At the half-way point of the third edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear, the red Tour leader's jerseys are worn by Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) and Dario Cologna (SUI).

After a slight disappointment in Stage Three, the city sprint in Prague (CZE) where she failed to qualify for the final heats, Virpi Kuitunen claimed back the overall lead in a true power performance in Stage Four, an individual start distance race in classical technique in Nove Mesto (CZE). So far, three different ladies have held the lead, Claudia Nystad (GER) who won the prologue in Oberhof (GER) and Arianna Follis (ITA) who won the city sprint in Prague. Three more Stages remain - another free technique sprint in Nove Mesto, a mass start classical technique distance race in Val di Fiemme and the concluding climb to top of Alpe Cermis - and Kuitunen has only a 5.6 second lead over teammate and World Cup leader Aino Kaisa Saarinen with Marit Bjoergen equally well positioned just 23 seconds behind, so the excitement is really mounting.

On the men's side, Swiss Dario Cologna, the undisputed newcomer of the season, took 2nd in the prologue and has established a firm hold onto the leader position since Stage Two. His biggest challengers after Stage Four are Russian Vassili Rotchev and German Axel Teichmann, both just some 16 seconds behind. Teichmann has collected two Stage wins, at Stages One and Four, but failed to win any bonus seconds in the first sprint Stage. Eldar Roenning, the best Scandinavian, is also sitting in a good position in fourth, just 20 seconds behind Cologna.

FIS
31/12/2008

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