This is where Kerttu Niskanen’s seam to the Tour de Ski’s real jackpot | Sport

Jessie Diggins is close to winning the Tour de Ski overall. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen tells what kind of head start Kerttu Niskanen would need for the American.

Kerttu Niskanen is fighting hard for his second consecutive top 3 finish in the Tour de Ski overall race. A year ago he was from Sweden Frida Karlsson after another.

With the traditional pursuit race he won on Thursday, the 34-year-old conkari skier took second place in the tour. The victory of the overall competition is strongly held by the USA Jessie Diggins, which celebrated the tour’s number one ranking in the 2020-2021 season. The lead to Niska is 44 seconds.

The Tour culminates at the weekend in the scenery of Italy’s Val di Fiemme. Today’s program includes a 15-kilometer co-start in traditional skiing and on Sunday a co-start free race culminating in the final ascent of Alpe Cermis.

Although Diggins starts the final race with a clear lead, Niskase still has room to attack in Saturday’s joint start race. Last year he was the third German in the same scenery by Katharina Hennig and after Karlsson.

The trio as well Rosie Brennan managed to jerk away from the main crowd. The traditional race of Val di Fiemme has been the most difficult of the tour for Diggins in general. The American, who was in poor shape last year, lost to Niskanen by more than a minute.

Like last year, bonus seconds are also distributed with this clip. Niskanen got ten of them last year.

A chance for the neck

Urheilu’s cross-country expert and 15 years ago runner-up in the Tour’s overall race Aino-Kaisa Saarinen find two clear scenarios for the winning battle. Clear water weather is expected for Saturday’s race.

– Practically everyone leaves with a sticker. There is no danger of going completely wrong with the skis, Saarinen refers to the American team.

Another option is that Niskas has a real peak day and Diggins has a correspondingly difficult one.

Saarinen says that he and Virpi Kuitunen ran away in the same race at an early stage and broke away from the others. Niskanen also needs as big a gap as possible from Saturday’s race compared to Diggins and as many bonus points as possible.

Kerttu Niskanen beat Diggins in last year’s final climb by 17 seconds. Also a couple of years ago, Niskanen was better.

When fit, the light-built Diggins has been one of the best in the final climb and is basically clearly ahead of Niskanen.

Normal distances with traditional skiing have previously been a clear weakness for Diggins, but this season he has leapt in this area.

– In practice, the only possibility is that the maintenance team succeeds unbelievably well. Kertu should have at least half a minute for the final ascent, Saarinen estimates.

Diggins crashed at the start of Thursday’s pursuit race and injured his hip, according to Expressen. However, he skied to the finish line in third place.

Saarinen does not believe that this will have a significant effect on Diggins’ performance.

– I believe that he survived it only with a bruise, Saarinen states.

A strong threat from Norway

Behind Diggins, the differences between the other top skiers are small. Those in positions 2-7 are within 24 seconds of each other.

Among them, Niskanen’s biggest threat is the one in fourth and 13 seconds away from the Finn Heidi Weng. The experienced Norwegian, who has conquered the overall race of the Tour twice, is one of the toughest factors in the ascent of Alpe Cermis.

A year ago, he was the second fastest in France in the final race Delphine Claudelin after. Niskanen needs more good things from the traditional race in relation to Weng.

Defending the victory of the tour, Karlsson has shown an upward trend in the last games, but Saarinen still does not believe that the Swede will threaten the Finn.

– You can still ski for second place. It is not preached in the church, Saarinen states.

Of the Finns, only Kuitunen and Krista Pärmäkoski.

Updated 7.39: Edited the title