By Adam Bodensteiner
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Le Tour de Ski rolls on, still in Toblach. The men kicked off stage two, a 10-kilometer interval-start classic race, earlier Monday.
Six American men started today’s stage. Gus Schumacher, Kevin Bolger (Team Birkie), Ben Ogden, and Jack Young were hoping to capitalize on yesterday’s momentum from the sprint heats. The other two starters, who were also close to the top 30 yesterday, were Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie) and JC Schoonmaker.
Temperatures were just under freezing and mid-day sunshine peeked out from behind the northern-Italian Dolomites, the shade helping to keep the snow firm as skiers set out for two laps of the hilly course.
Ketterson was the early starter for the Americans with bib 14. He set an initial benchmark, passing through 2.1km in 5:40.3. A collection of Norwegians would show their cards at this early checkpoint, however. Emil Iversen soon set a new best time, which was in turn bested by Mattis Stenshagen by 4.9 seconds. Harald Østberg Amundsen and Erik Valnes slotted in just after Stenshagen. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo appeared to be skiing relatively conservatively, coming through in fifth, 5.1 seconds back. Schumacher posted an early split fast enough for 15th (+8.6 seconds).
It was a similar picture at the 6.7km checkpoint: Stenshagen pushed Iversen out of the lead. Klæbo’s conservative start paid off as he was able to hold a steady pace and come through this point in second (+5.9 seconds back of the lead).
With 2km to go, Stenshagen still held onto the lead, with Klæbo in second and Iversen in third.
Until this point Ketterson had been in the hunt, posting intermediate times in or near the top-20. But today, it was not to be: A crash took him out of contention.
Ketterson reflected: “I felt like I was having a really great race… I was fighting for a top 15 finish with a few kilometers to go, but I crashed going 60km/h and when I stood up from it my body felt totally wrong. My muscles were super stiff and I was dizzy and disoriented. I am happy I managed to finish, but I was in survival mode and basically walking in from there. My fitness feels great and I’m excited for the rest of the tour! Luckily I don’t think I injured anything, hopefully.” (Note: he is really just describing how this writer feels anytime he shows up to a ski race)
The question at the finish would be if this arrangement — Stenshagen, Klæbo, and then Iversen — would hold. Iversen crossed the line with a time 29.5 seconds faster than the previous leader, Russian neutral athlete Savelii Korostelev. Stenshagen’s form held up against his countrymen, too. He would stay 8.9 seconds ahead of Klæbo in second to claim his first career World Cup victory. Iversen was 10.1 seconds back for third. Iivo Niskanen (FIN) finished in fourth. Edvin Anger (SWE) closed out the top five.
With the second-place finish, Klæbo ably held onto his top spot in the overall Tour standings. His lead there is already nearly a full minute (53 seconds ahead of Lars Heggen in second) after just two stages. Amundsen is third in the overall, followed by non-Norwegian Anger.
Gus Schumacher was the top American on the day in 17th. He was overall happy with his performance, he told Nordic Insights: “I lost a bit of steam in the end but I’m happy with where I ended up,” he observed.
Like a lot of the Americans, Schumacher is looking at the Tour de Ski through the lens of the Olympics. “I think the load of this tour is perfect for my approach to the rest of the season,” he said. “I’ll go home after, chill and absorb it, then come back over to Europe and race a bit before the Olympics!” Schumacher currently holds tenth in the overall Tour de Ski standings.
JC Schoonmaker was happy with his race as well: “I’m glad to be in the mix in a distance race like that and feel that my shape is in a solid spot,” he said. “I would have maybe started a little slower in the first 2-3km just to ski with a bit better form and energy later in the race. I’m just taking this tour one stage at a time and trying to give my best every day. I’m feeling good heading into the next ones and excited to be here.” He finished in 42nd.
Next in the results list is Kevin Bolger in 43rd. He reflected on his race strategy: “I was a little bit of a chicken the first 3km, starting too slow. But then I thought I skied well and was able to just keep putting the hammer down. I thought we had very competitive skis and I was happy to be able to ski with Edvin [Anger] the last bit and see that our skis were very similar.”
Another victim of unlucky circumstances was Ben Ogden; he suffered a broken pole and finished 46th. Ogden said, “I was feeling good today! The broken pole was really frustrating but I have no one but myself to blame. It’s certainly a blow to the confidence in a tour setting but I think the goal remains the same. Certainly just want to stay on the fueling and rest through the rest of this tour and see what I can make of it!”
Reflecting on the bigger picture, Ogden continued, “I’m certainly not in the place I had hoped but I know as well as anyone that things can change really quickly in these races, so I’ll stay hopeful!”
Closing out the American finishers was Jack Young in 93rd. He told Nordic Insights a bit about his day: “Distance classic is by far my weakest discipline, but today was a good race. The overall strategy for the tour is to focus on the sprints and the 5k while avoiding getting axed by the time cutoffs.”
In a story posted to the USST Insta account, Young answered the question, what’s the hardest thing about a 10km classic?
“It’s about 6km too long.”
Next up is a rest day, followed on Thursday by the new format, 5km mass start heats.
Results: stage two | Tour de Ski overall
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