By Angie Kell
After missing the last two World Cup races, the 20km skate in Ruka and the 10km skate here yesterday, a refreshed and healthy appearing Johannes Høsflot Klæbo exerted his usual dominance, laden with brilliant race tactics, to win his 51st World Cup sprint race in Lillehammer, Norway, on a hilly 1.35-kilometer course earlier Saturday. Klæbo won in a time of 2:32.54, with second place, Norwegian teammate Even Northug, 29, coming in a distant 1.22 seconds behind.
While Norway made up four of the six spots in the final, Federico Pellegrino of Italy prevented a full Norwegian podium sweep by placing third, 1.57 back.
But it was Klæbo who reminded viewers of his skiing prowess, lest one had forgotten in his short absence. In the final, Klæbo moved to the front early, and never looked back despite a relatively measured pace up the first hill. Knowing that Pellegrino could pose a challenge in a final sprint, Klæbo masterfully built a five-meter gap on Pellegrino on the final hill via a furious tempo, to prevent any draft or slingshotting into the final turn. Northug advanced his position from third on the final turn by sliding past Pellegrino and securing second place.
Klæbo told televised media after the race, “I needed one extra day [to recover from sickness] and today I’m glad I did that. It’s good to be back again. Hopefully we can be full speed for the rest of the season.”
As shown in the finish line shot below, “full speed” for Klæbo tends to present as looking back across the line to see where everyone else is.
Meanwhile, the U.S. team saw some glimmers of hope amidst a day of what could be seen as bad luck in both the women’s and men’s fields.
It was Ben Ogden who gave the Americans some early excitement on the day.
Ogden started the morning by setting the fastest time in the qual, 0.55 seconds ahead of Klæbo. Rising star Jaume Pueyo of Spain, 23, was third.
Ogden raced in the fourth quarterfinal. He established favorable positioning early here, taking clean lines and using a decent cadence up the hills. But as the commentator on the U.S. live feed aptly stated, leading a sprint lap on this course tended to be to one’s detriment, and the same fate held true for Ogden when he was sitting in second on the final downhill as it turned to the finish.
In a mad sprint to the line, Ogden was swallowed up by the rest of the field and was unable to advance to the semifinals, a disappointment for American ski fans.
On his inimitable Instagram page, Ogden was self-effacing.
“Short lived moment of glory this morning” was Ogden’s response to a FIS Cross Country posting stating, “Ben wins everyone over” after his phenomenal qualification feat.
As any athlete can attest, with little risk comes little reward. Ogden, in a media statement shared by USSS, echoed that adage. “It felt good to win the qualifier for sure,” Ogden wrote, “and I think it tempted me to look deeper into the sprint day than I normally do and try to be strategic with the final looming. Got a pretty quick reminder why you can’t do that on the World Cup especially in Norway.”
Fellow American Jack Young, a senior at Colby who is still just 21 years old, gained additional experience, placing 25th in the qual in his first race of the year. Young has now finished 11th, 33rd, and 25th in his three career World Cup skate sprint quals.
Young finished fifth in his quarterfinal, a boot length (0.03 seconds) out of fourth following some unfortunate positioning. He placed 25th overall on the day.
Young was pleased with the outing. He stated that, at this point in his career, qualifying for the heats is his measure of success, and he achieved that today.
“I am here to compete,” Young wrote to Nordic Insights, “and to me, that means skiing heats. Coming out of today, I have more confidence in my fitness while skiing heats; I had the energy on the final climb to go, but I just couldn’t find a window.”
“I feel like I raced really well today,” Young added. “Against a strong, Norwegian-heavy field, I executed my strategy for the qualifier and sneaked into 25th. As for my Quarterfinal, I was proud of how I held my space and stayed aggressive. Building off my only other World Cup quarterfinal in Canmore, I saw myself as less of a deer in the headlights and more as a real competitor for the top spots in the heat.”
Teammate Gus Schumacher finished 31st in the qualification round, missing the heats by 0.16 seconds. JC Schoonmaker was 39th in qualifying, Kevin Bolger was 45th, Zak Ketterson was 47th, and Michael Earnhart was 51st.
Head coach Matt Whitcomb described the mood of Team USA as a positive one after today’s races. “The American camp is thriving,” he wrote to Nordic Insights.
Whitcomb continued, “While we’ve had some big hits over the last five races, we know that we’re not currently breaking any records and are skiing more in line with a team that just got to Europe. These are results that make sense to us. While we want more, we feel patient and practical when assessing the situation. For many, today’s heats were the first heats of the season, and that’s why you saw us struggle to advance. The mood is good here, and that’s generally a good sign that big things are coming. We’re ready for tomorrow, and we’re excited about Davos.”
He added, “I’d like to give a big shout to the fans of the American team, who these days, just seem to be everywhere. We hear you out there.”
Racing continues in Lillehammer tomorrow, with the final day featuring a 20km Skiathlon. Schumacher, Ogden, Zanden McMullen, John Steel Hagenbuch, and Hunter Wonders are on the start list for the American men.
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 years one and two of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year three of Nordic Insights for youto 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.
