'Fired-up' Amundsen back with 10k triumph after month-long World Cup absence

Defending overall Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup champion Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) won the Men's 10km Interval Start Free in Cogne, Italy, on Sunday, in a successful comeback after a month's absence from international skiing.

The 26-year-old, who made his last appearance on the World Cup circuit as he won the 15km Classic Pursuit in Toblach, Italy, on New Year's Day, said he was "fired-up" to be back in Cogne, having pulled out of Tour de Ski due to illness, missing three World Cup stages.

Back to collect valuable World Cup points in a Norwegian clean sweep, Amundsen paced his race to perfection and finished 11.7 seconds before runner-up Iver Tildheim Andersen (NOR) as Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR) took the third place 15.7 seconds after the winner.

"It's amazing. I was so looking forward to this race, especially since it is so nice here," Amundsen said.

In the interval race, consisting of a lot of uphill skiing and not much rest going downhill, Amundsen's main time reference had been Finland's Iivo Niskanen, who had the best time at the 2.1km and 3.3km marks. 

Niskanen looked keen to make up for the disappointment on Friday when he was disqualified in the Men's Team Sprint Classic Qualifications, and made a strong start to the race, holding onto a podium spot for the first 5.4km despite having classic style as his specialty.

"It was a close race with Iivo during the race and I heard that I was sometimes one second ahead and sometimes one second behind," Amundsen said.

"Then I had a really good finish, so it was a really good race for me."

In the second half of the race, it was Amundsen and Andersen who first had similar times and Amundsen who started in 54th position, could keep an eye on Andersen, with bib No.48. Between the 6.6km and 7.8km mark, Amundsen made a killer push and had suddenly gone from a second's advantage down to his teammate, to a gap of 8.4 seconds.

With a strong finish, Amundsen extended the gap even further and made his fifth World Cup victory this season a clear one. 

Having only done one race in the past month before finishing 15th in Saturday's sprint – winning the 2x10km Classic/Free Skiathlon at the Norwegian national championships in Gaasbu, Norway, on 18 January – Amundsen saw the victory in the last 10km race before the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, at the end of this month, as a great boost of confidence.

"It's very important. I've done a lot of training now and the sprint yesterday was not so good but it was nice to see today that the shape was good," he said, hoping to get back on the podium at the last World Cup before the world championships, in Falun, Sweden, 14-16 February.

Nyenget, starting in 58th position, had looked far from the podium in the first kilometers of the race. After 2.1km, the 32-year-old was in 25th place, and at the half-race mark he was No.8, still with a lot of work left to do to make it closer to the top-three. Just like Amundsen, however, Nyenget paced himself well and had plenty left in the tank for a strong finish. After 8.7km, he had placed himself in the top-three, a position he could hold onto until the finish, pushing Niskanen off the podium.

"We know we have a strong team in skate so I knew that the other guys would be hard to beat today so it was so nice to be even better (than them)," Amundsen said.

Simen Hegstad Krueger (NOR), with start number 62, was on par with Nyenget at the 8.7km mark but did not have as strong of a finish and had to settle for a fifth place, making Niskanen No.6.

Edvin Anger of Sweden, who finished sixth in the Sprint Classic on Saturday, was the best non-Norwegian in the race as he finished in fourth place, 19.4 seconds behind the winner.

Germany's Janosch Brugger, with starting number 24, had spent some time in the leader's chair but had to settle for a joint seventh place, shared with Gustaf Berglund from Sweden. Davide Graz (ITA) gave the home fans in Cogne something to cheer for with a ninth place, finishing two 10ths of a second faster than USA's Gus Schumacher who completed the top-10.

The victory brought Amundsen from eighth to fifth place in the men's overall World Cup standings, three notches closer to the yellow leader's bib that he was wearing in the beginning on the season. In the distance standings, Amundsen is in third place, with runner-up Hugo Lapalus (FRA) well within reach.

Anger got another 85 points closer to overall leader Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR), who was absent this weekend, but is still 229 points behind the three-time Crystal Globe winner who has said he will be back to compete in Falun.

Click here for full results from the Men's 10km and here to follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube.