The 14th edition of the Tour de Ski is launched!
Dec 28, 2019·Cross-Country
At the womens 10km F, Therese Johaug keeps on extending her collection of leader bibs as the FIS Cross-Country family steps into the Tour de Ski performance by Le Gruyère AOP in Lenzerheide (SUI).
The unstoppable Norwegian enjoyed the first stage of the Tour de Ski despite having a respect of the first competition being a mass start. "I knew I had to ski clever in order to get into the position I planned as I am facing a strong competitor field from various nations. My tactic was to start not so fast in the first lap but then to speed up in the second and that worked very well, " said Therese after her victory. The Norwegian shares the podium with Heidi Weng (NOR) - 2016/17 and 2017/18 Tour de Ski winner - who already previously proved her good shape by winning three top-3 finishes in this seasons World Cup competitions.
A "first ever" podium spot of a Tour de Ski competition was won by Ebba Andersson from Sweden. Ebba joins the legendary Tour for the first time this year. After having had troubles with her knee, she had to cancel her participation in this seasons World Cup until todays launch of the Tour de Ski. The young Swede claims her podium spot by only 0.2 seconds before Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (NOR) who also joins the FIS Cross-Country family for her first high class competitions this season.
Sergey Ustiugov from Russia started his 5th Tour de Ski as he was hoping for. The 27 year-old felt that his body and mind were ready to tackle the first stage of the tough 9-day Tour de Ski. He clearly delivered the "good result" that he was hoping to gain during todays 15km F mass start competition by winning +4 seconds ahead of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) and Alexander Bolshunov (RUS). For Ustiugov, claiming top-spots ahead of the upcoming Sprint competitions was important as he was not happy with his results in the World Cup sprint races this season so far.
Fewer participations in the Tour de Ski but better hopes for tomorrows Sprint competition has second placed Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, last years winner of the Tour de Ski. The 23 year-old took the precious second rank by only few cm as it was decided in the photo finish with Alexander Bolshunov. Bolshunov who is 2 months and some days younger than Klæbo currently leads the Distance World Cup ranking and has also won 6 of his 8 total World Cup victories in Distance races.
Will the Distance experts manage to defend their top spots during the upcoming stages of the Tour de Ski 2019/20 or who will become the game changer in the fight for the legendary title?
