By Gavin Kentch
Earlier today, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won a classic sprint in Norway. In other news, water is wet, it’s fun to ski on Extra Blue, and the victorious athlete thanked her hard-working wax techs.
Seriously, though, Klæbo is very, very good at classic sprinting, and Friday morning in Beitostølen he picked up where he left off (viz., winning nine out of 10 races to close out the 2023/2024 World Cup season, a streak interrupted only at February’s Loppet Cup. I forget who won there though.) He won the qualifier, by 0.72 seconds over Harald Østberg Amundsen; he won the first quarterfinal; he won the first semifinal; and he won the final.
Klæbo’s margin of victory in the final was 1.53 seconds, over a 1.3-kilometer sprint that took just 2.5 minutes to complete. This was with slowing through the finishing stretch to acknowledge the crowd.
You can watch the close of the race in the second slide here. Klæbo is the guy in front, as is his wont.
The rest of the podium went to Erik Valnes, of Norway, in second, and Sivert Wiig, of Norway, in third. Fourth was Oskar Opstad Vike, of Norway, and fifth was Matz William Jenssen, of Norway. Sixth place was claimed by Jules Chappaz, of France.
North American rooting interests were led by Zak Ketterson (USST/Team Birkie), who qualified in 20th and finished the day in 21st after placing fourth in his quarterfinal, 2.82 seconds back of Klæbo.
“I am happy with it,” Ketterson wrote of his day to Nordic Insights.
“it wasn’t anything crazy but I have had some horrible performances in past years’ ‘first races’ so it was a relief to be in the fight. I’m super impressed by the level of skiing in Norway. It really is hard to understand it until you experience it in person. I’m also incredibly grateful for my wife Julie and her amazing family who have been supporting me during these weeks in Norway.”
Adam Witkowski (SMS) also raced for the U.S. Witkowski finished 62nd in qualifying, 14.86 seconds off of Klæbo’s pace and 6.40 seconds out of qualifying.
No American women raced in Beitostølen. The story of the day on the distaff side was the dominance of Ane Appelkvist Stenseth; she would qualify in third, then ultimately win the final by a capacious 3.34 seconds.
Second place in the women’s final went to Hedda Østberg Amundsen, the Østberg Amundsen twins’ strongest finish on the day. Mathilde Myhrvold was second. The entire final, and indeed 26 of the top 30 places, were Norwegian. There are a lot of good skiers in Norway.
Across the border in Sweden, Bruksvallarna saw a skate sprint for the Swedish opening weekend. North America was led by Xavier McKeever of Canada, just off the podium in fourth (with a broken pole!), and Kevin Bolger of the U.S. (also USST/Team Birkie), just out of the final in seventh. Max Hollmann in 22nd was also in the top 30 for Canada.
Bolger made the semis by a fraction of a boot lunge, placing second in his quarterfinal by 0.01 second ahead of Dominik Bury of Poland in third. Bolger raced in the second semifinal, which was the day’s slower by about three seconds. He went out in third there to end his day in seventh overall.
Bolger had great feelings afterwards about a race that he was largely training through.
“I would say the result was better than the feeling in the body,” he wrote to Nordic Insights afterwards. “My coach Einar [Moxnes] and I made a good plan heading into these races to use them as part of training so coming into the races with a big training load in the body results weren’t the main focus of the weekend — but of course anytime I put on a bib is game face.”
Bolger added, “But I’m quite pleased with how it went and I’m excited for where my body is right now — I think there is a lot more to tap into.”
Podium finishers in Bruksvallarna were Edvin Anger, Marcus Grate, and Emil Danielsson for the men, and Jonna Sundling, Maja Dahlqvist, and Johanna Hagström for the women. Moa Lundgren, in sixth, was the only woman in the final without a World Cup sprint win to her name. The Swedish women are rather good at sprinting these days.
Racing continues in both Beitostølen and Bruksvallarna with two days of distance racing over the weekend. Both venues will see a 10km interval-start classic race on Saturday, then a 10km interval-start skate on Sunday.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
