This article was first published in Rouleur Issue 142

Watching a cross-country skier on television is strangely hypnotic. Technique, effort management, and concentration blend into a continuous movement across the white expanse of snow. Behind this harmony of movement lies a demanding discipline, with surprising connections to cycling.

Cross-country skiing is a complete sport: it improves endurance, balances muscle development by strengthening the upper body as well, and allows for a high volume of aerobic work. It can be considered the best alternative to cycling during the winter, explains Marco Pinotti, a member of the technical staff of Team Jayco AlUla, six-time Italian time-trial champion and winner of two individual TT stages at the Giro d’Italia.

“I remember, as a rider, spending a week in Livigno at the beginning of December, focused on training with cross-country skis. The benefits are physical, but also psychological: in its own way, it’s an almost meditative session. And there are advantages for the upper body as well, such as the triceps and arms, which are essential for stability, for example during sprint finishes on the bike.”

At this point, a natural question arises: what kind of training is best? “I see it as foundational work. If done at altitude, there’s no need for very high intensity or for constantly training at maximum oxygen uptake. Instead, I recommend moderate to low intensity, with sessions lasting an hour-and-a-half to two hours, comparable to training in Zone 2 or Zone 3 (that is, at a sustainable, low-to-moderate intensity), with the added advantage of being continuously engaged, without the interruptions that can occur when riding on the road. Oxygen consumption still increases, because more muscles are used at the same time compared to cycling.”

But what are its main techniques? In the classic style, skiers move forward with their skis parallel, following a straight line and using a motion similar to walking or running. Skating, on the other hand, involves a lateral push, much like ice skating, making races faster. In freestyle races, athletes can freely alternate between the two styles.

Cross-country skiers display very high VO₂ max values. World-class athletes often record values between 80 and 90 mL/ (kg·min) – in some cases even higher – for men, and around 70 and 75 mL/(kg·min) for women. Norwegian skier Bjørn Dæhlie, one of the greatest champions of the sport, is reported to top even these impressive numbers.

Alberto Minetti, a biomechanist and exercise physiologist specialising in human movement and muscle function, also sheds light on the differences between cross-country skiing and cycling: “I believe that cyclists do not reach the same levels as cross-country skiers simply because they do not use their upper limbs, relying almost exclusively on their lower ones. The main difference between cycling and cross-country skiing lies in muscle involvement. In cycling, the work of the shoulder girdle – the complex of shoulders, shoulder blades, and upper-back muscles that controls and supports arm movement – is limited, while the effort is concentrated mainly on the propulsive muscles of the lower limbs.”

Beyond muscular and technical aspects, cross-country skiing – and, more broadly, training in the mountains – also offers advantages related to altitude. Training at high elevation means exposing the body to conditions of reduced oxygen availability, thereby stimulating important physiological adaptations. Further clarifying this concept is once again Minetti, who has worked at Manchester Metropolitan University and served as a professor at the Università degli Studi di Milano: “In a hypoxic situation, when we exercise, our hematopoietic system becomes more active: the bone marrow produces more red blood cells than are normally present in the body. When we then return to lower altitude, this excess gradually decreases, especially if training is not continued.”

In the lead-up to a race, an athlete can benefit from this, as it increases the body’s oxygen-carrying capacity. It is not only a matter of training the muscles or the cardiovascular system, but also an adaptation linked to increased red blood cell production.

Another aspect that Minetti helps clarify concerns the transferability of training – how much of what is built on skis can then be applied on the bike.

“Training the arms can be useful for strengthening the back and posture, but it has to be done in moderation. The real advantage of cross-country skiing is that, probably more than any other discipline, it allows athletes to develop the highest levels of oxygen consumption. These values can even exceed those achieved in cycling. By training with cross-country skiing in the mountains, when you return to the plains and get back on the bike, you can rely on a higher VO₂ max. This means having a better-trained heart, capable of sustaining higher metabolic power, because the circulatory system is, above all, a matter of the heart.”

Benefits such as the increase in red blood cells linked to hypoxia tend to diminish in the absence of continued exposure to altitude. The situation is different for cardiovascular adaptations: a heart accustomed to sustaining high metabolic power maintains its peak aerobic performance for longer, providing a tangible benefit in subsequent races.

Finally, there remains the issue of motor transferability: how much of what is developed on skis can truly be applied on the bike? And to what extent is there a real affinity between cross-country skiing and cycling in athletic preparation?

To sum up, in cross-country skiing, propulsion, joint angles, and muscle coordination do not match those of pedalling. For this reason, although cross-country skiing represents an excellent training tool, transferring the qualities developed on snow still requires a period of adaptation in order to be fully expressed on the bike. The importance of technical movement similarity is also demonstrated by the fact that cross-country skiers do not train in summer only on bicycles, but often use roller skis, which allow them to replicate on asphalt the same movement patterns used on snow.

According to Minetti, an effective strategy for cyclists is to combine cross-country skiing with indoor work on a smart trainer, especially during periods of altitude training: “Training in the mountains while keeping heart rate and mechanical power under control makes it possible to take advantage of the benefits of altitude without giving up the specificity of the pedalling motion. Ideally, sessions on skis should be alternated with work on a cycle ergometer, even in cold or well-ventilated environments, in order to simulate conditions similar to those outdoors. In this way, the athlete continues to stimulate the muscles involved in pedalling while simultaneously monitoring physiological parameters. For more experienced athletes, one option is to combine both activities on the same day, alternating cross-country skiing and the cycle ergometer. This solution makes it possible to benefit from altitude-related adaptations, maintain high aerobic capacity, and preserve the quality of technical movement, while at the same time avoiding inefficient muscular loads.”

