By Lukas S. Pigott
GRANÅSEN ARENA, Trondheim — The City of Trondheim awoke to a white layer of snow covering the city on Tuesday morning. Both the men and women were racing that afternoon. It was snowing, hard, and within a fraction of a degree of zero Celsius. Great conditions for an interval-start 10-kilometer classic race.
Here’s what some of the athletes thought about the weather when they woke up:
“You see the weather, and think that maybe I’ll get lucky.” —Mika Vermeulen
“It makes for a fun day; these are always tricky conditions, but it’s just so fun.” —Zanden McMullen
“I was a little scared, but it’s nice that it feels a bit more like winter now.” —Olivier Léveillé
“A skier’s worst nightmare.” —Zak Ketterson
Ben Ogden, meanwhile, had predicted last Thursday that “There won’t be as many people for the 10km classic — even the Norwegians find it a little boring.”
While the stands weren’t packed to capacity, 20,000 people showing up in a snowstorm for races that were anything but boring put Ogden’s theories to rest.
One of the major talking points before the race today was the absence of pre-race favorite Iivo Niskanen due to sickness; the Finnish classic maestro got sick at just the wrong time, and has been forced to withdraw from the entire championships.
While Mika Vermeulen of Austria refused to speculate about how his own race would had been if he had had better skis, he was more then willing to do so about Niskanen.
“One thing we can speculate about, Iivo Niskanen and this weather, I think it’s a match,” Vermeulen said. “I think he would leave with more luggage then he came.”
But Niskanen wasn’t here today, and you can only race who shows up. From early on in the race it was clear that it was going to be a Norwegian–Swedish battle, as had been predicted coming in.
At the 2km mark Erik Valnes of Norway, in his return to racing after back trouble had forced him to pull out of Thursday’s skate sprint on short notice, led by 4 seconds over Edvin Anger of Sweden. By 4.7 km Anger had taken the lead with 2.1 seconds over Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who slotted into second place ahead of Valnes.
By 5.9km, pre-race favorite to challenge the Norwegians William Poromaa of Sweden had taken the lead, with Klæbo, Harald Østberg Amundsen, Valnes, Anger, and Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget all within 4.5 seconds. This was shaping up to be a thriller like none other.
North Americans Zak Ketterson and Antoine Cyr were at this point eighth and tenth, respectively, but would both fade as the race progressed.
Ketterson told the media afterwards, “I didn’t actually realize that it was going that well because I was a pretty early starter.” Ketterson who finished the day in 27th, continued, “Looking at the end I wish I would have summoned a little more fight.”
“Can’t blame a MSHSL guy for doing a fast 5K,” the graduate of Bloomington’s Jefferson High School would later crack wise on Strava.
“But overall I’m still pretty happy,” Ketterson continued. “These conditions have been terrible for me in the past, sort of soft and not suiting a sprinter-type guy, but I’m pretty happy with it.”
With the snow conditions changing dramatically overnight with the snowfall, everyone had to drop all expectations of skiing on klister and switch to rub skis (also called zeros).
“If your zeros are good, then they’re good,” Ketterson explained, before continuing, “luckily mine were good today.”
“I have two pairs and one of them was really good,” he said. “If you have one or two pairs and they’re both bad then you’re just like, Well, that’s that.”
Hear more: Here’s Zak with more thoughts on his race (starting around 2 minutes in):
Back to the front of the race: By 8.2 kilometers gaps had started to grow among the same top-six skiers. They were now separated by 11.1 seconds with Klæbo in the lead, a position he would not give up today.
By 9.2km Klæbo was 4.1 seconds up on Poromaa and 6.0 seconds up on Valnes as the top six remained close.
Over the final 800 meters of the course Klæbo put time into everyone, finishing the day 8.8 seconds ahead of an emotional Valnes, who described winning silver as being “As good as gold.”
However, Valnes’s medal would likely have been bronze had it not been for Nyenget crashing on the penultimate corner of the course. Nyenget would place fifth, 5.6 seconds behind Valnes, and only 3.4 seconds behind Østberg Amundsen, who ended up taking home yet another bronze medal.
Edvin Anger finished in fourth, 0.2 seconds ahead of Nyenget. Poromaa faded heavily in the final stages of the race to finish in 6th.
