By Devin L. Ward, Ph.D.
By the fifth stage of the Tour de Ski, today’s men’s classic sprint in Val di Fiemme, we are, admittedly, thin on the ground. The UK Eurosport presenters lamented Harald Østberg Amundsen’s withdrawal with background music that can only be described as “sad piano.” This, along with the withdrawal of numerous other athletes, changes the dynamic somewhat for not only the overall Tour de Ski ranking, but the sprint podium as well.
The track for today’s sprint was new, under trial for the Milano–Cortina 2026 Olympics. Petra Majdič, the now-retired Slovenian sprinter who collected a full 20 World Cup sprint wins in her career but is probably best known for winning an Olympic bronze medal with literally five broken ribs, a pneumothorax, and a collapsed lung, was interviewed prior to the race.
photo: screenshot from FIS homologation certificate
Majdič said that this course provides more chances for distance athletes to succeed due to the inclusion of two longer hills. Notably, the sprint course includes both an 18-meter climb and a 26-meter climb within the first 750 meters. There are 62 meters of total climb, in a course measuring just 1.207 kilometers, a greater ratio of climbing to course length than on any other championship course in recent memory.
The other reason distance athletes had a good chance to do well today is, of course, because there are fewer athletes competing overall (71 men racing today compared to 100 on the start list of the Toblach Skate Sprint on December 28th).
Two Americans made the heats today, with Ben Ogden, above, qualifying in fourth and Zanden McMullen qualifying fourteenth. JC Schoonmaker did not start, a disappointing development for the pure sprinter who had likely stayed in the Tour just for this race, and Gus Schumacher withdrew the day before, citing illness in an Instagram post: “Slept bad, woke up sick.” He was already working on traveling back home to Anchorage to recover.
Jack Young just missed qualification in 32nd. When asked how his plans for the Tour de Ski have aligned with how things have gone, Young responded, “The tour has gone pretty well so far. I went in hoping to race some more sprints and gain some experience, and I have done just that. As for next year, I’m not sure what changes I’ll make. It’ll definitely depend on what kind of progress I can make in distance skiing over the coming year.”
We learned in heat one, from Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Erik Valnes, that the best strategy for this course seemed to be drafting and not leading down the last hill, waiting to lead until the finishing straight.
Observant viewers will remember this dynamic from the long downhill finish of both the sprint and distance course in Canmore. After Pål Golberg out-doublepoled Klæbo (!) in a mass start classic race there last February, Klæbo told Nordic Insights at the finish, “The last part here is really difficult because no one wants to be first down.”
(Two days later Klæbo said, albeit of a classic sprint that he won, “I don’t like these kind of finishes to be honest. It’s a long part with doublepoling.” He added that long doublepole finishes are “where I have kind of lost of my races. So I guess you don’t need to be really smart to understand that. But I will continue to work on that.”)
Illustrating these principles, Elia Barp of Italy put up a good fight in the first heat and expended a lot of energy to keep the lead, but was inevitably passed by Klæbo and Valnes at the end, aided by very good skis out of the Norwegian wax truck.
Ogden emulated Klæbo’s approach in his quarterfinal heat, the second, not working too hard in the beginning and slowing significantly to let Mika Vermeulen of Austria take the bait (the lead) off the top of the climb. Unfortunately, Ogden then slowed on the downhill, with slower skis than others, to finish fourth in the heat and 17th overall. McMullen took a different approach, pushing hard early on in a bid to ensure a fast heat with lucky loser spots. He also took the lead down the last hill, which unfortunately led to a fifth-place finish in the heat and 22nd overall.
The course felt laterally constrained throughout, despite the usual number of tracks. Athletes tended to bunch together, whether strategically or otherwise, leading to a lot of overlapped skis, but no obstruction or falls. We also saw athletes dive out of their lanes to clinch extra inches at the finish. In sum, it’ll be interesting to see if this course remains the same for Milano–Cortina 2026 and if we will see the same tactics in the sprint next year.
After easy wins in his heat and semifinal, Klæbo claimed the win with Even Northug in second and Marcus Grate in third with his first individual World Cup podium. Klæbo and Edvin Anger (+1:35) remain first and second, respectively, in the overall ranking for the Tour de Ski, but Valnes (+2:11) now replaces Amundsen in third. For the sprint bib, Klæbo is also in the lead (75 points), followed by Janik Riebli (47 points) and Federico Pellegrino (26 points).
Ben Ogden is the top American in the overall Tour standings, in 13th. McMullen is 32nd and Young 67th.
The sixth stage of the Tour de Ski, the Val di Fiemme 20-kilometer skiathlon starts tomorrow (11:00am CET, 5:00am EST, and 1:00am in Anchorage), with Ben Ogden, Zanden McMullen, and Jack Young starting.
Results: classic sprint | overall Tour standings
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