Italy World Cup -- Comebacks all around

The mountain resort of Baselga di Pine', Italy hosted the fastest left-turners on ice this past weekend, as the World Cup All-round season finally resumed after a two-month plus hiatus. On tap would be the metric mile races for men and women, as well as the second-longest distances for each -- the women's 3,000 meter and the men's 5,000 meter.

Held at the Ice Rink Pine' oval, one of the more faster outdoor ovals in operation, the races marked the earlier than expected return to the rink of last year's women's World All-round Women's Champion, Anni Friesinger of Germany, and last year's men's World Speed Skating Champion, Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands.

Friesinger, who saw her reign and the dynasty that went with it, end last week at the hands of Cindy Klassen of Canada, opened the races with an impressive victory in the 1,500 meters, easily outdistancing Klassen, who was runner-up and American Jennifer Rodriguez (third).

Japan's Maki Tabata and Claudia Pechstein, silver medallist from the World All-rounds the prior weekend, rounded out the top 5. Catherine Raney was the only other Yank in this race and finished 16th out of 20 skaters.

The circuit also welcomed back Uytdehaage, who no doubt liked the fact that the Dutch swept the 2003 edition in Sweden, and he decided to lead a sweep of the 5,000 meter race for good measure.

Bob deJong and Carl Verheijen also benefited from the outdoor conditions, which deteriorated a bit on Sunday, and parked right behind the man who didn't qualify for neither the European nor the World Championships due to the fierce competition and enviable depth of his country's speed skating team.

You could technically say it was another 1-2-3-4 sweep, since Dutch expatriate Bart Veldkamp, who moved to Belgium five years ago and now skates under its flag came in fourth, while Polish ace Pavel Zygmunt was fifth.

Like the women's 1,500m, only two Americans were in the mix -- Derek Parra's late-season slump continued as he could only muster a 10th place finish, while KC Boutiette was 17th.

Sunday was plagued with snow, and it would see the men's 1,500m and women's 3,000m. Parra needed to have a good showing here, as he went into the weekend in the catbird's seat in that race's season points standings, but it was not to be.

Yevgeny Lalenkov of Russia won going away, fending off the challenges of Dutchmen Mark Tuitert (4th in last weekend's all-rounds) and Erben Wennemars. Fellow Russian Aleksandr Kibalko and Parra completed the top five. Boutiette was tied for eight, while a pair of Americans, Chris Callis (18th) and Tim Hoffman (last out of 20) brought up the rear.

Friesinger made it 2-for-2 on the weekend, showing no ill effects of the virus infection that has made mincemeat out of her 2003 schedule, as Pechstein and Klassen joined her on the 3,000m medal stand.

Gretha Smit, silver medallist at last year's Olympic 5,000m for the Dutch and Canada's Clara Hughes rounded out the top 5, which Catherine Raney just missed out on by 48/100ths of a second (6th).

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So with one competition to go in each of the aforementioned races' points standings, here's how things stack up:

Women's 1500m

1. Klassen, 430 2. Pechstein, 330 3. Rodriguez, 290 4. Friesinger, 220 5. Annamarie Thomas, 210

Men's 1500m

1. Lalenkov, 360 2. Parra, 340 3. Wennemars, 310 4. Kibalko, 231 5. Tuitert, 196

Women's 3000m/5000m combined

1. Pechstein, 400 2. Hughes, 340 3. Klassen, 269 4. Daniela Anschutz, 211 5. Raney, 192 (Rodriguez isn't even in the top 30 since she concentrated on her sprint and 1500's this season).

Men's 5000m/10000m combined

1. Verheijen, 390 2. deJong, 350 3. Uytdehaage, 310 4. Lasse Saetre, 201 5. Zygmunt, 190

With the winners of the March 7-9 World Cup finals in Heerenveen, Netherlands, and with the last stop on the 2002-03 tour worth 120 points instead of the usual 100, none of the season's winners should count their chickens just yet.

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There were two other races being contested for the first time on the regular World Cup format -- team pursuit races for men and women (teams of three men skating 3,200 meters, while the women would skate 2,600 meters. It's a staple of the World Junior Championships, which will be held next weekend in Kushiro City, Japan, at the end of that competition.

This was an open event, in which countries could enter three-person teams, and anyone above the limit could skate for a country that didn't have three (for example, Veldkamp tag-teamed with Boutiette and American newcomer Chad Hedrick).

Eighteen men's and nine women's teams entered, and when the dust cleared, in a shocking, earth-shaking surprise (not), a Dutch trio won the men's event, comprised of Martin Hersman, Ralf van der Rijst and de Jong. The combined USA/Belgium team got the silver, while Lalenkov, Kibalko and Ivan Skobrev propelled the Russians to bronze.

Meanwhile, in what was a surprise, the Canadian women continued their dream season by winning that race as Klassen, Hughes and Kristina Groves repelled the NED 1 (the Dutch had two teams on the women's side, three on the men's) threesome of Renate Groenewold, Smit and Barbara deLoor, and the Russians (Svetlana Bazhanova, Svetlana Vysokova and Valentina Yakshina), both of whom joined them on the medal stand.

The Americans didn't fare too well, except for Boutiette and Hedrick. Their men's entry of Parra, Callis and Hoffman finished 10th, while Rodriguez, Raney and Kristine Holzer came in next to last. USA Newbie Eva Rodansky hooked up with a second-string German squad (none of their premiere all-rounders partook in it) and actually finished ahead of her teammates in sixth.

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There will not be a column next week, as the World Cup season takes yet another weekend off.

The sprint season unofficially concludes with the Inzell, Germany races, which will feature another 100m super-sprint competition on March 1-2. That will be followed by the World Cup finals, which will be a sprint/all-round hybrid event, as is traditional.

We'll have a brief recap of the World Junior Championships as well.