By Noah Eckstein
This is a reader-funded website. Virtually all of my income (for perspective: I took home less than $5,000 from Nordic Insights last year after paying staff) comes from reader contributions, which I sincerely appreciate. If you would like to support the site, including helping us get to the Olympics in February, you may do so here. Thank you.
Chilly. Clear. Squeaky-cold snow.
These are words that absolutely did not describe the scene in Ruka, Finland, on Saturday for the season’s first sprint. Under a dreary on-again-off-again drizzle deeply reminiscent of January in Vermont, the Norwegian men’s sprint squad picked up where they left off, with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo leading his countrymen Erik Valnes and Ansgar Evensen to a decisive podium sweep.
A quiet but promising day for the Americans saw Ben Ogden take 12th and Gus Schumacher 25th.
Under heavy, gray skies, athletes worked to simultaneously rediscover their sprint-day routines and adapt to the decidedly atypical conditions for northern Finland in late November.
According to Ogden, “It was like 40-plus degrees Fahrenheit and pretty slushy, not like soft, but definitely softer on the pole track and wet, wet snow, so we were on klister.”
Fellow American Kevin Bolger added, ruefully: “First time I’ve ever been in Ruka and not been on VR45.”
The first quarterfinal, as first quarterfinals so often do, featured a masterclass in efficiency of movement by the world’s foremost expert, Konge Klæbo. Taking it easy out of the gate, he and Valnes knifed through the field on characteristically fast skis in the rolling middle section. Schumacher hung tough until the hulking hill into the stadium, when his leg speed and kick weren’t enough to stick with the (admittedly blazing fast) leaders. Klæbo and Valnes advanced easily, with the American settling for fifth in the heat.
After the race, Schumacher was content with this early-season performance. “I had great skis in the qualifier; it made that hill fun,” he wrote to Nordic Insights. “In the quarterfinal, they were a little slicker and the couple of slips that I had made it hard to keep the momentum when it got steep. My body felt good, just needed a bit more kick to keep my rhythm up there.”
The second quarterfinal saw Ogden, no doubt right at home in the wet wintertime mist, paired up against Swedish star Edvin Anger and Norwegian up-and-comer Oskar Opstad Vike. Anger, surprisingly, was anonymous from the start, but 20-year-old Swiss rookie Isai Näff wasted no time in taking his place at the front. Up the final climb, Finn Niilo Moilanen exploded spectacularly and both Ogden and Vike charged past a fading Näff to advance, with the young Swissman nonetheless proving his place in a deep and growing Helvetic sprint corps.
Heat three provided some light drama when Finn Joni Maki tried to thread a nonexistent needle in the leadup to the final hill, getting no further than the flying pole tip of Austrian Erik Engel. Maki then gave Engel a firm shove to the side before realizing he’d snapped his own pole in the process and falling out of contention. Turns out that no Russians are required for Maki to be involved in World Cup fisticuffs! Even Northug of Norway and Lauri Vuorinen of Finland advanced.
From heat four, Jules Chappaz — having apparently shelved his glorious Mario-esque mustache for a scruffy full beard — overcame slippery skis to advance alongside Ansgar Evensen. Heat five was won by Emil Liekari of Finland, proving his second place in the qualification wasn’t a fluke, followed by Harald Østberg Amundsen of Norway. Unusually, the day’s last quarterfinal also supplied both of the day’s lucky losers, with young Swedish marathon sensation Alvar Myhlback and Austrian Benjamin Moser slipping through.
Paired up again in the first semifinal, Klæbo and Valnes took control immediately. Joined by Vike and Northug, this four-man Norwegian train took off from the turnaround point at the back end of the course and simply glided away from Ogden and Myhlback.
With the American and the Swede well off the back and Vike and Northug unable to challenge on the final climb, Klæbo and Valnes charged up the hill to move on easily.
After the race, Ogden shed some light on his separation from the Norwegian quartet on the downhill back toward the stadium. “Obviously I wasn’t thrilled about how they all got away from me and Alvar in the semifinal,” he mused in an audio message, “but I think a lot of that honestly has to do with the fact that we were kind of tangling with each other at the top of the hill and neither of us pushed super hard over the top because of that.”
