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.
By Adam Bodensteiner
Period 3 continued in Goms, Switzerland, earlier Saturday with the classic sprint. This event is another preview for the upcoming Olympic Games, where the individual sprint will be contested on February 10, and skiers were keen to sharpen their sprinting legs one last time.
The American men showed up ready today for qualification, as five skiers made it into the heats: Ben Ogden, sixth; Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie), ninth; Gus Schumacher, 12th; JC Schoonmaker, 13th; and Zach Jayne, representing the University of Utah, 17th.
After their podium performance in the team sprint, Schumacher and Ogden were eager to keep up the momentum but also risked a bit more fatigue in their legs compared to competitors who did not race yesterday.
Heat one set off with Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Erik Valnes trading turns in the lead. Klæbo pulled even with Valnes in the long doublepole down the long final straightaway and outlunged his teammate to take heat one.
Ogden was up first for the Americans in heat two. Edvin Anger (SWE) moved into the lead at the start with Odgen just behind. Ogden looked strong with a high-tempo run up the final climb. Anger held on to secure the win in heat two Ogden out-lunged Håvard Moseby (NOR) to advance. Moseby moved into the second lucky loser position, just behind neutral athlete Savelii Korostelev from heat one.
Heat three featured two Americans, Schoonmaker and Jayne. Jayne started strong, taking the lead out of the gate. He paid for this, however, and started to fade on the subsequent climb. Schoonmaker bided his time, leading over the final climb. Schoonmaker held on to win the heat with Anton Grahn (SWE) in second. Oskar Opstad Vike and Even Northug (both NOR) moved into the lucky loser slots after a fast heat.
Schumacher had selected heat four. Jesper Persson (SWE) took the front at the start of the heat, but broke a pole not far in, taking him out of contention. Schumacher’s skis were kicking well and he was able to stay in the tracks on the first climb. He used this to his advantage on the second climb and surged over the top and into the lead. Good grip seemed not to come at the expense of good glide as Schumacher held on to win the heat ahead of Joni Maki (FIN).
Schumacher shouted out the American wax team after the race, writing on Instagram, “I also loved the part where I didn’t need to get out of the tracks in the heats @usaxctechs that was hype.”
In the fifth and final heat, Ketterson represented the Americans. He led at the top of the first climb. After falling back a bit on the second climb, Ketterson became tangled up with Sweden’s George Ersson; Ketterson cut into the inside track over the top of the climb, seemingly more out of negligence than malice (he would say after the fact that he simply did not see the Swede).
Neither skier fell but their momentum was significantly impeded, opening the door for Simone Mocellini (ITA) to build a large lead, taking the win. Ersson was able to pass Ketterson in the final straight and held on for second. Ketterson was initially in third. Lucky losers from heat three (Vike and Northug) held on to advance to the semifinals.
For the incident between himself and Ersson, Ketterson received a written reprimand for obstruction. Since this was his second yellow card of the season, he was disqualified from today’s race. He took full ownership of this moment, writing on Strava, “P9 in qualifier, felt really good! And then decided to ski directly on top of a Swede’s skis and get myself disqualified in the quarterfinal. Not the best decision making. But taking away the positives 🦄✨”
On to the semifinals. With the exception of Edvin Anger, semifinal one was a Norwegian/American show. Anger, Klæbo, Schoonmaker fell into line to start the heat. The field was all together after the two climbs, with Anger taking inside on the descent into the stadium ahead of Klæbo and Valnes.
Klæbo, as usual, played the tactics well and snuck around Anger on the inside on the sweeping corner into the stadium. Valnes came up too fast behind the leading duo and, to borrow Gus Schumacher’s expression in a text to Nordic Insights, “splatted,” sending Schoonmaker off-piste and into the V-boards. That’s Schoonmaker third from right in the above screenshot, exploring something other than the best line on the day.
