Fabiani (Centro Sportivo Esercito di Courmayeur), made his debut in the Sprint C on Friday 27 November, in which he did not get the Top-30 in qualifying, getting excluded after the heats: «It was not easy – says Francesco – and on the other hand, the Sprint C has never been my favorite format».

On Saturday 28th the things changed significantly and De Fabiani was able to measure himself in "his distance": the 15 Km in classic Interval Start, almost reaching the Top-10 «With a careful race conduct – adds the Alpine – I finished 12th and I managed to fully exploit my skills and those of my Salomon skis, amazingly prepared by the staff of the national team (including the other CSE alpine François Ronc Cella), I have to thank all the technical staff because in addition to being perfect under the point of view of the grip my skis were very fast, so much so that I realized I had "missiles" perhaps more performing than those of Klæbo, which has always been one of the fastest in terms of materials».

The last race-day, Sunday 29 November «I struggled especially in the second part of the race – says “Defast” – and I finished 20th in the 15 km F in the spectacular Pursuit formula». De Fabiani, who started 15th practically together with Holund, had to deal with the free technique, in which «I have always needed some races to perform at a certain level in skating, but I'm very confident because the feeling of this weekend was really good, I am heading home with good vibes – ends up the skier from Gressoney – and we will probably leave early for Davos, where the next World Cup race will take place, given the cancellation of the Lillehammer stage scheduled from 3 to 6 December».

The next stage of the World Cup is, therefore, as mentioned, in the Canton of Grisons December 12th and 13th with a Sprint in free technique on Saturday and a 15 km, again in free technique on Sunday (in December 2018 De Fabiani finished 7th and that race marked the beginning of an extraordinary year).

 

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Press Office of Francesco De Fabiani
Written by Paolo Mei
Translated by Nicolò Caneparo