By Lukas Pigott
The final race on the program for the Les Rousses World Cup stop was Sunday’s men’s 20-kilometer mass start classic. One of the main talking points before the race was the unconventional course, which included an extremely steep hill, running parallel to the ski jump at Stade Nordique des Tuffes à Prémanon, that the racers would have to ascend a total of six times.
“You can’t win it there, but you can definitely lose the race there” was an accurate pre-race assessment of the steepest hill in this season’s classic World Cup races from Pål Golberg.
Already from the first of six laps it was clear that the athletes had very individual strengths throughout the course. On the climbs, lightweight climbers like Mika Vermeulen and home favorite Hugo Lapalus set the pace, creating gaps throughout the field. On the rolling terrain powerful skiers like Erik Valnes were making the difference, and on the downhills the Swedish men could show off their amazing skis. This meant that there was constant splitting and regrouping, resulting in a thrilling race to watch.
Throughout the first few laps there were multiple attempts to get a gap on the field by Vermeulen, William Poromaa of Sweden, and French favorite Hugo Lapalus, cheered on by the roar of his fan club and their chainsaws.
With the Norwegian trio of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Harald Østberg Amundsen, and Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget not on the start line, the Finnish classic superstar Iivo Niskanen was one of the pre-race favorites despite having been sick over Christmas and therefore missing out on the Tour de Ski. However, as the race unfolded, Niskanen would keep a low profile (apart from constantly looking like he is about to collapse from exhaustion) before the final few laps.
On the penultimate ascent of the ski jump climb, however, Niskanen made his way to the front and pushed the pace. He was followed by Simen Hegstad Krüger but no one else, and they gained a small gap on the remaining twelve racers in the lead pack.
On the downhill section Poromaa then managed to come across to Krüger and Niskanen, making it a trio in front. The chasing group of around six racers — led by Valnes, Vermeulen, and Lapalus — would briefly make contact with the leaders with two kilometers to go, but lost contact again after what Valnes revealed after the finish to be a poorly timed barf from Lapalus. The unfortunate emesis led them to lose the slipstream on the downhill, hindering a full regrouping.
On the final straight Poromaa had Niskanen on the back of his skis, but nothing could stop him from taking his first individual World Cup victory. He made it two in a row for the Swedish men here this weekend, winning with a time of 51:43.1.
Niskanen finished second by 0.9 seconds, as Simen Hegstad Krüger filled out the podium in third place, coming in 5.0 seconds behind Poromaa. Valnes led home the chasing group in fourth place, 10.8 seconds back, followed by Lapalus in fifth scoring France’s best result of a weekend of racing on home soil.
Next into the finish was Vermeulen, followed by fellow climber Friedrich Moch of Germany. In eighth place came 34-year-old Jonas Baumann. The result equaled his previous career best, set in a race in Oberstdorf in 2015, slightly over 10 (!) years ago. Baumann, who lives in Davos, possibly felt slightly at home considering that Switzerland is a mere two hundred meters up the hill from the Prémanon stadium. Another impressive finish came from the Andorran skier Irineu Esteve Altimiras who finished tenth, his eighth career top-10 World Cup result.
Swedish men’s skiing is like city buses: you wait forever and then two come at once. After waiting four years for an individual World Cup victory between Oskar Svensson’s win in Val di Fiemme in 2021 and Edvin Anger’s win yesterday — a period in which the Norwegian men won 88 times — Poromaa made sure not to let it go another four years. He took a convincing win here, in a venue where he was already on the podium two years ago.
Poromaa showed off confidence, good form, and amazing skis all day. This was a contrast to previous races this season where things had not gone so smoothly.
In his post-race interview with FIS Poromaa said, “Yeah it’s amazing. I’ve been waiting for this victory for a long time and I was struggling quite a lot in the beginning of the season so it’s amazing to be in Les Rousses and take the victory today.” The Swedes have been struggling with waxing for a while, recently resulting in “crisis meetings” during the Tour de Ski in Toblach, but clearly appear to have righted the ship today.
Poromaa had shown rising form with a strong fifth place here on Friday, but he made it clear where he got his confidence from after the race, saying, “It’s crazy, you know, you’ve been waiting your whole life for this moment. So yeah, it’s a huge day for me. And also I had a lot of pressure from yesterday because Edvin [Anger] did such a good race, so I was mentally prepared to go for the victory today.”
Second-place finisher and veteran World Cup skier Niskanen told reporters after the finish that “The Swedes were strong today and he deserved a win. I couldn’t beat him in the sprint. It was a good fight, but I had no chance to beat him today.”
Ben Ogden finished in a strong 12th place, 42.2 seconds behind the winner, to lead the American men today, but it was something totally different that took center stage when talking to Nordic Insights after the race.
“We had a little U.S. men’s team food poisoning issue right before the sprint,” Ogden said. “There were six of us who got it. So honestly, like I think most of us are pretty happy with just being out here and being hydrated enough to race.”
Luke Jager placed a strong 21st place in his first World Cup distance race of the season after skiing well at U.S. Nationals at home in Anchorage earlier this month to punch his ticket back to Europe. It is, by a substantial margin, the best distance result of Jager’s World Cup career; he was 33rd in Lahti in March 2023, also in a 20km classic. It is Jager’s second-best World Cup race all time, behind 18th in a classic sprint in Ruka to open the 2021/2022 season.
After the race Jager told reporters, “It was good, but oh my gosh it was hard. Nice to have some good people to ski with and I had such insanely good skis so you have to take advantage of those days. So huge shoutout to the techs and my guy Bjørn especially, because we’ve been through it for a few years so it’s nice for it to work out.”
When asked about their gut-related issues before Saturday’s sprint, Jager filled out the picture a bit more as well as hinting at food poisoning as a new team-building exercise: “Yeah, definitely some diarrhea to put it in a nice way. But we recovered, you know, and it made us stronger; it brought us together. I woke up and I texted the boys, and I’m like, I’ve had a bit of a tough night, and they’re all like, Dude, yeah, me too, me too, and then we started asking around and everyone we ate lunch with at the same time all had the same thing happen. It was nothing catastrophic, but [I guess] you gotta have those nights now and again to remind you you’re still human.”
Zak Ketterson, who placed 29th, 2:14.5 behind Poromaa, told Nordic Insights after the race, “It was good. I am really happy to be in the top thirty. I think for a while there I had almost given up the fight a little bit, but I had a really good last lap. I think I passed six or seven people. It was fun to have a little resurgence.”
JC Schoonmaker ended in 40th place, 2:41 behind Poromaa, and was content with his race stating that “It was a tough one, but pretty fun. I feel like I moved up pretty well, raced smart. I’m definitely happy with it. A lot better than like some of the 20k’s I did last year.”
Kevin Bolger and Hunter Wonders came home in 44th and 45th place, respectively.
“It’s been a rough weekend, if I’m being honest,” Wonders said afterwards. “It’s been fun to be back over on the World Cup, but definitely still finding my stride, finding the fitness.”
Wonders candidly noted that he went from a 26-hour travel day on Wednesday to racing on Friday, “So I didn’t set myself up the best for this week.” He said that he was looking forward to racing in Engadin, and to being in Europe for more Period 3 racing after that.
After an exciting final day of racing in Les Rousses the World Cup circuit will move back into the Alps with racing resuming in Engadin with a mixed relay on Friday, skate sprints on Saturday, and a 20k skate mass start on Sunday. Can the Swedish men continue their team building with even more wins next weekend? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime — let’s keep our fingers crossed for no more unwanted team building for the Americans.
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 toAmerican 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.
