Johannes Kläbo celebrated his victory again, but in the Tour de Ski overall the situation narrowed significantly. According to Teemu Pasanen, there were positive signs in Perttu Hyvärinen’s freestyle skiing.
14:17•Updated 14:39
The overall Tour de Ski men’s race is in an interesting situation after the 20 km free pursuit race in Oberstdorf today. Based on the results of yesterday’s race, the one who started in the lead Johannes Hofslot Kläbo pushed for victory, but in the overall situation, the Norwegian star’s lead decreased.
Kläbo, who won all four races in this Tour, had a lead of 37 seconds before Wednesday, but now it’s only 12. In the pursuit race in Oberstdorf, considering the overall race, split times were taken into account, where the 26-year-old skier was far behind the fastest runners.
On Wednesday, third place Italy Federico Pellegrino is second in the overall situation before Norway Pål Golbergia, which is 14 seconds behind Kläbo. The Tour continues on Friday in Italy’s Val di Fiemme, where the sprints will be postponed with the traditional one.
There are no less than seven Norwegians in the top nine. In addition to Pellegrino, the sixth man is trying to get the Norwegians into trouble William Poromaa.
Pellegrino is known as a hard sprinter, but in top condition he is capable of good performances even on normal distances.
– Norway’s superiority is of course quite crushing. The top ten are practically Norwegians. Pellegrino has been skiing consistently well. He can fight among the Norwegians, the head coach of the Finnish cross country team Teemu Pasanen stated to Urheilu after the race.
Flashes of light in Hyvärinen’s skiing
For Finns, the race was quiet. Perttu Hyvärinen was 30th as the best Finn.
– It was a pretty sticky morning. Couldn’t keep my eyes open. There wasn’t much interest in exercising either. It was visible from the start. The last two laps were really good skiing, Hyvärinen stated.
Left from 28th place Markus Vuorela had congealed to rank 45 and Lauri Lepistö was 58
– It seems from the beginning that it was quite challenging. Couldn’t start the race. I thought I would leave in peace and then blackmail, Vuorela said.
Pasanen admitted that the race did not go as expected from the Finns. However, he found a positive signal in Hyvärinen’s performance for the future.
– Pertu’s vacation was a small flash of light. The last two laps looked good. The beginning was sticky, but the end started to look like Pertu’s normal free time.
Hyvärinen is in 22nd place overall. Pasanen believes that Hyvärinen can still raise his shares in the traditional joint start race on Saturday.
– Today we travel to Val di Fiemme and tomorrow we do light skiing. There’s not much you can do about it. We’re just trying to recover and gain energy for the last three races, Pasanen said about the team’s protocol.
1. Johannes H. Kläbo NOR 41.35,8
2. Sindre B. Skar NOR + 1.8
3. Federico Pellegrino ITA + 2.1
4. Calle Halfvarsson SWE + 2.9
5. Sjur Röthe NOR + 3.4
6. Pål Golberg NOR + 3.5
7. William Poromaa SWE + 4.0
8. Simen Hegstad Krüger NOR + 4.0
9. Didrik Tönseth NOR + 4.3
10. Emil Iversen’s NOR + 4.5
30. Perttu Hyvärinen FIN +1.04.7
45. Markus Vuorela FIN +1.54.5
58. Lauri Lepistö FIN +2.55,8
1. Johannes H. Kläbo NOR 1.31,02
2. Federico Pellegrino ITA + 0.12
3. Pål Golberg NOR + 0.14
4. Simen Hegstad Krüger NOR + 0.32
4. Sindre B. Skar NOR + 0.32
6. William Poromaa SWE + 0.37
7. Didrik Tönseth NOR + 0.39
7. Hans Chister Holund NOR + 0.39
7. Sjur Röthe NOR + 0.39
22. Perttu Hyvärinen FIN + 2.01
38. Markus Vuorela FIN + 3.43
56. Lauri Lepistö FIN + 5.16