With Klæbo having now taken three out of three possible golds, and the Norwegian men having swept the podium in both distance races so far, the effect that skis had on this domination was a hot topic in the mixed zone after the race.
Should wax be even for everyone, or should it be part of the sport?
“It’s just a part of the sport” said Vermeulen before continuing, “I think we just have to accept it. … Can FIS make changes in the system? Yes, maybe they should consider that,” but “it’s no quick fix.”
But for the time being, he continued, Norway has “the biggest wax system, the best waxing team as well, and the best athletes as well so then it’s hard to beat them.”
Vermeulen rounded off by saying that it’s no coincidence that Sweden and Norway have been doing as well as they have (12 out of 12 medals in distance races so far in Trondheim, eight for Norway and four for Sweden). “I read a lot in the newspapers that the Swedes are a little skeptical of their skis quite often, but they should try to ski on Austria’s skis sometimes,” Vermeulen said.
“I struggled a little with kick on the second lap, and I’m proud of how I adapted to it technique-wise” was what a slightly disappointed Gus Schumacher, who finished in 13th, told the media after his race. He continued by pointing out that he’s in a good place if he is disappointed about a 13th place in a World Championships.
Hear more: Lots more from Zanden McMullen (first speaker) and Gus Schumacher on their day:
After having had a difficult season so far, Andrew Musgrave put in a solid performance in the skiathlon on Saturday, finishing that race in seventh. This is what he told Nordic Insights after finishing 16th today.
How was your race today?
“Absolutely terrible. … Conditions were like… I don’t understand how the best guys managed to ski so fast, like it was soft, my poles were just like sinking through, I was flailing around, I felt like I had never skied before in my life, like a complete beginner, so I had an absolute nightmare of a race.”
He continued, “You had to be a super good skier technically today to manage to make everything work, especially doublepoling. It was just so soft and I was getting no power whatsoever.”
But your form is still good?
“Yeah, but today I just skied like an absolute faffer.”
Though fading throughout the later stages of the race, Cyr of Canada finished in 18th. After the race, he didn’t keep it a secret that it was tough going out there today.
“To stay solid and, like, technically good, it’s so hard,” he said. “I think it came close today, not quite the race I wanted, but still happy with the effort.”
When asked about the snowy conditions Cyr replied, “It’s definitely a condition that, I think, personally, the team we struggle a little bit with. I think coming from Canada, you never ski in this condition ever. This morning it is minus 16, bluebird sky in Ottawa, where I grew up, but yeah, that’s the reality of racing the World Cup.”
McMullen, who finished 40th today after placing 46th in the skiathlon over the weekend, told reporters that his form isn’t the best, but that he “came into today looking to have a fun race, and I did that so I’m really happy about that.”
Simen Hegstad Krüger, when asked about Norwegian domination this week, politely suggested that it was up to the non-Norwegians to step it up. When asked about this McMullen replied, “He’s not wrong on that, at the same time they have it easy in ways, but no, it’s our responsibility.”
Can you think of any reasons why this championships has not been what the Americans had hoped for so far? he was also asked.
“It’s hard to say,” said McMullen; “there are so many factors. It’s a long season, we are over here for the whole season for the most part which can be challenging.”
It didn’t take McMullen long to see the positives of the situation though, pointing out that, “It gives us a little bit of an underdog mentality which is nice.”
Why do you think that the American team in general prefers skating?
“I think what we are able to ski on back home contributes to that majorly. European snow is different. I can’t really explain it, it just is.”
Max Hollman of Canada finished the day in 43rd. Hear about his day above. Ogden finished just behind in 47th, and was his typically voluble self in the mixed zone:
Racing continues here tomorrow with the classic team sprint. The U.S. trots out a team anchored by JC Schoonmaker, which is not a surprise, and with Schumacher as the leg-one skier. This would likely have been a surprise a week ago, but is less so now after Schumacher’s strong form to start the championships.
The Canadians start Cyr on leg one and Xavier McKeever as the anchor. Norway, of course, fields Valnes and Klæbo. Other top contenders include Sweden (Calle Halfvarsson and Anger), France (Jules Chappaz and Richard Jouve), and Italy (Davide Graz and Federico Pellegrino).
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.
