By Noah Eckstein
On the morning of Saint Stephen’s Day, a particular type of endurance sport fan awoke to a lovely surprise sitting digitally under the rapidly obsolescing Christmas tree: reigning road cycling world champion and Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar uploaded a 25-kilometer cross-country ski to Strava. Two days later, these same multi-sport enthusiasts had the opportunity to bask in the glory of the first stage of the Tour de Ski, cross country skiing’s best impression of that big bike race in France.
Speaking of strained metaphors, the Pogačar of nordic skiing, one Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, coasted to victory in Saturday’s skate sprint in Toblach, Italy. Following him across the line were French stalwart Lucas Chanavat in second and Switzerland’s Janik Riebli just a poorly timed boot throw behind in third. Ben Ogden led the Americans in sixth. (Arguments in the comments that, for example, Klæbo is probably physiologically more akin to Wout van Aert than to Pogačar will be entertained. Also, who is skiing’s Jonas Vingegaard? Remco Evenepoel? All fair game.)
Under clear skies and temperatures around freezing, athletes took on a rolling but fatiguing two-lapper course. Klæbo, having qualified first and selected the first quarterfinal heat like usual, broke tradition by starting hard and skiing directly to the front. Right alongside him was Chanavat, wearing a residual silver bib as the winner of last year’s Tour de Ski points competition.
Per Kikkan Randall on the live broadcast, Chanavat named Klæbo as his best non-French friend on the World Cup. The pair spent two weeks training together in Livigno in November; Chanavat spoke glowingly of his time together with the Norwegian, telling SederSkier in a preseason piece, “We love to talk about training and many other things as well because we’re not only talking about skiing. Throughout the years it became more of a friend(ship) and became more natural to talk about everything.”
The two sure skied like BFFs on Saturday, calmly cooperating at the head of the pack on their way to the top two spots in the heat.
Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher, racing in heats two and three, respectively, both displayed canny tactics and strong finishing kicks to win their quarterfinal heats and advance to the semifinals. Niilo Moilanen might argue that Schumacher’s tactics were in fact a bit too clever, with his late lane change just before the finishing lanes forcing the whole field to shift hard to the left. As Klæbo once learned the hard way, however, the rulebook gives the leading skier a whole lot of lane-changing latitude, and the only jury decision on the day involved giving a yellow card to Michael Hellweger of Italy for an unrelated incident.
Jack Young, the pride of Jay, Vermont, started his day off well with a 10th place in qualification in only his sixth career World Cup start. The 22-year-old’s lack of experience came to the fore in the heats, though, when he swung ever-so-slightly wide on the exit of the final corner, allowing a cutthroat Erik Valnes to sneak by on the inside and deny Young the chance to fully open up his sprint. Young held on for fourth in his heat and 17th overall. Young’s average finish in three World Cup sprints this season is a healthy 18th; he currently sits 25th in the sprint standings.
JC Schoonmaker, still working his way back into form after struggling with illness for much of the fall, had his best result of the season so far, finishing a very close third in his heat and 14th overall. The stage five sprint in Val di Fiemme is in classic, historically Schoonmaker’s stronger technique, and he appears primed to jump back to the form that last year brought him a World Cup podium.
The first semifinal once again saw Klæbo and Chanavat glued to the front from the gun, and Ogden benefitted from the quick pace to move on as a lucky loser. Schumacher skied the entire heat right in the mix but couldn’t quite compete in the final sprint. Finishing fifth in the heat, his day ended there with a 10th place overall.
Valerio Grond and Richard Jouve advanced out of the second semifinal to join Klæbo, Chanavat, Riebli, and Ogden in the final. Italian hero and king of dad vibes Federico Pellegrino just missed out on advancing, losing the first of his opportunities for hometown glory in the leadup to his presumptive 2025/2026 Cogne–Cortina farewell tour.
The front of the final was an exercise in calm and fluid skiing: Klæbo and Chanavat, having figured out a good thing, did it all over again. Behind, though, was chaos. Ogden broke a pole at the first corner, knocking him out of contention. Then Jouve and Grond, attempting to go three-wide up the two-and-a-half-skier-wide building overpass, tangled skis. Grond pancaked immediately, and sprawled in such a (suspiciously tactical-looking) way as to bring Jouve down with him.
The leading three entered the finish lanes unscathed and Riebli just about managed to overhaul Chanavat before exhibiting possibly the worst attempt at a lunge seen in World Cup history. Truly, my grandmother could have outlunged Riebli, and she’s had a double hip replacement. Nonetheless, after the embarrassment subsided, he still appeared quite content with the second individual podium of his career.
Ogden reflected with maturity upon the frustrating end to his day. “[I’m] most proud of my confidence today,” he said in comments to multiple media outlets. “I was more nervous today than I’ve been in awhile — because I have some memories here. But I handled it well, I skied really smart. Unfortunate way to end it with all that work but what can you do? That’s part of the deal.”
Zanden McMullen, the fifth American starter, missed the heats by 0.39 seconds and finished 37th. World Cup sprinting is hard.
After today’s racing, Klæbo leads the Tour de Ski standings eight seconds ahead of Chanavat. Riebli is a further seven seconds behind. Racing continues tomorrow with a 15-kilometer mass start classic. All five American starters today are on the start list for tomorrow as well.
Results: skate sprint | Tour de Ski overall
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 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.
