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By Adam Bodensteiner
What can we say about today’s race format that hasn’t already been said? Well, the 5-kilometer mass start freestyle heats happened today in Toblach; it was stage three of the Tour de Ski; it was exciting; and it seemed to be a day for those that bought into the new race format.
Starting for the American men were Gus Schumacher, Kevin Bolger (Team Birkie), Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie), and Jack Young. The temperature was chilly, around -6 degrees Celsius. The course consisted of two laps: one shorter, flatter promenade lap, and an extended, slightly hillier second lap. It had 165m of climbing over 4.9km, per the official results, and 149m of climbing per the unofficial Strava segment (search for “FIS Heat Mass Start 25/26”).
For those who are not familiar with the new format, organizers seeded the field into four heats of around 25 skiers based on their tour standing. After all the heats are done, the fastest time wins. The 5km distance is relatively uncharted territory, especially for the men’s field; it would have been years since most of these athletes did a race of this length.
The first heat would set the tone for the rest of the day. Norway’s Harald Østberg Amundsen took the front immediately with the rest of the field stretched out behind the fast pace. Thomas Stephen showed the Canadian colors at the halfway point and up to the climbing bonus at 3.1 km. Andreas Fjorden Ree (NOR) took over the lead over the last hill into the stadium. Emil Iversen (NOR) outlunged Ree at the line to win in a photo finish. The time to beat for the rest of the heats would be 9:42.5.
The first Americans were in heat two: Schumacher and Bolger. First indications were that the second heat was just behind the marks set by heat one. But, Schumacher pulled to the front around the halfway mark and started to push the pace. Schumacher remained at the front up and over the climb into the stadium and no one would come close as he crushed the benchmark set by Iversen, finishing in 9:35.4. He skillfully skied the close of the race to win the five-man sprint, over, from left in the photo below, Jules Chappaz, James Clugnet, Benjamin Moser, and Lars Heggen.
Unfortunately, a crash affected Bolger’s chances, he said. “It put me from the front straight to last and from there it was just tough to catch back to the front,” Bolger wrote to Nordic Insights. “So I’m pretty upset knowing we skied fast and without a crash I think the day would have gone very differently for me but we’ll never know and that’s ski racing.”
The presence of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in heat three, plus stage-two winner Mattis Stenshagen (both NOR), made it dangerous. This heat also included two more Americans, Ogden and Schoonmaker.
Klæbo led heat three initially, with Ogden just behind. Mirroring Schumacher’s move from heat two, Ogden moved into the lead at the halfway point, with Schoonmaker just behind. Klæbo ultimately won the heat in 9:44.0, nearly nine seconds slower than the winning time from heat two, leaving Schumacher’s lead safe for now. Ogden and Schoonmaker finished the heat in 4th and 7th, respectively.
Heat four concluded the men’s race and included the last of the American starters, Ketterson and Young. To solidify the pattern, Ketterson took to the front at the halfway point. As the heat, led by Italian Elia Barp, led the field into the stadium, Schumacher’s time of 9:35.4 came and went. Barp won the last heat in 9:45.2, making it official: Gus Schumacher wins stage three of the Tour de Ski!
This is Schumacher’s second World Cup victory, the first being the 10-kilometer interval-start skate race in Minneapolis during the 2023/2024 season. The two courses had more than a few things in common: skate, short, fast, more quick transitions than long, grinding climbs. “I feel like I’m built for more like transitional sea-level stuff like Kincaid [the main venue in Anchorage], because that’s what I grew up on,” Schumacher said in Canmore in February 2024, a week before his breakout race in the Loppet Cup. Toblach keeps the transitions, but adds moderate altitude; the course sits at roughly 4,000 feet. Schumacher’s toolkit expands.
On watching the last two heats from the hot seat, Schumacher said, “It was pretty sweet! I was nervous about that third heat especially and a bit surprised to see them lose time in the last 1km.”
With this win, Schumacher moves into sixth in the overall Tour de Ski standings. Klæbo is still in the lead overall, followed by Lars Heggen (NOR), Amundsen, Benjamin Moser (AUT), and Stenshagen in fifth.
After the dust settled it was a good showing for the Americans on the day. Ben Ogden landed in 20th, JC Schoonmaker in 29th, Zak Ketterson in 41st, Jack Young in 42nd, and Kevin Bolger, after his crash, in 79th.
Post-race comments indicated that inter-heat collaboration was key. Bolger told Nordic Insights that he and Schumacher had been in conversations with the other heat-two competitors Bolger said, “We definitely talked with other guys about setting the pace high and we definitely did which was awesome. I was feeling quite good about where I was and how I was skiing and setting myself up for the back half of the course.”
Schumacher emphasized the need to push the pace. “The U.S. team didn’t have that specific of a plan but we knew we couldn’t win alone so it was important to help lead and encourage other people to take pulls on the front.”
Ogden added, “I bet if we do it again there will be some serious inter-heat strategizing going on beforehand.”
Young reflected on his approach: “After watching the first three heats, it became clear that the best strategy for someone in the back was to save as much energy as possible and slowly try to move up to around 10th by the big climb. After that, it seems like whoever had the energy had no problem moving up further.”
He added “I’m very happy with my performance today. I think I skied it very well tactically and surprised myself a bit with how much energy I had for the last 400m or so.”
In general, athletes’ reviews of the new race format were positive, it seemed everyone had fun.
Schumacher, naturally, was on the positive side: “I really liked the format. Such a cool mix of high speed but with a need to be relaxed in the technique, and also really fun to collaborate with people from other nations.”
Ogden as well: “The format was crazy; I honestly don’t know what to think of it. Tons of fun to race and I think the results reflect how good it would be to try again.”
Bolger added, “I think if we did it more things would calm down and you’d see groups working collectively to ski fast instead of fighting for positions.”
In a callback to his take on the 10km distance on Monday, Young quipped, “I’m a fan of the format, but of course I am. The shorter the better!”
Tomorrow, still in Toblach, skiers take on the 20-kilometer pursuit classic. Athletes’ start order and times for Thursday are tied to their positions in the overall standings: Klæbo will go out first, Heggen will follow 45 seconds later, Amundsen starts 57 seconds after Klæbo, and so on. First one across the line wins.
Schumacher will start in sixth, 1:09 back, the second-highest non-Norwegian in the men’s field (Moser of Austria is in fourth). He will soon have company from Emil Iversen of Norway (+1:10), and, probably, Federico Pellegrino of Italy (+1:16).
Results: stage three | Tour de Ski
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