Faehndrich wins sprint on Olympic tracks as Klaebo extends Tour lead

Nadine Faehndrich (SUI) and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) won the Sprint Classic finals in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on Friday, showing that they know how to win on next year's Olympic tracks.

For Faehndrich, who crossed the line 0.04 of a second before runner-up Linn Svahn (SWE) as Heidi Weng (NOR) claimed the third place, it was the first Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup victory in more than two years.

"It was very nice to race here, I had a very good day and I’m very happy," said Faehndrich, whose last triumph had been in the Sprint Free in Val Müstair, Switzerland in December 2022.

Klaebo noted his third victory of this Tour de Ski, increasing his lead in the overall standings.

In the first day of Tour de Ski action in Val di Fiemme, skiers got a first feel of the course that will host the Cross-Country competitions of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. 

And it proved to be a challenging task as the top-four in the women's overall Tour standings – Astrid Oeyre Slind (NOR), Therese Johaug (NOR), Kerttu Niskanen (FIN) and Jessie Diggins (USA) – all crashed out of the competition in the quarterfinals. 

Throughout the day, many had tended to slow down at the top of the last peak, letting someone else lead the way in the long downhill section leading into the home straight and then make the move.

In the women's final, however, Faehndrich did not wait for anyone at the top of the hill. The Swiss 29-year-old set off at a fast pace and did not look back until she had crossed the finish line as a winner.

Afterwards she argued that she perhaps should have looked back instead of rising her arm to celebrate. Then she would have seen Svahn storming towards her, stretching a leg out to force the race to be decided by a photo finish.

"At the end, I was a little bit lucky but next time I will not do it again like that," Faehndrich said.

She was happy to see that her skiing worked well on the Olympic tracks, just over 13 months before 10 days of Cross-Country action at the Games start on 7 February next year.

"I think it is a very nice classic track," Faehndrich said.

"Maybe it was not the best for me but I really worked on this diagonal technique and I'm very happy that I now see a really good progress."

The only Swede to make it into the women's semifinals, Svahn landed her first podium of the season, showing an improving shape ahead of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, in February.

"It was a good day," the two-time World Cup sprint winner said.

"It's a nice track but it's about having the fastest skis in the downhill and I had good skis."

Weng bagged her fourth podium this season to close the gap to the rest in the overall Tour de Ski standings, where she is in fifth place.

"It was very good. I feel better and better, actually. I was very good in downhill today," Weng said.

The two-time Tour de Ski champion is 1:27 behind leader Slind and less than a minute from the podium, with two stages that she masters well remaining of the Tour.

Weng knows how to excel in the infamous final climb event at Alpe Cermis where this year's Tour winner will be crowned on Sunday, having finished on the podium in the event several times.

Klaebo cruises to victory on 'crazy good skis'

In the men's final, Klaebo also set off early to take control of the race, Italy's home hope Federico Pellegrino following right behind him.

In the last hill, Pellegrino made a push to get ahead of the Norwegian, but as soon as the skiers started going downhill again, Klaebo slid past him and cruised to the victory, thanking his wax technicians for the "crazy good skis".

Even Northug (NOR) made it a Norwegian one-two, finishing, 0.32 of a second behind Klaebo, as Sweden's Marcus Grate completed the podium.

"It's amazing," Klaebo said.

"I must say that the tracks here are difficult. It's hard with a long downhill before the finish line and people can really come fast from behind, but I'm satisfied."

The victory extends Klaebo's lead in the overall Tour de Ski standings, where Sweden's Edvin Anger in second place broke his pole coming out of the semifinal's start gates, losing any chance to make it to the final.

With two stages left to race, Klaebo is 1:35 ahead of Anger and has an advantage of 2:11 on third-placed Erik Valnes (NOR), who finished eighth in the sprint.

"I will just try to keep up with the pack, I guess," Klaebo said about his tactics for the last two days of the Tour, consisting of a 20km Skiathlon and the gruesome final climb.

"I think there are some distance skiers who really want to go fast in the next few days. I'm just going to do my best and then we will see."

Northug landed his second top-three finish this season.

"It was very good," said the 29-year-old little brother of the 2015 Tour de Ski winner Petter Northug (NOR).

"It was a very good track, I like Val di Fiemme."

Grate was however the happiest on the podium. The 28-year-old with the 26th best time in the qualification had come from behind to claim the third place, raising both fists to celebrate the first World Cup podium of his career.

"I had an amazing day," said Grate, unable to hold back his tears after the race.

"It started out pretty rough in the qualification. I had a bad feeling both in the body and in the skiing. Then it just got better and better."

Before Friday, he had made it into a World Cup sprint final four times, finishing last every time.

To make it onto his first podium on the Olympic tracks made it even more special.

"It (the track) is a bit tricky but that's how I want to ski this course so I like it, it fits me well," Grate said.

Sprint ace Pellegrino had to settle for a fourth place behind Grate, learning some valuable lessons to work on ahead of next year's big event on home snow that will be the last of his career.

The competitions in Val di Fiemme continue on Saturday with the Men's and Women's 20km Skiathlon Classic/Free in the penultimate day of Tour de Ski.

Click here for full results from the Women's Sprint and here for full results from the Men's Sprint.

Follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube here.