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By Adele Haeg
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo took his 104th career win today in the Val di Fiemme classic sprint, the fifth and penultimate stage of this edition of the Tour de Ski.
The staid Norwegian glided across the finish line a full two seconds before second place Jules Chappaz of France, while he stared down his own likeness on a bright pink flag waving over his fan club.
Third place was 21-year-old Anton Grahn of Sweden, a surprise podium for my peer (he’s a year older than me, and maybe it’s presumptuous to call him my peer — more like a generational pal). “I was totally gone at the finish line, but it’s so fun to have got the first podium, and on the Olympic track too. It really feels like I’m doing something good,” Grahn told FIS after the race.
Silver bib sprint leader Lars Heggen did not make it to the podium today, but he’s second in the overall Tour standings, at age 20, and having a great season nonetheless — maybe he’ll get another shot come Olympics time. Final teams have not yet been announced, with Norway’s spots roughly half filled. Athletes have a few more World Cup weekends to impress selectors and earn Olympic starts.
While Klæbo has been dominant all season — except for a slip-up in Davos — there have been such exciting races for other podium spots all along, with up and comers sneaking in there every time. Second and third are more competitive than first place right now, in both the men’s and women’s fields.
About today in Val di Fiemme, Grahn said, “It feels like it’s a race where I did everything I could, I think I raced on 150% or something.” Klæbo avoids giving that impression as much as he can. He told reporters on site after finishing: “It was a cool race.”
By this point, Klæbo has virtually decided the Tour de Ski, which he currently leads by 83 seconds, as well as the gold medal in the Olympic sprint. Also the Olympic team sprint. Everything is coming up gold for the Norwegian, it seems. He must eat so. Much. Cheese.
In the absence of news other than another Klæbo win, the headline in Italy was this: The Olympic sprint course is very demanding. It also seems fun.
And it is also controversial — NRK and Expressen, Norwegian and Swedish news outlets, both published articles today featuring commentators who said the Val di Fiemme course should be adjusted before the February Olympics.
First off, the course is more than 1.5 kilometers, which is standard for a World Cup sprint. Klæbo’s time today was 3:19, about 20 seconds longer than his winning time in the December Trondheim classic sprint.
According to Torbjørn Broks Pettersen, one of the members of the FIS rules committee, courses should be designed so that sprint times are between 2:45 and 3:15 for both men and women, NRK reports. There may be an actual compliance issue here, but it is not certain how that will be managed.
Jessie Diggins, who finished 7th today, perhaps said it best in her interview with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team after the race: “It’s the Olympics, it should be hard.” The distance also favors Diggins, however, who is known more for her distance prowess than her sprinting. Pure sprinters might not enjoy the course as much as Diggins.
There is not quite as much elevation gain overall as there was on the previous iteration of the Val di Fiemme sprint course, but Klæbo noted in his post-race interview with reporters on site that there is an “extra” hill before the finish.
Zorzi, as the Italians named the uphill after local star Cristian Zorzi, has an average gradient of 13.4% and a maximum gradient of 19.3%, and is about 240 meters long. It seems a fitting title for the hill. Nice and sharp.
The first up Zorzi was not always the winner, however, except in Klæbo’s case. Zorzi is tricky because it feels like once skiers hit the top, they should be done, and ready to finish, but there’s lots of jostling before the stadium that puzzled many skiers.
The American men especially looked so promising in the quarterfinals, with JC Schoonmaker leading up Zorzi in his heat, and Gus Schumacher right behind him. They were certainly in good form, but nothing seemed to really click tactically today.
Four qualified today: Ben Ogden (8th), Zak Ketterson (11th), JC Schoonmaker (13th), and Gus Schumacher (14th). Kevin Bolger did not qualify today, coming in 36th overall, and neither did Jack Young (53rd).
But, Minnesota’s own Ketterson had an all-time best sprint qualifier. Ogden finished in 17th overall, Ketterson in 18th, Schumacher in 19th, and Schoonmaker 22nd
Schumacher said in an interview with USST, “I didn’t really know how to play it in the end.” You can hear more from him below:
Ketterson explained in audio sent to several media outlets that in his quarterfinal heat, “I was at first at the top of the hill,” before he “got swallowed up” on the tight downhill back into the stadium. Here are the rest of his thoughts:
Schoonmaker, who finished 22nd, also said he was “boxed out” at the finish line. His teammate Jessie Diggins just missed a spot in the final because she too got boxed out, and couldn’t find a lane into the finishing stretch. Again, more from JC here:
Klæbo said of Alpe Cermis, which everybody will be ascending tomorrow: “I hate it.” But he added, “It’s gonna be fun.” That about sums it up. Tune in for chaos tomorrow in Val di Fiemme, and look out for the gold bib. Maybe they’ll make it pink in his honor after tomorrow’s race. Then the fan club would really have something to cheer about.
Results: stage five | Tour de Ski overall
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