Tour de Ski - Alpe Cermis Preview

PREVIEW Ladies' 9KM PURSUIT – Sunday 7 Jan 2018

• Just one of the last four leaders after the penultimate race managed to win the overall Tour de Ski, Marit Bjørgen (NOR) in 2014/15.
• In six of the previous eleven editions the overall leader at the start of the final pursuit race went on to win the Tour de Ski.
• All previous 11 winners of the Tour de Ski were in the overall top-two at the start of the final event.
• Athletes from Norway have won 12 of the last 13 Tour de Ski pursuit stages, with Stina Nilsson's (SWE) victory in the 10km pursuit in Oberstdorf on 4 January 2017 as the only exception.
• Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) in 2007 and Valentina Shevchenko (UKR) in 2008 are the only other non-Norwegian winners of a Tour de Ski pursuit.
• Therese Johaug (NOR, 7) and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (NOR, 2), who won the 10km pursuit in Lenzerheide earlier this campaign, are the only athletes to have won multiple pursuits in Tour de Ski history.
• Since 2014/15, when a second pursuit event was added to the Tour de Ski programme, the winner of the first pursuit stage never managed to win the second pursuit race as well.
• The last seven winners of the final pursuit race all managed to reach overall Tour de Ski podium. In 2010, Kristin Størmer Steira (NOR) was the last winner of the final stage, who missed out on an overall podium spot (5th).

PREVIEW Men's 9KM PURSUIT

• Nine of the 11 leaders after the penultimate race went on to win the overall Tour de Ski. Only Dario Cologna (SUI) in 2013 and Petter Northug (NOR) in 2010 failed to maintain their lead in the final pursuit. Both athletes finished second in the overall.
• All previous 11 winners of the Tour de Ski were in the overall top-two at the start of the final event. Alexander Legkov (RUS) in 2013 and Lukáš Bauer (CZE) in 2010 both started the final pursuit in second position overall and went on to win the Tour de Ski. Legkov started the last stage with a 6.5 seconds deficit. Bauer was 8.3 seconds behind leader Northug.
• Just two of the last six winners of the final pursuit race also managed to reach overall Tour de Ski podium - Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) in 2015/16 (1st) and Chris Jespersen (NOR) in 2013/14 (2nd).
• Bauer in 2010 and Tobias Angerer (GER) in 2007 also won the last pursuit race and the overall Tour de Ski title.
• Sundby (2) and Bauer (2) are the only athletes to have won multiple pursuits in Tour de Ski history.
• Only Sundby in 2015/16 managed to win two pursuit races in a single edition of a Tour de Ski (a second pursuit event was added to the programme in 2014/15). Cologna won the 15km pursuit in Lenzerheide earlier this campaign.
• No athlete has won more Tour pursuits (3-Days Tour, Tour de Ski, World Cup Final, Ski Tour Canada) than Maurice Manificat (FRA, 4). Sundby and Bauer both follow with three.
• Four of Manificat's nine World Cup victories came in a pursuit race.