Golberg outsprints Klaebo to claim mass start victory: 'A great day'

Norway's Paal Golberg claimed his second individual victory of the season as he finished first in the men's 20km mass start classic in Canmore, Canada on Sunday, beating sprint expert Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) in the final stretch.

The 33-year-old, whose last individual triumph came in the 10km free in Gaellivare, Sweden on 2 December, got the tactics right on the brutal high-altitude course and could cross the finish line 0.2 second before last year's overall Crystal Globe winner. Mattis Stenshagen (NOR) completed the all-Norwegian podium.

"It was a great day for sure," Golberg said, relieved to have improved from Friday's 15km mass start free where he finished in 28th place.

"I was a bit unsure after Friday, it was a terrible day for me, but today I was back."

His tactics had been to keep a position in the front of the field for as much of the 20km course as possible.

"Mass starts are always exciting. It's nervous and you never really know what's going to happen, so my plan is to stay at the front and today I felt really strong so I was ready for whatever was coming," Golberg said.

The first thing coming was Sweden's Jens Burman, who broke away from the field in the beginning of the fourth of six laps. Burman's gap increased to over 10 seconds but the 29-year-old did not manage to keep the pace up for more a few kilometres. After one lap of solo skiing, he got drawn back into the big chase group, where Golberg had led the chase.

"When Burman went hard on the fourth lap, then I was the one trying to catch him," the winner said.

"I think that if we'd continued to ski that fast after that we would've only have been three or four guys left at the end. But in the fifth lap the pace went down and we were satisfied to stay in the front and the tactics started to build up."

In Saturday's sprints, no skier had been keen to go first down the last downhill section leading into the home straight. On Sunday, Golberg went into the final stretch next to Klaebo, who rarely lose a sprint finish. But Golberg was confident.

"I knew I'm strong in those double-poling finishes. Being the first down the last downhill is not the optimal, maybe, but I knew that I'm so strong that only Johannes can take me down. He was by my side but I managed to get him down in the end," he said.

Golberg said the victory reminded him of when he won the 50km mass start classic at the 2023 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia, in March last year. Then the distance expert beat Klaebo by one second to claim his third gold medal of the championships.

"That was a flashback from Planica," Golberg said.

"He (Klaebo) has amazing stats in Cross-Country skiing so just being able to beat him in this type of race is amazing. In Planica I was the first to be able to beat him in a mass start where he's been in the finish, and I'm still in the (only one). So now I've done it twice. It's fun to have taken him on in this kind of race."

Klaebo, who had won the sprint on Saturday, said it was a "fun" race, albeit not a fast one.

"We went pretty slow for almost 20km," the 27-year-old said.

"The last part had a little bit more speed but in general I think it was a pretty slow race."

He described his own performance as "OK".

"I didn't have my best sprint at the end there," Klaebo said.

"Paal is really strong when it comes to these kind of finishes and I felt like these tracks here, the last part here are really difficult because no-one wants to be the first one down and it's kind of hard to figure out the stream coming from behind."

Last year's World Cup dominant has been struggling with illnesses over the season but said he is hoping to get more wins before the winter is over, starting on Tuesday when the Canmore stage ends with a sprint classic.

"At the end I don't think (his total score this season) is going to be that bad but I guess people around and people watching expect more," Klaebo said.

"But that's part of the game, I'm just doing my best every time I'm out there racing and then we'll see how it goes."

A man with less expectations on his shoulders, Stenshagen landed the first individual podium of his career. The Norwegian 27-year-old beat overall World Cup leader Harald Oestberg Amundsen, who finished fourth, by 0.1 second.

"It was fantastic. I was so strong all day," Stenshagen said.

"I was just hoping that someone would push harder but there were so many guys in the final and there was some tactical play in the last uphill before the downhill, so I'm satisfied."

His tactic had been to avoid going first down the last downhill section.

"My plan was not to push too hard before the last downhill because I didn't want to go first, so I waited at the top and tried to be in third or fourth position. I was that but Paal was so strong," Stenshagen said, joking that he had let Klaebo get the second place out of politeness.

"I was borrowing skis from Johannes so I could not beat him in the last metres."

William Poromaa (SWE) clinched the fifth place before Erik Valnes (NOR) to break up the Norwegian dominance in the top-six. Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave finished sixth as Simen Hegstad Krueger (NOR), Friday's 15km mass start free winner, had to settle for eight place.

Click here for full results from the men's 20km mass start classic.

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