“So I think that was just kind of bad tactics, not being in the right place at the right time,” he continued. “Obviously that little section is the biggest takeaway from today, but I don’t think it was really big on the skis. I think it was a lot bigger on the just like poorly executed corner.”
In the second semifinal, Vuorinen and Evensen rode fast skis to a small gap into the last climb. Chappaz, weaving like a drunken paper boy trying to make his slick skis work, nearly pulled himself back, but in the end he couldn’t challenge the leaders. His efforts were rewarded, though, as he and Amundsen, just behind, squeezed into the final on time.
In the final, the only real excitement came from Chappaz once more madly scrambling across the trail for kick up the closing climb. Klæbo and Valnes again drove from the front, their running sprint up into the stadium again unchallengeable. Valnes, the big man from Bardufoss, looked for a second like he might challenge Klæbo — and he has precedent, remember — but it wasn’t to be. Chappaz fought Evensen all the way to the line but missed out on the podium by a toe.
For Klæbo, this statement win was an opportunity to prove to the haters he’s still got it after his tough showing yesterday, all the way back in… second place. By 2.1 seconds.
“Yesterday didn’t really go my way,” he said in his post-race FIS interview. “I felt quite motivated after yesterday so it was good to be on the top again.”
Yeesh, save some motivation for the rest of the field, Johannes.
The Americans racing today were, on the whole, happy with their efforts.
For Schumacher, the sensations today, as well as during the team’s recent training camp even farther north, in Muonio, bode well. “I feel like my early-season form is really good,” he continued. “I’ve been feeling super strong in general, and definitely adjusting to the max efforts of racing, but I think I’m in a great place.”
For Ogden, today provided a change to test out some new mindfulness and mental training he has incorporated into his training. “I’ve been working on my sports psych a little bit,” he shared. “Which has been fun, trying to just be mentally tough and be cognizant of my sort of self-talk and stuff during races and try and steer that in the right direction.”
“I didn’t feel super great in the qualifier,” he went on. “I felt like I was really heavy on my arms on the last hill and didn’t kick really well, but definitely not bad. I was really proud of my sort of re-evaluating how to ski that hill and doing a lot better in the quarterfinals, so that was pretty sweet.”
Kevin Bolger (Team Birkie and Falun–Borlänge SK) just missed out on qualifying for the heats in 35th, but was upbeat after the race.
“This is Ruka, so going in you know that it’s probably the tightest qualifier all year so everything needs to pretty much be perfect,” he wrote to Nordic Insights. “I had a plan and I thought I executed it but unfortunately was just on the wrong side of the bubble. But I thought my waxer Peter Johansson delivered great skis.”
Jack Young, last year’s breakout star of the American sprint squad, put down a very solid 39th, which is surely a solid bit of positive feedback considering his “main goal for this year was to get faster at classic sprinting.”
“Although I am disappointed to have not qualified this morning, I am very encouraged with the progress I have made,” he reported to Nordic Insights. “[This] 39th in the classic sprint in Ruka is subjectively the best classic sprint result I’ve had [only exceeded objectively by a 32nd during last year’s Tour de Ski] and it’s not particularly close. I’m looking forward to another chance in Trondheim next week.”
Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie) followed up his career-best individual result on Friday with a 53rd. And JC Schoonmaker, coming off strong results in both sprint and distance at the Swedish openers in Gällivare last weekend, nerfed his chances today with a silly crash in the qualifier.
“I felt good, and skis felt great,” he wrote. “I just crashed on the top of the first hill and broke my pole. Got sloppy and can’t afford to make mistakes like that in qualifiers these days because the competition is so tough.” He finished 65th.
Racing continues tomorrow, Sunday, November 30th, with a 20-kilometer mass start skate to wrap up the World Cup’s time in Ruka. American starters are listed as Zak Ketterson, Gus Schumacher, Zanden McMullen, John Steel Hagenbuch, Luke Jager, Kevin Bolger, and JC Schoonmaker for the men. For the women, Jessie Diggins, Sophia Laukli, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Kate Oldham, and Alayna Sonnesyn are slated to toe the line.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing and now we’re going to the Olympics. You can read more about our first three years here, and donate to the Olympics fund here. Thank you for consideration, and, especially, for reading.
