By Máximo Steverlynck
This Sunday saw an unscored 4 x 7.5km relay in Oberhof, a venue more known for biathlon than for cross-country skiing; it last hosted a FIS World Cup in 2013. In short, the race was a bit of a sleeper on the men’s side, with athletes largely taking it pretty easy until the final 100 meters.
The first leg, in particular, saw a lot of nose breathing and visible chilling. Pål Golberg, on the second leg for the Norwegians, looked like he was out for a Sunday ski post-brunch.
It was not the strongest day for the U.S. team, which finished 13th out of 15 teams in the men’s race following an untimely early fall on the leadoff leg, and didn’t even start a women’s team. There are no overall points on offer for today’s race, and Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan, currently first and third in the overall standings, may have had an incentive to sit this one out with more races ahead.
The course, however, was quite exciting, with speeds in excess of 60 km/h on the downhills and an extremely narrow classic course, set into the margins of the track. Zak Ketterson got caught up in that, getting wrapped up with Jan-Friedrich Doerks of the second German team in the first lap. He spoke candidly on Strava, embedded above, to the frustrations of this occurrence.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is coming back into form following his sickness, winning a tight finishing sprint 0.1 seconds ahead of Federico Pellegrino to deliver the win to Norway I. Norway II was third, close behind.
Gus Schumacher, reprising an anchor leg that you may remember from such World Juniors relays as Goms in 2018 or Lahti in 2019, delivered a lethal free-skate sprint in the finish to beat both Swiss teams, carrying with him what appeared to be classic poles.
In yesterday’s 20km classic, the American women had a great day, with Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan going 6th and 10th respectively. Zak Ketterson led the American men in 40th. Brennan reflected on her strategy and that race in comments to Nordic Insights: “I’m happy that I was able to stay in the front and stay out of trouble and keep in that front pack and be in a position where I had the best chance to have a good result. That’s not always my strength. So I was happy with that today!”
World Cup racing continues next week in Goms, Switzerland.
