Angry Amundsen makes amends to take control of Tour

Harald Oestberg Amundsen bounced back from the disappointment of crashing out of Wednesday’s sprints to win the Men’s 20km Classic Pursuit in Davos, Switzerland, the fifth stage of the 2023/24 Tour de Ski, to tighten his grip on the yellow bib.

Clearly channelling some of the previous evening’s anger and frustration, the 25-year-old wound up an enormous punch of the air as he crossed the line just in front of compatriot Henrik Doennestad.

Missing semi-finals and finals that finished after 7pm on Wednesday may well have proved to be a blessing in disguise for Amundsen, who won the 20km Freestyle in Toblach, Italy just three days ago.

Not only did he come into Thursday’s race fresher than many in the field, he also learnt from the sprints, where he got boxed in on the final corner, contributing to the clash of skis with Benjamin Moser (AUT) that led to the fall.

This time, on the same corner, Amundsen went wide, showing impressive double-poling power to win in 57 minutes and 57.7 seconds, half a second ahead of Doennestad, who claimed his second podium of the World Cup season.

“Today I’m really happy,” Amundsen said. “A really good race on a really tough course – a difficult balance between grip wax and glide – but I had really good skis. And the course was so hard that the whole field broke up – it’s nice to see that I gained some seconds [in the Tour standings].”

Was he stressed after seeing what happened in the women’s race? “Yes, because when I tested my skis this morning it had zero grip and I was worried it would end up that way in the race.”

With the skiers heading out based on their performances in Wednesday sprints, Lucas Chanavat (FRA) made the early running. But, having secured bonus points at the 3.4km mark, he made way for another sprint specialist, Edvin Anger (SWE), who had claimed his first career podium on Wednesday.

But the young Swede pushed too hard and was overhauled at the 12km mark, as all the athletes slowed down at a drinks stop.

A group of eight, including four Norwegians, took up the running, and it was Martin Loewstroem Nyenget who joined Doennestad in a breakaway around 15km. But Amundsen quickly chased them down, and it was Nyenget who soon dropped off the pace.

He would eventually finish 34.5s back in third, pipping Hugo Lapalus (FRA), Friedrich Moch (GER) and – much to the disappointment of the home crowd – Beda Klee (SUI) in a four-way sprint to the finish.

Amundsen is now a strong favourite to win a first Tour de Ski title, extending his lead at the top of the standings after a disappointing day for Erik Valnes, who started just 11 seconds behind, and Federico Pellegrino (25s), who both struggled over the longer distance. Doennestad and Nyenget are now Amundsen’s closest challengers, 1 minute 39 seconds behind with two races to go.

The Tour de Ski now moves on to Val di Fiemme, Italy with a 15km Mass Start on Saturday 6 January.

Click here for the full results from Davos.