Unlike the 2010 Vancouver Games, where the jumping and skiing were held in different locations, the cross country event in Sochi will start and end at the jump.
"The course is really challenging because it goes basically back and forth and up and down the side of the mountain next to the jump hill," said Bill Demong of the United States, who won gold in the individual large hill event in 2010 and silver in the team event.
"There are not only hard climbs but also there are some pretty nasty descents... it's a very good course not only for strong athletes but also good skiers, people that can handle their equipment well. So I'm excited by it," he told Reuters.
The United States are strong on the track and won the cross country section of the team event in the 2013 world championships, eventually ending up with the bronze.
One of the top favourites for individual gold is German soldier Eric Frenzel, 25, who won the World Cup last season and is the runaway leader this season. In mid-January he won three events in three days, capturing the inaugural Nordic Combined Triple Competition.
Frenzel, who won last year's large hill world Championship title, is also a fan of the Sochi course.
"The track had many curves and so I think it's a hard track and I like hard tracks because not everyone can go at such a high tempo," he told Reuters.
QUITE PARTICULAR
However, another athlete tipped as a potential victor - Jason Lamy Chappuis, who won the normal hill individual title at the 2010 Olympics,- said the course was "quite particular" and expressed concern it was at a relatively low altitude.
"It means that we are likely to have artificial snow... so we will have to adapt to that, waxing-wise," said the 27-year-old Frenchman, who won the individual normal hill title at the 2013 world championships.
Waxing was one of France's strengths at the Vancouver Games when the Nordic Combined, biathlon and cross country teams exchanged intelligence.
"It is going to be a tad more difficult here because we are not at the same site," Lamy Chappuis told reporters.
Demong also said waxing would be key in conditions he expected to be wet.
"I don't necessarily like to ski in slushy snow but I like to race it and it takes a different type of finesse than just going out and hammering on well-groomed snow," said the 33-year-old American.
While conceding he was perhaps a long shot to repeat his 2010 triumph, he added: "A lot of the best skiers out there just know I can be on the podium."
Other athletes to watch are Akito Watabe of Japan and the Norwegian quartet of Haavard Klemetsen, Mikko Kokslien, Magnus Moan and Magnus Krog, who are third, sixth, seventh and eighth in the current World Cup standings.
Norway, Germany, Austria and the United States are set to fight for the top four places in the team event.
France won the four-man team event at last year's world championships but, apart from Lamy Chappuis, their athletes have performed poorly in the World Cup this season.
France, however, took second place behind Germany at last weekend's World Cup event in Oberstdorf.
(Editing by Julien Pretot)
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