Norway celebrated a triple victory in the men’s intermediate start race. Ben Ogden was responsible for the biggest surprise of the day.
Joel Sippola,
Laura Arffman
13:55•Updated 14:08
Returned from a long competition break at the weekend Iivo Niskanen had to stop the traditional ten-kilometer intermediate start race in Oberstdorf. The start of Niskanen’s race was quiet, because, for example, he was already 16 seconds behind at the first intermediate point.
Niskanen fell ill with the corona virus in November, but eventually recovered to race condition. Niskanen had the eighth fastest pace in Sunday’s pursuit race, which gave good promises for today’s race.
The Norwegian star skied to victory in the third stage of the Tour de Ski Johannes Hösflot Kläbo. At the same time, he increased his lead in the overall race.
Kläbo beat Norway, who came in second Simon Hegstad Kruger 12.4 seconds apart. Norway celebrated a triple victory, because Didrik Tönseth was third.
The surprise of the day was a young person from the USA Ben Ogden, which was sixth.
Markus Vuorela was 26th as the best Finn. Perttu Hyvärinen was the 36th, Lauri Lepistö 55’s and Ville Ahonen 58:s.
The race was held in warm and rainy conditions. The track was also salted before the race.
According to Vuorela, the weather was better compared to yesterday. Back then, the snow was soft slush.
– It was quite heavy. The speed distribution was relatively even. (The track) was in pretty good shape. The descents were quite hard when there was ice below. However, you have to give a plus to the race organizers, Vuorela told Urheilu.
The story is updated