Here’s the reason for the Finnish men’s big ski farce: “It was such a squat” – then the maintenance team worked a miracle | Sport

The success of ski selection and lubrication has once again become a huge topic of conversation at the Tour de Ski.

On Saturday, the Finns praised their skis when they won the race Kerttu Niskanen and Perttu Hyvärinen celebrate their victories in the 10 km traditional skiing style. It was clear that the Finns had the best skis with them, with which, according to some estimates, they gained even a minute in the 10 km distance.

On Sunday, there was a different sound on the clock, when the Finnish men collapsed in a 20-kilometer freestyle pursuit. In Toblach, the weather was such that fluoride creams would have been of great benefit, but they were banned before the current season.

The teams have had to learn new operating methods and fluoride-free creams, so there have been many fluctuations in the success of the maintenance teams. From the beginning, Finland was in big problems compared to other leading countries.

Read also: Comment: The Finnish ski service has received an absurd amount of criticism – the facts seem to be constantly being forgotten

The Finnish men shared the rapa properly

Head coach of the Finnish national skiing team Teemu Pasanen dished out blunt comments after the general failure of the men’s pursuit race.

– Today we didn’t succeed in anything, and yesterday we succeeded in everything. That’s the difference, and you can see it in the results, Pasanen told .

According to Pasanen, the teams had huge differences in skis, when the weather in Toblach was extremely difficult for fluorine-free creams.

Perttu Hyvärinen slandered his free skiing style in an interview with Viaplay after the race, that “it was difficult to get down from the top of the hill, the grip was good today”.

Having become the best Finn Remi Lindholm downloaded that the skis were “pretty crap uphill and downhill”.

In practice, the comments of all Finnish men were similar. Arsi Ruuskanen had particularly sold his country, as he felt it would have been a place to strike with the overall Tour in mind.

– Two rounds ok. Then the downward slide was terrible. The whole hose came off in the landing. But we will forgive one bad day for maintenance, he said Markus Vuorela.

All new

The Finnish maintenance received a message from the athletes already during the race that the skis were not working properly. It was clear that there might not be time to do great miracles in the women’s race.

Pasanen said that it depends on the minutes whether anything can be done for the skis of the women’s race.

– There’s not much time when women’s skis must already be tested for fluoride. The track opened up when the last man crossed the finish line, and it took him an hour and 10 minutes, Pasanen updated after the men’s race.

But the maintenance team really had time to do something, because after the women’s race, the female skiers praised their skis. Only Vilma Ryytty cried about her poor skis, but Ryytty uses a different brand of skis than other Finnish women.

Lubrication manager of the Finnish cross country team Heikki Tonteri At the end of the day, he commented to Urheilu what really happened in the men’s race.

– Ski lubrication is such that it has so many parts. If we are a little off in every area, then the result is unfortunately like this.

According to Tonter, the selection, grinding and patterning of the skis, as well as the lubrication, were decisively wrong.

– Yes, it was about the whole package today. It is impossible to say for sure what the biggest factor was.

There was a maximum rush for the women’s race, but the maximum changes had to be made in that time.

– A lot of things were done in a short time, there was a rush, but everything was changed. Hand patterns, creams, everything went new.

The men’s race naturally excites the crew of the service truck, but the women’s race brought learning and comfort as well as relief.

– We are very satisfied with the women’s competition. After all, that men’s race was such a slog that now it’s a lot harder to start driving towards Davos, when we managed to succeed this afternoon.

– Although it should always succeed, it’s just not possible.

Tour de Ski continues on Wednesday 3 January. Sprinting in Davos. Above are the TV rights for the remaining Tour de Ski competitions. Urheilu follows the Tour in this article.