Skiathlon success brings Klaebo closer to fourth Tour title

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo put himself in a golden position ahead of the last stage of Tour de Ski as he won the Men's 20km Skiathlon Classic/Free in Val di Fiemme, Italy on Saturday.

The fourth victory in six stages of the Tour gives Klaebo an advantage of more than two minutes as the Tour concludes with the infamous final climb on Sunday, and a big chance to equal Switzerland's Dario Cologna's record of four Tour de Ski titles.

The Norwegian 28-year-old, who had mastered the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games tracks on Friday as he cruised to victory in the Sprint Classic, delivered another statement ahead of next year's Games as he showed that he can do it in a distance race too.

Klaebo did not look bothered by making his sixth race in eight days as he slowed down on the final stretch but still had a margin of 2.4 seconds back to runner-up Federico Pellegrino (ITA) as Jan Thomas Jenssen (NOR) completed the top-three.

"It was a lot of fun," Klaebo said.

On Friday he had thanked his wax team for the victory as his skis had been "crazy good". The equipment looked no different on Saturday as the Norwegian stayed among the top-three skiers for most of the race.

In his last Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup skiathlon, in Lillehammer, Norway in December, he had finished in eighth place.

"We had good skis today as well and I feel much better than in Lillehammer when we did the same distance," Klaebo said.

The two races at this Tour de Ski that he has not won are Tuesday's 20km Free, where he finished fifth, and the 15km Classic Pursuit where he claimed the third place.

"It's good to be back winning some distance races again," Klaebo said.

After Friday's victory, he had said his goal would be to "just keep up with the pack". After the first 10km in classic style, Klaebo was in the front of the tight group that started to break up in the second, freestyle, half of the race.

With 2km left to skate, 18 skiers were still within 10 seconds of the leader Mika Vermeulen (AUT), who worked hard in the front with Klaebo, Friedrich Moch (GER), Andrew Musgrave (GBR) and Andreas Fjorden Ree (NOR) tucked in behind him. 

In the last hill of the race, Klaebo broke away from the group early. Pellegrino led the chase but no skier came close to matching the speed of Klaebo as he continued to extend his lead in the long last downhill section. 

"Mika was staying in front so I was just trying to stay behind him and save as much energy for the last uphill as I possibly could," Klaebo said.

In two days, Klaebo has shown that he is capable of winning in sprint and distance, as well as in classic and freestyle, on the Olympic Games tracks.

"I think it's going to be a little different at the Olympics when we are going to do a different classic part but the skate part is pretty tough," Klaebo said.

"I'm just super satisfied by being first."

Sweden's Edvin Anger had started the skiathlon as runner-up in the overall Tour de Ski standings but had to settle for a 28th place, falling to No.10 in the rankings.

That means that Klaebo, with one event left of the Tour de Ski – the 10km Mass Start Free that includes a climb up the Alpine skiing hill at Alpe Cermis – has a comfortable lead of 2:18 in the overall Tour rankings, where Erik Valnes (NOR) has the second place.

One of the main threats going up the final climb is Hugo Lapalus (FRA). He finished third in the event last year, and took over the purple Climber bib on Saturday, but is in fifth place in the overall standings, two minutes and 44 seconds behind the leader.

"It feels good," Klaebo said.

"It's going to be a tough day tomorrow for sure but it's going to be fun to finish off the whole Tour now."

There is plenty left to be decided on Sunday. Lapalus has 39 points in the Climber standing and could claim the historical first title in the Tour-debuting Best Climber competition, where Vermeulen is in second place on 29 and Musgrave, who had the lead before Saturday's race, in third place on 26.

In the sprint standings, Klaebo has a lead of 79 points ahead of Switzerland's Jannik Riebli on 45 and Pellegrino on 41.

The Italian home hope Pellegrino, who had to settle for a fourth place in Friday's sprint, celebrated behind Klaebo as he landed his second podium of the season – for the first time in two years in a distance race.

"It was strange because I was so relaxed in my mind and in my body," Pellegrino said.

"I was expecting nothing. The biggest goal today was to not lose too many seconds, looking at the overall standings of the Tour de Ski. Then, in the final part, I tried to do my best to reach the podium."

The podium was less of a surprise for distance expert Jenssen, who had been runner-up in the Lillehammer skiathlon. That did not stop him from celebrating more than the winner as he crossed the finish line to bag his second podium this season.

"I felt very good in the classic part," he said.

"When we changed skis it was a very hard pace in the beginning, in the two uphills, and I feel a bit tired in my feet. Then the speed was going down a bit and I managed to recover in my feet and to stay high in the field, ready to sprint in the finish. So I'm very happy today."

Despite his hard work, Vermeulen had to settle for a fifth place as Haavard Moseby made it three Norwegians in the top four. Moch got the sixth place, a 10th of a second behind Vermeulen, and Valnes made another solid performance to claim the seventh place. The Norwegian 28-year-old has made it to one podium this Tour but has made it to the overall second place on consistency.

Lapalus, Ree and Michal Novak (CZE) completed the top 10 – all within 10 seconds of the winner.

Click here for all results from Val di Fiemme and here to see the Tour de Ski standings ahead of the final stage. 

Click here to follow Coop FIS Cross-Country on Youtube.