By Devin L. Ward, Ph.D.
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The men’s 20-kilometer start skiathlon in Falun earlier Sunday consisted of three 3.3km loops of classic technique followed by two 5km skate loops. Conditions in Falun meant quaint, snowglobe-esque viewing (okay maybe just for people like me living somewhere without snow), but the combination of fresh snow and zero-degree conditions was probably less than ideal for the wax techs.
It wasn’t obvious that anyone opted for rub skis in these conditions (at least as far as I could see), which may have been due to the combination of climbs on this course. The corners, which took down several skiers yesterday, didn’t claim anyone, but certainly looked soft as temperatures rose.
A fairly predictable Norwegian quartet (Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, Andreas Fjorden Ree, Harald Østberg Amundsen, and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo) established themselves at the lead early on, but the field remained fairly tight throughout the first lap, with Gus Schumacher, Hugo Lapalus, Mika Vermeulen, and more following. Savelii Korostelev was also chasing. Korostelev skis like a man who, from the gun, totally backs himself to win, but he hasn’t quite been able to turn that into a podium finish yet.
Klæbo grabbed up the most bonus points on the second lap, but it’s not as if he really needs them. After yesterday’s sprint he was 496 points ahead of Amundsen; he would stretch that lead to 512 by the end of the day.
Around about this point the four Norwegians began to break away from the rest of the pack. Only Arsi Ruuskanen of Finland, having a breakout day, and Korostelev tailed just a bit behind them into the start of the third and last classic lap, and all six exited the stadium together. There was some noticeable slipping up the climb in this loop, which I assume was, like the soft corners, due to the warming temperatures on the day following the 12:30 p.m. start.
Amundsen was the speediest through the transition onto skate equipment, but no one in the leading group seemed to lose much time. It was most surprising that Korostelev didn’t lose any time because he dropped a pole as he was skiing out of his ski corral, but managed to spin around and grab it quickly before setting off again in pursuit of the leaders.
Schumacher in particular benefited from a fast ski exchange, which put him in the lead of the chase group out of the stadium. He and Elia Barp pulled the group up the Mördarbacken (murder hill, the climb alongside the Falun ski jump). They ended up losing a couple seconds on the lead group from the stadium to the time point at the top of the climb, demonstrating how fast the leaders were skiing at this moment in the race.
I asked Gus what went well in his ski exchange, and he gave some credit to the course profile. “It’s nice to have a downhill into the exchange,” Schumacher explained. “I’ll say that so you can get your breathing down a bit, sort of biathlon style. I’m in there, level headed, and calm, and just came in well on a clip, step-step, and then I had the skiathlon on pole straps that I can just switch over. So just pick up the poles and go and don’t have to mess with straps.”
Nyenget didn’t want Klæbo to take all the bonus points for a second time and pushed hard to take three of them away on the first loop of the skate half of the race. Alternately, Nyenget may have also been trying to drop Klæbo entirely. We saw Nyenget try to do this in the Olympic 50km classic race a week ago, to no avail. His approach worked just as well in this race (not at all) and Klæbo continued to hang on. Nyenget found himself spending a lot of this race doing the work to lead, but was still unable to drop Klaebo (or Ree or Amundsen).
Schumacher, meanwhile, was still skiing at the lead of the chase pack at this time point and took 6 points, while looking strong and technically clean. On the American broadcast, Kikkan Randall, who knows from crisp skate technique, praised the extent to which Schumacher’s form still looked strong even after roughly 15km of tough racing.
5km into the skate half of the race, Ruuskanen and Korostelev were trailing off the four Norwegians in the lead, but fought back in contact. This happened several times. They seemed to be working effectively together (whether intentionally or not) and never let the Norwegians get far away even if it seemed like they had been dropped.
The 19km mark saw Klaebo, Nyenget, and Amundsen push hard and drop Ree, Korostelev, and Ruuskanan. However, the leading three Norwegians promptly lost this gap by playing a game of chicken to avoid leading down the hill into the stadium. Securing a draft ride behind Nyenget, Klæbo dropped everyone and took a safe win (his 12th consecutive). Korostelev put up a hell of a fight, but was only able to take fourth behind Amundsen in second and Nyenget in third, Nyenget’s reward for doing a lot of work at the front and leading down the last hill.
Ruuskanen’s sixth place was the best finish of his career:
Schumacher took 7th (+56.8) in a crowded battle for that position among the chase group. He used his free skate to devastating effect, dropping low to move up several positions within just the stadium and pip Theo Schely of France at the line. Martin Kirkeberg Mørk and Antoine Cyr were also late-race victims of Schumacher’s finish-stretch savvy.
When I asked Schumacher how his recovery had gone this week, he replied, “I went and saw a movie at the theater on Tuesday. Didn’t do anything Sunday or Monday, training wise. Went for some easy skiing, but generally just, yeah, didn’t do too much. No intensity until race prep. And I wasn’t feeling super fresh today, but I think it was more from the sprint than anything. Just like a little sore. It’s always a little bit hard to sleep after an afternoon race sprinting, especially, but my energy was good.”
Other notable finishes included Antoine Cyr in 10th (+57.4) and Vermeulen in 11th (+57.7), who seems to be returning to the form we have seen him in previously.
Kevin Bolger finished 36th (+2:31.0) and was the second American finisher behind Schumacher. In his thoughts to Nordic Insights, he commented on the new courses for next year’s world championship event, “For sure it helps to know how and where to push and where to hold back to conserve some energy — but we had a new 3.3k loop and somewhat new 5k so it was a bit different — and my first skiathlon here. But a lot of the same pieces so that helps when knowing how to ski certain sections.
Hunter Wonders finished in 47th (+3:00.5), JC Schoonmaker in 58th (+3:58.6), and Zanden McMullen in 61st.
You aren’t alone if you have been wondering where Ben Ogden was this weekend. USST spokeswoman Leann Bentley advised us that Ogden has been unwell: “Ben is recovering after his sickness he incurred at the end of the Olympics. He’ll be back shortly when he’s 100% healthy and ready to race.” Hopefully Ogden will be back in full health for next weekend’s world up in Lahti, Finland.
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