The harsh meltdown of the Finns left Perttu Hyvärinen speechless – head coach sullen Sport

Sports expert Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was very happy on Sunday when his former national team colleague Perttu Hyvärinen roared to victory in the 10 km (p) split start in Toblach and the first podium finish of his career in individual World Cup competitions.

When the Tour de Ski on New Year’s Day continued with a 20 kilometer (v) pursuit, Saarinen didn’t expect as big at all. Hyvärinen, who started the journey in fourth place, 38 seconds from the top, dropped no less than 28 places and continues the Tour towards Davos, Switzerland, in 32nd place and 3.04 minutes from the top, i.e. Norway’s Harald Östberg from Amundsen.

– Perttu has skied several free races very well in his career, but this wasn’t a successful journey for him. And when Sunday was a super success in every way, some kind of blowout was to be expected. Now then, it came in both mental and physical form.

Sunday was a big day for ski maintenance in Finland, and Saarinen didn’t blame Hyvärinen’s performance on the maintenance truck.

– First of all, the relative differences are typically clearly bigger in traditional competitions than in figure skating. And there wasn’t any extreme weather causing deviations. I didn’t see any significant equipment differences between the countries. Perttu and Lauri (Mountainous), for example, were once already falling behind their group on the ascent, but they caught up on the descent, so both of them had slippery caps.

He became the best Finnish man in the Tour before the continuous competitions in free sprints in Davos on Wednesday Remi Lindholm, which is 27th 2.41.9 from the top. At the top is Amundsen, 32.9 seconds ahead of the one who hung on tenaciously on Monday Erik Valnesia.

– Amundsen is without a doubt the number one favorite to win the overall competition now, but I don’t rule out Valnes as a brilliant sprinter, says Saarinen.

The head coach, on the other hand, buttered his skis

Finland’s head coach Teemu Pasanen saddened that the men of Finland had to miss a day. Pasanen also praised the equipment.

– 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 stated.

According to Pasanen, the teams had huge differences in skis. The wet weather in Toblach was difficult for fluoride-free creams.

– This is an instrumental sport, and today we really didn’t succeed. It felt like the skis froze badly towards the end.

The Finnish maintenance had already received a message from the athletes during the race that the skis were not working. There is not necessarily time to do great miracles in the women’s race.

– There’s not a lot of time when those women’s skis must already be tested for fluoride. The course opened up as the last man crossed the finish line, clocking an hour and 10 minutes. It depends on a few minutes whether there is time to do anything about it. However, maintenance does as much as it can in a few minutes, explained Pasanen.

Hyvarine almost speechless

Hyvärinen, who celebrated his victory in the traditional 10-kilometer race on Sunday, was almost speechless after Monday’s stage, which seemed very long.

– It didn’t strike the same tree twice. It was quite a day. Yesterday I didn’t really know what to say, and now it’s the same situation, Hyvärinen stated.

According to Hyvärinen, the skiers of the Finnish team did not have enough glide on their skis today. Hyvärinen said that he had recovered well enough from yesterday’s race that he would have been able to ski well.

– Today the Finnish team lost what they won yesterday. It’s a pity. Such a race, a good place and you should fight for a good place in the Tour, so now there was such a meltdown, Hyvärinen regretted.

– Should have celebrated yesterday when there was a chance.

Other Finns shared Pasanen and Hyvärinen’s view of the unfortunate skis.

– Well… It was bad, Lindholm said.

From nice settings, left on the 17th Arsi Ruuskanen was very upset. He was still confident before the race, because he chose his best skis in the tests. After the first lap, however, the pace froze.

– If I had gotten a 20-meter bow, then on the downhill it would have been lowered with a big loess.

– Now would have been a place to raise shares in the overall Tour. Next is the sprint, and that’s where it all comes down to. Let’s try to get good results from the remaining normal trips, Ruuskanen thought and admitted:

Urheilu follows the Tour de Ski in this article. The women’s 20 km pursuit race starts at 1:30 p.m.