TOUR DE SKI. With a solid performance throughout the entire Tour de Ski, Dario Cologna deserves his victory 100%. Starting more than a minute ahead of Northug, Dario kept a nice speed up the final climb and could cheer for his third Tour de Ski victory.

Petter Northug who started second was caught up by Marcus Hellner, and could not compete against the strong Swede. Hellner came in second and is the first Swedish male to be on the podium in Tour de Ski. Northug finished third, and will have to compete against next year in order to reach his goal: win Tour de Ski.

Dario Cologna had no problems with securing his third Tour de Ski win today. Even though some optimistic people would have hoped for Northug to come closer and get a real fight for the first place, Dario had full control and could ski by himself up the Alpe Cermis. A stiff and suffering Northug had to be happy with third place today, as Swedish superstar Marcus Hellner came from behind and overtook Northug on the steepest part of the hill.

The fastest man up the hill was Alexander Legkov who finished fifth. Behind him was Maurice Manificat, who was really upset about the race yesterday, and could cheer for a 7th place, climbing 7 spots from yesterday! Lukas Bauer did a good race and could be satisfied with 6th place overall, but perhaps even more happy for his team mate Martin Jaks who did a great final of Tour de Ski and finished 9th.

Tour de Ski has come to an end, and it’s time to get excited about the normal World Cup again. With 9 competitions in 11 days, this has been the longest tour, and the toughest tour for the athletes.

 
Quotes from the men:

Dario Cologna:
“It’s always nice to win Tour de Ski. The first time was maybe a surprise, not only to me but to others as well. It was special, but I am happy that I’ve been this good the past 10 days, everything was perfect”.
“The uphill is very steep and my legs were tired. My plan was to go fast in the first part to get a nice advantage and control the race, and then find a steady pace for the uphill”.
“The tour is special, you need to have 9 good races and recover very well. I think Petter has all it takes to win the tour, so maybe next year”.

Petter Northug:
“It was a lot of seconds behind Dario, I tried to catch a few seconds before the climb. I heard I took 10 seconds in the first part, and I tried to go very fast. On the uphill however I had to find my own speed in order to make it to the top”.
“The Tour doesn’t allow you to have any bad races, it’s really tough and Dario has been strong throughout the entire Tour”.

Marcus Hellner:
“Everything was possible and I knew I could go strong before the hill and maybe catch Petter. I saw him quite early on the hill and I thought it was possible to catch him, and I did”.
“This is like a win for me, it’s been a hard Tour and a bit of bad luck with skis and some falls. It’s really nice that I can turn it around and become second”.

Justyna Kowalczyk dominates Final Climb and takes third FIS Tour de Ski win

Justyna Kowalczyk could celebrate her third straight win of Tour de Ski today. Starting 11 seconds ahead of Marit Bjoergen, the Polish lady had no interest of finishing second, and made an amazing race up the steep Alpe Cermis. Finishing strongly, Kowalczyk came to the finish line more than half a minute in front of Bjoergen. Therese Johaug completed the podium, who had taken more than 40 seconds to the two strong girls.

Bjoergen caught up with Kowalczyk around 1.5 km, and the two girls skied together for the first part of the race. Starting on the final climb, Kowalczyk showed that there’s a reason for why she has won the three last editions of Tour de Ski. By steady skiing uphill, Bjoergen had to let go and lost several seconds on the last kilometres. Getting stiffer and stiffer, Bjoergen had to see her biggest contender take the win, and cheer for a second spot. Her dream of becoming the first Norwegian winner of Tour de Ski didn’t come true. With thousands of spectators cheering for the athletes on the final climb, the last stage of Tour de Ski will be remembered as a great success. Despite the big group of Norwegians the crowd were cheering for Kowalczyk and you could hear “Justyna, Justyna” far down the course.

Therese Johaug who started third, 4:49 minutes behind Kowalczyk was never any threat of the two girls up front in today’s stage. Although she skied fast and took more than 40 seconds, she finished third and could celebrate yet another great Tour performance. Krista Lahteenmaki showed great performance by taking 4th spot, having a great speed up the final climb. Marthe Kristoffersen finished 5th and could thereby be satisfied with her performance, as she wanted to improve from her 7th spot last year.

Tour de Ski has had its last stage, and we congratulate Kowalczyk with a great win. She is now the queen of Tour de Ski, and we already look forward to the next edition!

FIScrosscountry.com
Sunday 8 January 2012

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