Last year, Tour de Barents was cancelled because the organizing committee said the Russian side didn’t follow up their financial commitments in the cross country skiing event to take place in Murmansk, Vadsø, Saariselkä and Rovaniemi. That announcement caused bewilderment from the Russian organizers’ side, as BarentsObserver reported.
- In spite of the financial crisis, the Murmansk regional government had done all preparations and logistics work according to the plan for the April 2009 Tour de Barents, Press secretary in Murmansk Oblast Sports Committee Igor Pereu told the media as reported by BarentsObserver. According to Pereu, Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company had stepped in as sponsors for the two parts of the race that were going to be arranged in Murmansk. In spite of falling process on nickel, the company had allocated all the promised funding.
Now, the April 2010 Tour de Barents is planned without including Murmansk. However, Russian skiers will participate together with other invited world top class skiers. The qualification criteria are 150 FIS points for men and 180 FIS points for women, as of February 15th 2010.
The 2010 Tour de Barents will take place on April 7-11 in Vadsø in Norway, and Inari and Rovaniemi in Finland.
The idea to arrange the Tour-de-Barents ski competition in the Barents Region was initiated by former Norwegian Olympic gold-winner Vegard Ulvang from Kirkenes in cooperation with the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. The idea was first time presented to the Murmansk sport committe in autumn 2006.
