Tour de Ski

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The Tour de Ski is a yearly cross‑country skiing race in Central Europe that’s part of the FIS Cross‑Country World Cup. It normally runs from late December to early January and features 6 to 9 stages in countries like the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The event ends with a final climb on Alpe Cermis in Cavalese, usually after several days of racing.

How it works
- All stages are timed, and the skier with the lowest cumulative time over the whole Tour is the overall winner.
- Men’s and women’s races run on the same days, but the distances differ.
- There are several kinds of stages: sprints, mass starts, individual starts, and pursuit formats. Bonus seconds can be earned on sprint stages and some other stages, helping determine the overall standings.
- The Tour also includes two extra contests: sprint standings and climbing standings.
- The final stage is a climb up Alpe Cermis, which has a long, steep ascent. In recent years this final stage has used formats that determine the overall winner from the day’s results.

History and winners
- The Tour de Ski began in 2006–07. The first edition happened on December 31, 2006.
- The first men’s and women’s overall winners were Tobias Angerer (Germany) and Virpi Kuitunen (Finland).
- Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway holds the record for the most overall Tour titles with five wins. Other multiple champions include Justyna Kowalczyk, Therese Johaug, and Dario Cologna.
- The event has seen many breakthrough performances, with riders from outside Europe reaching podiums in later years.

Format and prizes
- The overall winner is the skier with the fastest total time across all stages. The leader wears a special bib (colors have changed over the years; most recently the leader wears gold).
- Prize money has grown over time. In 2023 the total prize fund was 770,000 Swiss francs, split between men and women. The overall winners received 80,000 CHF, and stage winners got 3,000 CHF each. The sprint and climbing standings have their own prize money as well (6,000 CHF for those leaders).

Other notes
- The Tour has typically 20–30 participating nations, with limited spots per nation.
- Jean-Marc Gaillard has made the most Tour appearances, while skiers like Klæbo and Ustiugov have set various records for stage wins and leading the Tour from start to finish.
- The event has evolved in how stages are run and how bonuses are awarded, but it remains a multi‑day, high‑intensity test of endurance and strategy, ending with a challenging climb on Alpe Cermis.