Mass start victory for Valnes as Poromaa and Faehndrich get career-best results

On 24 November, Norway's Erik Valnes claimed the first victory of the 2023/24 Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup season as he finished first in the sprint classic in Ruka, Finland.

On Saturday, he bagged his second win through a tactically perfect performance in the men's 15km mass start classic in Val di Fiemme, Italy, in the penultimate day of the 2023/24 Tour de Ski.

Sweden's William Poromaa finished second and Switzerland's Cyril Faehndrich took the third place in the challenging conditions, with heavy downfall of wet snow throughout the day.

"I was feeling really good today. It was a bit of a weird race with these conditions but it was (all about) fighting for the positions in the field and I managed to get a good position in the end, so I'm really happy now," said Valnes, who also managed to pick up a total of 27 bonus points on the 2.3km and 8.5km marks.

Just like in the women's race, the weather had made it hard for skiers to break away from the rest of the group. In the last uphill section, however, Faehndrich caught the other skiers off-guard as he suddenly set off at a pace few thought he could keep up.

When he did not fall back into the group, the 27-year-old Norwegian and Poromaa were the most reactive and followed the Swiss surprise move to get past him in the last stretch of race.

Valnes, whose power in the double poling was unmatchable, got a margin of 0.9 second down to Poromaa as Faehndrich finished two tenths of a second behind the Swede. Norway's Paal Golberg, who finished fourth, was seven seconds behind the winner.

"I was trying to have a good position," Valnes said.

After feeling tired in the competitions in Davos, Switzerland, earlier in the week, a rest day on Friday had revitalized the Norwegian.

"I had to go in the front of one track and was tired on top of the last hill but I had some power in the home stretch."

It was all smiles on the podium as both Poromaa and Faehndrich reached a career-best result.

"It's really, really nice and I'm very happy," said Faehndrich, who had never finished top-10 in an individual World Cup race before.

He said his fast skis had given him the confidence needed to challenge the whole pack of skiers with a brave move in the end.

"It was always a fight for positions and I had really fast skis so I could easily keep a position and just try to stay in the front the last few laps," he said.

"I knew I had super fasts ski so I could go first in the downhill so I gave everything in the last hill."

His older sister Nadine Faehndrich, 28, a regular feature on the World Cup podiums in the past four years, had pulled out of the Tour after Davos. Few would have guessed that the family would still get a top-three finish when Cyril Faehndrich bagged the first one for Switzerland season.

Faehndrich said he had still plenty of energy in the tank coming into the last climb.

"I felt fresh and I just tried to be in the front of the position. I knew that my skis were so fast that I could easily be in the first position and not lose that so I tried to just be in the front, the 24-year-old said.

"Coming close to the finish line, I was looking to the side and seeing how many people were passing. Then I saw that it was just two and I was really happy."

Valnes's victory puts him in a good position to fight for the Tour de Ski podium in Sunday's final climb event.

The Norwegian World Cup sprint No.1 is in second place in the Tour standings, 1:34.00 behind his teammate Harald Oestberg Amundsen.

Just like the women's Tour leader Jessie Diggins (USA) in Saturday's first race, Amundsen kept it calm in the penultimate race of the competition to claim the sixth-place inside of eight seconds behind Valnes, Germany's Friedrich Moch finishing fifth, saving as much energy as possible for a smooth last day of racing.

The tightest battle on Sunday could be about the second and third place, as Moch, Martin Lowestroem Nyenget (NOR), Hugo Lapalus (FRA), Beda Klee (SUI) and Henrik Doennestad (NOR) all start the gruesome deciding pursuit race within 23 seconds of Valnes.

Click here for full result from the men's 15km mass start classic and here for the 2023/24 Tour de Ski standings.

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