Alfred Buskqvist was challenged by Vebjørn Moen to the penultimate race of the season, Reistadløpet. In the event, Alfred took the points needed to secure the Green bib and take home the Sprint competition.

“First of all, it was a relief. I’ve been fighting for it all year, and even though I entered with a pretty good lead before the final weekend, it’s still easy to feel like I’m being chased,” says Alfred Buskqvist.

“Then it has also been great fun afterward to talk about it with the team and celebrate it with them and feel that it was a successful first season,” he adds.

At the beginning of the season, he felt slow and was afraid that he might have trained too hard. Then he won his first sprint at La Venosta, and after that, he started to believe that winning sprints was possible and maybe even taking home the Green bib.

“Then quite a lot happened over Christmas, and I felt I could ski faster again.”

Now Buskqvist has just finished his first Ski Classics season with Team Ramudden. Even when he joined the team last spring, the goal was that he would fight for the Green bib.

“I talked about it with Gustaf and Lina (Korsgren) last spring, and one of the first questions they asked was if I was keen on going for the Green bib. That was something we decided even then.”

Alfred Buskqvist did very specific sprint training in previous years, which he skipped entirely before this year’s season. His training focus has been to get good at long distances to cope with the sprints in the races.

“Actually, for me, it’s been pretty much about getting better endurance and being good enough on long races to keep up all the way to the sprints.”

He sees training with Team Ramudden as a big reason for his success in his first season.

“Getting into the team and training long distances with Johannes, Herman, Amund, Emilie, and Ida has also been a big key. To train long specifically together because that’s much of what it’s about.”

What is your goal for next season?

“We haven’t discussed it much yet. I will remain in Team Ramudden, it is clear, and I will continue the training for long races. Then exactly what the focus will be during the competitions, we will talk about that.”

If you think further ahead, what do you dream about?

“It’s about fighting for victories in the races. Maybe the Green is a small goal to then go for the Yellow bib or at least fight for the victory in individual races.”

Here you will find the final standings in the sprint competition.

The Season XIV of Ski Classics Pro Tour consisted of 14 events on 10 event weekends in 6 different countries. 

Ski Classics Pro Tour Season XIV (2022/2023)

• Event 1: December 10, 2022 – Bad Gastein PTT, Bad Gastein, Austria, 15km
• Event 2: December 11, 2022 – Bad Gastein Criterium, Bad Gastein, Austria, 35km
• Event 3: December 17, 2022 – La Venosta Criterium, Val Venosta, Italy, 36km 
• Event 4: January 14, 2023 – Pustertaler Ski Marathon, Sexten, Italy, 62km
• Event 5: January 15, 2023 – Prato Piazza Mountain Challenge, Niederdorf, Italy, 32km
• Event 6: January 21, 2023 – Engadin La Diagonela, Engadin Valley, Switzerland, 48km 
• Event 7: January 29, 2023 – Marcialonga, Trentino, Italy, 70km
• Event 8: February 12, 2023 – Jizerská50, Bedřichov, Czech Republic, 50km
• Event 9: February 18, 2023 – Grönklitt Criterium, Orsa Grönklitt, Sweden, 50km
• Event 10: February 19, 2023 – Grönklitt ITT, Orsa Grönklitt, Sweden, 12km
• Event 11: March 5, 2023 – Vasaloppet, Sälen-Mora, Sweden, 90km
• Event 12: March 18, 2023 – Birkebeinerrennet, Rena-Lillehammer, Norway, 54km
• Event 13: April 1, 2023 – Reistadløpet, Setermoen-Bardufoss, Norway, 40km
• Event 14: April 2, 2023 – Summit 2 Senja, Bardufoss- Finnsnes, Norway, 67km

More information about the Ski Classics Pro Tour you can find at skiclassics.com.