Perttu Hyvärinen has won the men’s 10 km World Cup race, the second stage of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy.
Perttu Hyvärinen has won the men’s 10km on traditional skiing in Toblach, Italy.
The last day of the year, the second stage of the Tour de Ski, became a big celebration for Finns, because Kerttu Niskanen won the women’s corresponding race earlier in the day.
The 32-year-old Hyvärinen has never even been on the podium before. The best ranking of his career in the World Cup before this was Falun’s fifth place in March 2023.
When the Tour de Ski started on Saturday, Lauri Vuorinen and Joni Mäki were the only Finnish men who reached the top 30 heats. Perttu Hyvärinen was the 54th, Remi Lindholm 76th, Markus Vuorela 81’s and Arsi Ruuskanen 93’s.
Now with 10 kilometers of traditional US Ben Ogden started the strongest, but Hyvärinen was lurking, for example, in 2.3 kilometers, four seconds behind.
Already within 3 kilometers, Hyvärinen had moved to first place, which the Finn did not relinquish. In 5 kilometers the difference to the second one, Norway to Erik Valnes was 4.6 seconds.
Since then, Hyvärinen’s gap grew steadily from interval to interval. At the finish line, Hyvärinen beat second-placed Valnes by 16.2 seconds. Norwegian Harald Östberg Amundsen was third (+17.2). Ogden fell to ninth.
It is clear that the anointing of the Finns succeeded perfectly on Sunday. Even after the women’s race, the Finns praised the competitiveness of their skis. For example, the Swedes had a terrible time in the women’s race, when the skis held, but did not slide.
Despite everything, the victory of Hyvärinen, who has competed in the World Cup since 2011, is a huge sensation. Prior to this, Hyvärinen had not even reached the top ten in the World Cup, only five times in individual competitions.
The story is updated…