Poromaa (SWE) and Golberg (NOR) lead Klaebo chasers as Cross Country World Cup begins

The 2023/24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup season will be one of firsts. Racing returns to Canmore in Canada for the first time since 2016, the US will host a first tour event, in Minneapolis, for the first time in more than 20 years, and the fluor wax ban on skis – brought in because of health risks and environmental concerns – will be fully implemented for the first time.

When it comes to the race for the men’s crystal globe, though, one thing remains the same: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) will be the one beat.

Winner of an incredible 20 individual World Cup races in 2022/23, including six out of seven to clinch the mid-season Tour de Ski – on top of three individual world championship medals – Klaebo was so dominant last season, you wonder whether he is now racing against only himself, and history.

Speaking over the summer, US racer Ben Ogden gave an insight into the mentality of the chasing pack: “Even if I spend the next 10 years chasing Klaebo and never once beat him, I might as well stop now if I don’t believe I can ever beat him.”

Consistent but without an individual podium to show for his efforts, Ogden was the winner of the green bib for the top U23 performer last season, ahead of Swedish pair William Poromaa and Edvin Anger. At 23, 22 and 21 years old respectively, these three perhaps represent the best chance of overhauling Klaebo in the coming years – although, in a sport in which men don’t normally hit their peak until their mid-twenties or later, it may not be this season.

Anger, too, missed out on an individual podium last season but did finish fifth in the overall sprint standings and admits he would be disappointed not to claim a medal this time around.

Poromaa – who claimed three individual bronze medals in the World Cup and another in the world championships – is setting his sights a little higher: “If I don’t get a World Cup win this winter, I will definitely be disappointed.”

Elsewhere, Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) – also relatively young at 25 – is talking up his chances of overhauling compatriot Klaebo after claiming his first World Cup victory in Les Rousses, France, in January. But only one other individual podium finish last season suggests he does not yet have the consistency to sustain a challenge.

The same cannot be said for Paal Golberg (NOR). The unassuming Norwegian enjoyed his finest season to date, with an individual world championship gold over 50km to go with three World Cup stage victories and the overall distance title. At 33, though, he – like the rest of the field – is unlikely to find the sprint power to topple Klaebo. As Ogden says: “Sprinting is something different for him than it is for us.”

Federico Pellegrino (ITA) certainly has the speed to challenge Klaebo. The entertaining Italian bounced back from a difficult 2020/21 to claim eight individual podiums last season but at 33 may lack the staying power to go the distance against his long-time sprint rival.

Simen Hegstad Krueger (NOR) has proved that he can more than challenge Klaebo in the distance races – even outdoing his compatriot to win two individual golds at this year’s world championships – but none of his 23 solo World Cup podiums have come in the sprints.

Klaebo insists there will be “plenty” of competition (“it will be tough on the legs”), including Finland’s three-time Olympic champion Ivo Niskanen (“he’s ready to get back fighting for the top spots”), compatriot Mattis Stenshagen (“he’s been performing well”) and Poromaa (“he showed at the end of last season that he’s definitely up there”).

And what of the great man himself?

After protracted negotiations, Klaebo signed a standard representation agreement with the Norwegian Ski Association (NSF) on the eve of the season. This means, essentially, that the five-time Olympic champion and most successful male sprinter of all time will represent Norway in World Cup races but fund and co-ordinate his own training.

Then there was a bout of Covid-19 that kept Klaebo out of some of the World Cup warm-up races. Might these ‘disruptions’ give his rivals hope ahead of the opening event in Ruka, Finland on 24 November?

Unlikely – although Klaebo does admit that, this being a season that doesn’t include a World Championships or Winter Olympics, he might have to "make some other decisions that are not good for me in the short run but could be better in the long term".

“But the starting point now is just to go ski racing.”