But the link between cross-country skiing and cycling also emerges from the story of Maria Canins, who, before winning two editions of the Tour de France Féminin (1985 and 1986) and the Giro d’Italia Femminile (1988), had already won 15 Italian national titles in cross-country skiing and victory at the Vasaloppet, the historic 90-kilometre Nordic skiing marathon in Sweden.

“In winter, I competed in cross-country skiing. In summer, to maintain my fitness, I rode my bike as preparation. They are two similar sports, both based on endurance: the training was the same, only the equipment changed. The technique was different – on skis and on the bike – but the workouts, including endurance, intervals, accelerations, and sprints, were the same. At least, that’s how I always did it,” says Canins.

She lives in La Villa, in Val Badia, around 30 kilometres from Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the host venues of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, a multi-venue event involving several locations across northern Italy.

Canins learned to ski as a child, while cycling entered her life during the Italian Cross-Country Skiing Championships, when a coach from the Italian Cycling Federation asked whether she would be willing to try competing at a high level. She was already 32 when she began this new sporting adventure. She finished fifth in the road race at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, marking the start of a highly successful career that also led her to win the world title in the team time trial in 1988.

“In my day, cross-country skiing was only done in the classic style, and the trails were groomed with snowmobiles; today they are like billiard tables. Physical condition accounted for 80 per cent, and equipment for 20 per cent. I remember that professional riders and their teams would also come here to Alta Badia. They would spend a week training in the mountains and focus mainly on cross-country skiing to build their fitness. Then they would also do some downhill skiing and, later in the day, use indoor trainers, so they could complete their cycling training,” Canins recalls.

Edita Pučinskaitė, world road champion in 1999, and winner of the Tour de France Féminin (1998) and the Giro d’Italia Femminile (2006 and 2007) is another believer in the benefits of skiing: “I was born and raised in northern Lithuania, in an environment where cross-country skiing was part of everyday life. We practiced it at school as part of our physical education program. At the age of 13, I also started cycling, when I entered the Sports Academy for young athletes up to the age of 18.

“I remember that at the Academy we devoted well over a month to cross-country skiing. Around the age of 17, when we were already juniors, the coaches began to place greater emphasis on bike-specific training and, during the cold season, we moved to warmer areas.

“In our sporting culture, there was a very clear philosophy: during the winter, many activities were carried out as alternatives to cycling. Cross-country skiing was central, because it could replace base training.”

The conversation then turns to contact with nature and the satisfaction of seeing one’s own progress. On skis, nothing is automatic: it’s not a matter of just putting them on and going, says Pučinskaitė. Technique is built step by step, day after day. The effort is enormous, but in return you are rewarded with breathtaking views and a deep sense of peace, silence, and the beauty of the landscape.

“When I moved to Italy, I also took part in winter training camps in the mountains with my teams. I remember spending well over a month focused on skiing and cycling: every morning we had a session on skis, and in the afternoon we would ride mountain bikes on the snow, or go for long walks.”

Also highlighting the importance of cross-country skiing is Daniele Bennati, former head coach of the Italian national road cycling team with 19 years experience in the professional peloton.

“In cycling, when it comes to the arms and torso, training is only indirect, while the effort is concentrated mainly on the legs. During the winter, athletes therefore tend to engage in alternative activities, such as gym work and bodyweight exercises. Each athlete is supported by a coach who recommends the most suitable training path. Cross-country skiing is a discipline that, if I were coaching a rider, I would recommend one hundred per cent. It is also practiced in low-friction conditions, so it is not like running or doing more joint-stressing activities: it really is an excellent compromise.”

Reflecting on his experience with cross-country skiing at under-23 level, Bennati recalls how it helped both physically and mentally, allowing him to take a break from the bike without losing training quality. The training camp also encouraged team building, thanks to activities carried out in the natural setting of Abetone, in Tuscany, where he lives.

Cross-country skiing has been part of the Olympic program since the very first edition of the Games in 1924, and it was also in the spotlight at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, featuring in dedicated races, in Nordic combined – which brings together ski jumping and cross-country skiing – and in biathlon, which pairs cross-country skiing with rifle shooting.

“Cross-country skiing, like cycling, puts you in close contact with nature. It allows you to see incredible places and cover long distances”, says Federico Mele, Brand Manager at Sportful and, during the Olympics, head of the race office for ski jumping and Nordic combined. “Much like gran fondos in cycling, there are also marathon races in cross-country skiing. I took part in a 70-kilometre event, for example. It’s a real journey through the snow, among trees, silence, and extraordinary landscapes. They are very similar disciplines, both from an athletic and, let’s say, an experiential point of view.

“At Sportful, we started out with cross-country skiing and, ten years after our foundation, moved into cycling, precisely because the two sports are so compatible. Today we sponsor the Team Tudor Pro Cycling Team: there’s Matteo Trentin, who in winter, whenever he can, also practices cross-country skiing, because it greatly helps develop breathing capacity and endurance and keeps the legs in shape. He particularly favours the skating technique.”

The Winter Olympics shine a light on sports that rarely receive such global media attention, reminding us that endurance, technique and resilience are qualities shared across disciplines.