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By Peter Minde
LAKE PLACID — In driving snow, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won today’s men’s 10-kilometer interval-start classic in Lake Placid, the first race of the first World Cup Finals ever held in the U.S., in a time of 26:44.5. Countryman Andreas Fjorden Ree was in second place, 14.7 seconds back. Mattis Stenshagen was third, almost 10 seconds further in arrears.
Duelling with Klæbo for the distance crystal globe, Harald Østberg Amundsen came fourth, 0.7 seconds away from the podium. The day’s results vaunted Klæbo from a few points back of Amundsen in the distance standings to 12 points up with just Sunday’s distance race remaining.
The early morning weather report was innocuous: “chance of snow, no significant accumulation.” As press corps members waited for the shuttle bus in the morning, the temperature hovered around freezing. On cue, snow began falling as the bus chugged to Mount van Ho. The women were scheduled to go first today, at 1 p.m. local time. Ten minutes before they started, it was nuking snow. Dang near whiteout conditions.
The course was the same five-kilometer loop that featured in national championships in January. Anticipating a March thaw, the Ho blew an outrageous snow mountain in the 1980 stadium that they used to touch up trouble spots.
Following his fall and concussion in Drammen, Klæbo spent time in the hospital and then rested at home, gradually resuming workouts. His travel decision depended on feelings following a single hard workout and discussion with his doctors. At the eleventh hour, he hopped a plane to the U.S.
The men’s start list mixed seeded and non-seeded athletes for the heart of the field, giving seeded athletes the chance for additional TV time and non-seeded athletes the chance to do some trail breaking. Athletes took off at 30-second intervals. By now, the snow had settled into a regular snowstorm instead of snowmageddon. Climbing out of the stadium, the men seemed to glide more easily than the women did earlier. After all, the women broke trail earlier.
Speaking to skiers about grip after the fact, it sounds as if more athletes used kick wax than zero skis. As one may imagine, nobody wanted to give up their wax techs’ secrets.
Starting 20th, newly minted Olympic medalist Ben Ogden went out strong and led at the 3.8 km checkpoint ahead of Sweden’s Leo Johansson. Johansson overhauled him at the next checkpoint, but Ogden stayed in touch.
By this time, the big Norwegian guns were getting their turns in the start. At the first checkpoint (1.7 km), Klæbo had a slender lead over Stenshagen. At the next checkpoint, he’d built an eight-second lead over the men with whom he’d share the podium. By the time he came through the stadium at the halfway mark, Klæbo had added two seconds to his lead. Here, the Italian grand master, Federico Pellegrino, was in the mix in third place.
And that’s the way it was. Pellegrino’s third place at 5km aside, Klæbo and his podium mates controlled the race all the way to the finish.
“I’m really happy that I made it to the starting line,” Klæbo said in the mixed zone.
Of his recovery, Klæbo said, “It’s been a little bit on and off the last couple of days, but overall it feels good enough that I was managing to race today. Most answers we’ll probably get after the race later tonight and tomorrow. I think it’s the right decision to skip the [sprint] race tomorrow just to be on the safe side, and then hopefully I will be back at it again on Sunday with enough energy to be able to fight up there.”
On the Lake Placid vibe [see below, hells yeah], Klæbo said, “It was amazing. I think the tracks are really hard. People can see you [in] more places. And on the top there it was packed with people, and it was really cool. I think the Americans really know how to make noise and how to make a good atmosphere, which it was out there.”
On the atmosphere, Amundsen added, “This is maybe the top one of the top stadiums I’ve been to with, like, nice people. I felt when we had a run this morning in the city, everyone was screaming to us and good luck. And so that’s a nice atmosphere. I spoke with Ben Ogden, and he said it will be lots of people here, a good vibe. So I was looking forward to it.”
On his fight for the distance crystal globe, Amundsen said, “Now I’m 12 points behind Johannes, so it will be a close fight on Sunday. I need to take some bonus sprints during the race and try to beat him in the end.”
“I don’t care that much about the distance globe,” Klæbo told NRK today in auto-translated comments.
“That’s just bullshit!” was Amundsen’s take on this. “I know Johannes!”
Gus Schumacher was the top American, finishing in seventh place. “I think I managed the conditions well,” he said. “Tough skiing, and I think I did a good job not getting too worried about it and trying to stay relaxed.”
Ben Ogden ultimately finished in eleventh place. On the day’s conditions, he said, “It was tough, but this is New England, you know? Well, it’s technically not, but we’ll include it for now. And that’s what happens: rain, snow, we just, we just push them out. And I’m honestly happy it was like this. I think it’s good for the memories. It’s true northeast skiing, so I wouldn’t have any other way.
“I just can’t put into words how thankful I am for everybody that came out and who supports me,” Ogden said. “Today, I couldn’t look on the side of the trail at any point and not see somebody who I knew.”
In sixth place, Pellegrino was asked, is it good for the sport if one team dominates?
“It depends which point of view we want to have about the performances,” Pellegrino said. “We know that people born in [northern] latitudes are helped by the months of snow in which they can ski.”
Ten additional American men raced today. Other finishers after the Olympic-medalist pair were John Steel Hagenbuch in 32nd, Zanden McMullen in 40th, Zach Jayne in 49th, Brian Bushey in 50th, JC Schoonmaker in 53rd, Reid Goble in 56th, Ben Dohlby in 62nd, Hunter Wonders in 63rd, Michael Earnhart in 67th, and Luke Jager in 70th.
Racing continues tomorrow with men’s and women’s skate sprints. You can find the men’s start list here, and the women’s start list here. Don’t touch that dial.
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