By Adele Haeg
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is a catlike classic skier. He slinks and he’s stealthy and you never know when he might pounce on his competitors. But in today’s 15-kilometer classic pursuit, stage four of the Tour de Ski, he looked more like a lion, and a hungry one at that. He and Edvin Anger were on the prowl, and Harald Østberg Amundsen was their prey.
Amundsen, who won yesterday’s 20-kilometer skate individual start, took first in today’s pursuit too, in just over 35 minutes. Edvin Anger of Sweden, who started 1:14.7 back from Amundsen, took second place (+2.5), and Klæbo third (+5.3). Klæbo managed to maintain his overall Tour de Ski lead (and even extend it, given the math of the last two days of racing), and Anger, who was in fifth in the overall, ended the day in second, a stellar performance for the 22-year-old.
Amundsen had 20 seconds on the field to start the race because he won yesterday by that margin, but even with that buffer, he was out on course, on his own, doublepoling like there was literally no tomorrow. Tempo, power, speed, kick — all systems go go go.
Amundsen told Norwegian news outlet NRK yesterday, “I’m not a fan of starting slowly, I like to go for it from the start.” On the savannah, it’s chase or be chased, eat or be eaten. That is true in the woods of Toblach too.
“It was maybe the hardest race I’ve ever done,” Amundsen said to a reporter on-site after today’s race. “I tried to have some energy until the end, but I heard the other guys start closing in. … The last two kilometers I was totally dead, and they were quite close.” Amundsen knew he was being hunted down.
The reporter asked him how it felt to hear Klæbo and Anger closing in during the final kilometers of the race. Amundsen answered, still slightly out of breath, “Terrible.”
Klæbo isn’t usually the skier doing the chasing; usually he’s the one being chased while he controls the race. But Klæbo on the chase is a sight to see; he was a man on a mission today.
Klæbo started 46.4 seconds back from Amundsen. By the 13-kilometer mark he was 22 seconds back; at 14km, only 13 seconds. Then Klæbo finished only five seconds off Amundsen (see second slide above for Klæbo pushing over the final 30 seconds of the race).
Near the end of the second of three 5-kilometer laps on the Toblach distance course, Klæbo started charging up the hill featured in the sprints, over the Nordic Arena building. Up that climb, the way he was skiing, it seemed like he had no doubt he could and would catch up with Amundsen, even with 46 seconds between them at the start of the day. Klæbo wasn’t skiing as calculated as is his style. He had no time for tactics. On the live commentary, Kikkan Randall and Chad Salmela noted that he was skiing like Amundsen. He got more gritty than we ever see him get. It was exciting.
Randall noted on the live commentary, “So often in distance races, [Klæbo]’s just subtly there in the pack and waits for the sprint finish, but he is actively pulling back time today.” So this is what happens when Klæbo gets put to the test: sneaky cat Klæbo becomes hungry lion Klæbo. Which Klæbo is scarier? Which will win the Tour, if either?
Edvin Anger skied perhaps even more impressively than Klæbo today. He overtook Klæbo up the climb where Klæbo made the charge in the second lap. Anger told Swedish news outlet Expressen, in auto-translated comments, “It was an extra good finish. I’m proud that I was taking the chance and being daring. Taking him up the hill where he is perhaps best known for going fast is something you have to [be proud of].”
Gus Schumacher, who finished 17th, just over a minute back from Amundsen, commented to Nordic Insights before the race, “Not happy about yesterday. Puts a lot of pressure on this pursuit and I feel basically just unlucky that some things went slightly the wrong way to compound to a really tough race.”
After the race, Schumacher, who earned back about a minute on Amundsen and is now 10th in the overall, said, “It’s pretty good to claw some time back, on the two-day total, just a minute back. So that’s not a bad place to be. Definitely feeling better right now than I was 20 hours ago, 18 hours ago. Much better skis today, that made a world of difference, and nice to just ski with some fast guys the whole time. All together, not a super taxing race, physically or mentally, so that was just super nice, halfway through the Tour.”
Ben Ogden finished in 22nd, Zanden McMullen 48th, JC Schoonmaker 55th, and Jack Young 76th. Ben Ogden summed up today and the Tour at this point the best: “I guess just rest up and get excited for some more sprinting. I am just feeling tired!” Ogden broke a pole 1.5km into today’s pursuit. Yesterday he was third in the Tour overall, and today he is in 17th. That’s ski racing.
Schoonmaker told Nordic Insights, “I’m definitely feeling a bit tired at this point in the Tour but feel like a rest day tomorrow will help out with that. My goal now is just to ski a good sprint [in stage five] and that’ll be the end for me.”
Jack Young commented after the pursuit today, “I’m feeling surprisingly good. I paced the last two days really well which has left me with hopefully some energy for the classic sprint coming up. Pursuits are fun in general, but being so far back from the lead, the format doesn’t mean much to me. Regardless, it was fun to ski with some of the sprinters out there.”
The Tour de Ski fatigue is real. To recap the past week: skate sprint, then 50 kilometers of distance racing, classic and skate, over five days. For skiers who skied the sprint course four times (qual, quarter, semi, and final), that’s 1,550 meters of climbing. Amundsen and Klæbo are now tied, with two stage wins each. Klæbo leads the Tour, 36 seconds over Anger and 57 over Amundsen. Top American Schumacher is 1:45 back from Klæbo in 10th.
Tomorrow is a rest day. The Tour will resume in Val di Fiemme on Friday, with a classic sprint, Klæbo’s specialty. It’s a new year. Anything could happen.
Results: classic pursuit | Tour de Ski overall
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