Scenic 34km Meråker stage wins go to Johaug and Bolshunov
Feb 20, 2020·Cross-Country
The original course for the 4th stage of the Ski Tour 2020 was planned to be a boarder crossing from the Swedish venue of Storlien to the Norwegian site of Meråker. Due to strong winds in Storlien, the course had to be adapted one day before the competition. The alternative route leads from Meråker's Grova stadium to the mountain range up at Fjergen and returned to the stadium.
As the Ski Tour 2020 is all about challenging the ordinary way for a Cross-Country World Cup competition, the stage 4 was always planned to be one of the highlights of the tour. And truly, despite the adaption from the starting point, the 34km course turned out to be a spectacular but also tough race.
Therese Johaug once again performed in her own league and grabbed the victory with a time of 1:26:32h. She remains the point leader and the overall leader of the tour. On the hunt with a gap of around 30 seconds started Ebba Andersson from Sweden. Andersson skied by herself up on the mountain range where the wind had picked up. Soon Heidi Weng and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg who had teamed up and overpassed the young Swede. Flugstad Østberg stride out to go after the leader. In the downhill and the final 2.5km loop she almost managed to close the 30 second gap to Johaug but ended 4 seconds behind on the great 2nd spot.
The remaining spot on the podium was taken by Heidi Weng, who ended 1:21 minute behind the winner and the fourth place goes to Andersson.
The mens competition was driven by a leader group of around 30 athletes. The first 3km into the race, Federico Pellerino ensured himself the maximum points for the point ranking. Starting into the uphill section, Maurice Manificat took over the lead.
Up on the mountain, the wind had picked up since the womens race. 10km into the competition, Alexander Bolshunov made a move to the head of the group but fell back into the pack soon again as he experienced a broken pole. In the meantime, Jens Burman (SWE) took over the work as the pace maker and alternated the position with Andrey Melnichenko and Ivan Yakimushkin, both from Russia.
At 20km, seven ahletes from team Norway, led by Sjur Roethe attacked for the bonus seconds and took over the head of the group. On the upcoming downhill, Bolshunov, followed by Sjur Roethe and Simen Hegstad Krüger managed to get a gap to the successor group who followed 10 seconds behind. There it was Paal Golberg, the current leader of the tour who had taken over the command, closely followed by Dario Cologna from Switzerland and alternating the lead with Denis Spitsov (RUS) and Emil Iversen, local to Meråker.
The decisive move was approaching on the final stretch up the mountain before heading down back to the stadium. Alexander Bolshunov impressively pushed even through the downhills to cross the finish line with a time of 1:19:34h.
The successor group had closed the gap to Roethe. Great distance experts like Cologna, Krogh and Holund were keeping the group in pace but could not move past sprinters who took up speed to fight for the finish. Johannes Høslot Klæbo and Emil Iversen caught the remaining spots on the podium, 51 seconds behind the winner Bolshunov. Fourth is Martin Loewstroem Nyenget who missed the podium by only just 0.6 seconds. Finn Haagen Krogh takes the fifth place before Dario Cologna and Sjur Roethe who ended by a photo finish. Second Swiss in the top-10 is Roman Furger who ends before Simen Hegstad Krüger and Andrey Melnichenko.