Schoonmaker, somehow, stayed on his feet, but it dashed his chances of advancing. Klæbo held off Anger for the win. Ogden and Northug took the lucky loser spots in third and fourth. Schoonmaker finished the semifinal in fifth followed by Valnes.
The second semifinal took a decidedly more tactical start, with the field sticking together for the majority of the loop. After a strong effort up the final climb, Schumacher followed Mocellini down into the stadium. In a move mirroring Klæbo’s from the previous semifinal, Schumacher passed Mocellini on the inside on the turn into the stadium and held off the field to secure his spot in the final. Also advancing was Mocellini. Maki, Grahn, Vike, and Ersson finished the semifinal in that order.
The times of Ogden and Northug from semifinal one would be enough for them to advance to the final.
In the final, Anger and Klæbo led the field up the first climb. Ogden started to fade, leaving the leading four of Anger, Klæbo, Mocellini, and Schumacher. On the final climb, Klæbo launched his trademark, high-tempo run and opened a large gap to the rest of the field (this writer estimates Klæbo gained about nine seconds on the field between the top of the climb and stadium entry). This gave him the luxury of coasting the final stretch, looking back twice in seeming boredom, before sealing the win.
In the race for second, Schumacher rode fast skis, passing Anger in the stadium entry turn, the same spot used by him and Klæbo in the semifinals, and held on to secure second place. Anger finished third, Mocellini fourth, Northug fifth, Ogden in sixth. It was the first World Cup classic podium of Schumacher’s career, and also the first sprint podium.
It was a strong showing for the American men: one podium, two final appearances (one could speculate it could’ve been three), three top-tens, and five qualifying for the heats.
Schumacher told Nordic Insights, about his day: “Never lead up the first hill.”
He added, “My skis were kicking really well so it was easy to stay relaxed there and then push over the top, open it up on the second hill, and then push the long finish.”
Schumacher reflected on his result, saying, “I’d never won a classic quarterfinal, then never won any semifinal, then never been on the podium [in a sprint] so it was pretty sweet to have such good energy and control all day!”
Zach Jayne, in his second career World Cup weekend, was eager to keep improving on his results from Oberhof: “I honestly didn’t do anything differently from what I have been doing all year,” he said. “That’s why I was so disappointed after Oberhof and I refused for that result to define my World Cup story. My mistake last weekend was that I felt like I needed to do something crazy to qualify. Ben kindly told me that it was not the case and that I just needed to have a good effort and to do my thing. A change in mindset was all it took.”
He told Nordic Insights after Oberhof that just making the World Cup was not enough, saying, “I wasn’t particularly happy with the accomplishment of my first World Cup start unless I did something with it. Today I did something with my start by making the heat.”
He is still hungry, however: “To me this is the next step in my journey and I am happy to have gotten there today. While I am happy I am still unsatisfied. The heats were just another level than I have seen. Watching it on tv and skiing it has two completely different feelings. I had a good start to my heat but paid the price for it quickly. Just another level to reach for.”
Despite his unlucky semifinal, JC Schoonmaker had positive takeaways: ”Today felt good, it was a change of pace for me from the rest of this winter which felt really nice and I’m really happy with the day.”
Reflecting on how he avoided Valnes’s crash, he said, “Not much was going through my mind really, just reacting when I saw Valnes go down and then trying to get over the banner in my way. It all happened so quickly I was just glad to stay on my feet.”
Looking ahead, Schoonmaker said, “Today got me really fired up for the Olympic sprint. It showed me that I still have some gas in the tank so I’m looking forward to it even more now.”
At the end of the day, the American results were: Schumacher second, Ogden sixth, Schoonmaker tenth, Jayne 27th, Young 38th, and Bolger 60th.
Skiers have one more race in Goms before heading to Italy for the Olympics, a 20-kilometer mass start classic race tomorrow. The Americans send a seven-athlete distance crew to the start line tomorrow: Schumacher, Ketterson, Jayne, Zanden McMullen, John Steel Hagenbuch, Luke Jager, and Hunter Wonders.
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.
