The threatening picture painted by Aino-Kaisa Saarinen for Kerttu Niskanen came true – now a tasty view of the victory | Sport

Lauri Vuorisen and Johanna Matintalo have a place for reflection. Kerttu Niskas, on the other hand, has the best position among the top four for the next Tour race, says Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.

Kerttu Niskanen was, as expected, third on the Tour de Ski pursuit day in Toblach, racing 15 kilometers in traditional skiing.

Niskanen took 20 seconds off the track Astrid A mole Slind’s and Therese Johaugin after. He couldn’t match the pace of the Norwegian duo alone, but they tore the winning margin to almost a minute on New Year’s Day. The script of the competition went exactly as Urheilu’s ski expert said Aino–Kaisa Saarinen could be done in advance.

– Kerttu had an unfilled place. It looked like an excellent race from him. Unfortunately, yesterday’s race also decided this race, Saarinen estimated.

Niskanen’s New Year’s Eve bad luck with the starting places was repeated in another race. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen doesn’t want to be sad about it, but emphasizes Niskanen’s great skiing towards the season’s main goal of the World Championships.

The battle for victories and podiums at the Tour remains exciting. Jessie From Diggins we saw another bad race in a row. He dropped from first place to fourth in the overall standings.

– The situation is really exciting. Now it’s a tight foursome. There is no telling who will be the winner. Of course, Johaug is probably on the final climb, but there are still two more races before that. The most exciting women’s Tour in a long time is underway. This is absolutely top-notch in terms of the competitiveness of women’s skiing, says Saarinen.

In the traditional sprint, according to the expert, Niskanen is even the strongest of the four in preliminary settings. Thus, Finns have the opportunity to challenge Norwegian endurance machines again.

– Of course, Jessie won the sprint free at this Tour. He also showed a traditional way of skiing in the joint start competition, which I have never seen before. It was quite unimaginable when he started skiing on the sprint climb. If Jessie digs the same thing out, she is really dangerous, says Saarinen.

Jasmi Joensuu has the best time of his career

Jasmi Joensuu is skiing the best season of his career. There have been a lot of successes on the Tour. The tour started with the first podium finish of his career in the free sprint at the World Cup. Most recently, in the pursuit of Toblach, he had the best result of his career over a normal distance.

Joensuu was the best in the final race of the big crowd and eighth in the final results. He is in the same place in the overall situation of the Tour.

– I am happy that Jasmi is now skiing normal distances. I would have liked earlier that he would have been excited to ski them. I feel and it seems that normal journeys also push Jasmi forward in sprints, says Saarinen.

– He has had challenges with stamina in the sprint, and the rest has not been so good. Now he had to outdo himself again. I believe that races like today’s will take him forward in sprints as well. That’s great from Jasmi.

Worrying comments from the skiing couple

On New Year’s Day, the skiing couple belonged to the more successful side Johanna Matintalo and Lauri Vuorinen excerpts.

Matintalo said that he had a calf cramp just before the start. Matintalo’s calf had also been bothering him at the beginning of the season in November.

Before the day’s race, Matintalo considered suspending the Tour. After the race, he was going to be “desperately optimistic” about getting something done and racing after the break in Val di Fiemme.

Lauri Vuorinen turned 30 on New Year’s Day, but made dark comments after his own race. Vuorinen described that it is not running at the moment. The sensation of the beginning of the season and the skier who grabbed his first podium place in his career said that he can’t say a direct reason for his minor victory at the Tour.

Both would be fascinated to ski in Val di Fiemme on Friday, because then they will be competing in next year’s Olympic scenery on next year’s Olympic journey, i.e. sprinting in the traditional way of skiing. The sprint will still be skied on Friday, Finland’s head coach Teemu I’m crazy along exactly the same track as in the Olympics.

Aino-Kaisa Saarinen hopes that Matintalo and the Finnish coaching staff will now make the right decisions in a difficult situation.

– Then we will be able to ski in the end of the season as well, Saarinen underlines and says that it is probably not worth it for Matintalo to ski the tour to the top of Alpe Cermis until the end.

Of course, Saarinen reminds in the same breath that Matintalo and his background know the situation best.

In Saarinen’s opinion Lauri Mountainous made a troubling comment when he talked about his problems.

– Maybe the load is starting to come to the body. Is it time to rest? Saarinen speculates.

– I understand that it would be great to try the Olympic tracks and the tactics for it. Maybe we have to go one race at a time and think about going to the end of the Tour. Surely Vuorinen and the coaching staff are now thinking about what is the right solution.

Yelle has the TV rights to the Val di Fiemme competitions at the Tour de Ski. Live broadcast on Friday on TV2 and from the sprint qualifying at 13:10 and the heats from 15:35. You can find everything about the Tour de Ski in the highly popular live streaming here!

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