Nyenget is Lillehammer’s main man as Norway dominate 10km

Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR) proved there’s no place like home with a win in the Men’s 10km Freestyle in hometown Lillehammer, Norway on Friday.

The 32-year-old, who claimed two third places in Ruka, Finland last week, turned early-season consistency into just the third World Cup victory of his career.

Race director Axel Teichmann said beforehand that “the strongest endurance athletes” were most likely to prevail – and indeed all but five of Nyenget’s previous individual World Cup podiums had come over longer distances than 10K.

That his last victory came over this distance in Ruka a year ago, though, skiing the Classic technique, proves than Nyenget is a reliable, adaptable distance skier.

And he needed to be in much softer conditions than competitors faced in Ruka a week ago, with fresh snowfall making an already-difficult 5km course – full of undulations and sharp turns – even trickier.

“This is one of my best races, I think,” Nyenget said. “The conditions today were really tough. I worked really hard with my motivation, with this track. These conditions are not my favourite but I had a really good day and fantastic skis, it was a great experience.”

The big news before the race was the absence of star man Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo – still suffering from the mild cold symptoms he reported in Ruka – but there was still plenty for the Norwegian crowd to cheer about.

Their skiers took the top six slots and 10 of the top 13. The competition for places at the world championships in Trondheim in February-March will be just as fierce as the race for the Crystal Globe.

For a long time, it looked like another local hero, Iver Tildheim Andersen, would take victory for the second time in this race (which he won in 2022). He and fellow 24-year-old, Andreas Fjorden Ree, were just 0.4 seconds apart after the first of two laps, but Nyenget and Olympic and world champion Simen Hegstad Krueger turned up the heat on lap two.

There were just 1.6 seconds separating the two at the final checkpoint, but Nyenget finished the stronger to record a time of 22 minutes, 58.8 seconds, 4.1 faster than Krueger.

Reigning World Cup champion and early-season leader Harald Oestberg Amundsen was fifth fastest at the final checkpoint but found a late burst to deny Andersen a place on the podium. Ree made up the top five just 0.2 seconds further back.

“It was really hard,” Amundsen said. “Tough course and tough conditions but I managed to have a good finish of the race, and went from fifth place to third place, so quite happy with a podium. Three podiums in the first three distance races of the season – that’s quite a good start.

“So nice to have a yellow bib for a few more days, but the most important thing is to qualify for the world championship and I’ve had a really good start.”

The day belonged to Nyenget, though.

“My shape has been really good for quite a long time, so to finally be able to use this at the start of the season… it’s a special season the have the world championships in Trondheim.”

The FIS Cross-Country World Cup season continues on Saturday in Lillehammer with the Men’s and Women’s Sprint Freestyle races.

To watch all the action, click here

For the full results from Lillehammer, click here