The 56th Saslong Classic opened on Monday evening with the traditional team captains' meeting at the Community Center in Selva/Wolkenstein.

Representatives of all 14 teams that will be competing in Val Gardena/Gröden this week attended the meeting and were welcomed by Rainer Senoner, President of the Saslong Classic Club. The FIS Technical Delegate, Einar Witteveen, wished all athletes a successful week of racing: "I am convinced that we will have a great week here in Val Gardena/Gröden at these classics."

Markus Waldner, FIS Race Director, took the floor immediately afterwards. He provided information about the condition of the race course and explained the program. "The race course is ready. A lot of very good work has been done on the course. I don't see any problems for practice runs on Tuesday, Wednesday will be challenging in terms of the weather and the weather forecast for the races from Thursday is good again. That's why I'm fully focused on tomorrow's training, which starts at 11:45 am, just like the races themselves. I would like to thank Rainer Senoner and his team for allowing us to make up for a race here, because that is not something that can be taken for granted either - especially in terms of the financial aspect," emphasized Waldner.

The bib starting numbers were then drawn for the first training session on Tuesday, which will be opened by Adrien Theaux from France. The top group starts with the "Azzurro" Mattia Casse with the 6, who will be three start numbers ahead of local hero Dominik Paris on the Saslong. Vincent Kriechmayr from Austria, who won the sprint downhill last year, has been allocated 11. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Norway), last year's second winner in Val Gardena/Gröden, wears the jersey with the 14 and last season's overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt from Switzerland follows with the 15.

The complete start list for the first training on Tuesday can be found here.