First WC victory for Rickardsson

Daniel Rickardsson from Sweden won the 6th stage of the FIS Tour de Ski. For the 10 km individual start competition in classical technique he needed only 23:14.5 seconds and finished 1,7 seconds ahead of Lukas Bauer (CZE), who lost the victory in the last few meters. On third place finished Tour leader Petter Northug (NOR), 6,2 seconds behind Rickardsson.

Bauer and Rickardsson were leading the race all the way, where also Northug was stable on the third place. Axel Teichmann, who finished fourth, increased his speed from the start to the end as usual while last year's Tour de Ski winner Dario Cologna (SUI) couldn't keep the fourth place from the first intermediate times and took only the 8th place at the end. Devon Kershaw, who was until km 7,2 always under the top ten broke his binding on the last few kilometers and finished therefore only on place 37.

In the overall ranking, Northug increased his lead and is now 20,1 seconds ahead of Markus Hellner (SWE) who finished 5th today. Axel Teichmann is on the third position with a gap of 29,5 seconds while Dario Cologna is 4th. Still nine athletes count to candiates for the podium what garantuees us an exciting Tour de Ski Final.

On Saturday, the 7th stage will take place in Val di Fiemme, a 20 km classical mass start race with 5 intermediate sprint points during the race where the top three athletes can get 15-10 or 5 bonus seconds. In addition to that, also bonus seconds will be awarded in the finish to the top three.

Daniel Rickardsson - winner of the day
"I am very happy about my race today. It is my first victory on the World Cup level so it is amazing. My tactics was to race fast in the first lap and maintain speed in the second one as well.I felt quite in the good shape in the morning. Usually I am stronger in classic technique. The next race on Saturday is in classic technique too so I could be in a good shape there as well. The final climb is very tough so we will see."

Simen Oestensen - Tour Sprint leader
"I am glad I wear the black bib for the best sprinter. On Saturday, bonus seconds will be distributed 5 times on the course and once in the finish so I will fight for some of them. We have not talked about any team strategy with Petter so far. He will race for bonus seconds too so it will be tough race. My goal is to win th black jersey. I have not thought about the Final Climb so far."

Petter Northug - Tour de Ski leader
"I am very statisfied with today's race. I started from behind so I had a good overview. In the middle of the race I was feeling a bit tired but then it was better. Simen will fight for the sprint jersey and I would like to win some bonus seconds too. I will have to be all the race in front to controll the race."

Kowalczyk reclaimes Tour de Ski lead

Justyna Kowalczyk from Poland is back in the Tour de Ski lead. She took today the stage victory in the individual start over 5 km in classical technique clearly 11,6 seconds ahead of Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN). On third rank finished Petra Majdic 14,8 seconds behind the winner. The winner of yesterday's race, Arianna Follis showed as well a strong race despite prefering the skating technique and finished 6th.

After the fast race today, Kowalczyk is leading the Tour overall standing 14,1 seconds ahead of Petra Majdic and 23,2 second ahead of Follis. On the four place with still good perspective to the top is Aino Kaisa Saarinen with 35,1 seconds gap to the leader.

The sprint ranking stays the same than yesterday, as no sprint bonus seconds was awarded today. There is Petra Majdic in the lead ahead of Arianna Follis and Aino Kaisa Saarinen.

Tomorrow, on the schedule of the 4th Tour de Ski is a rest day before we go into the final weekend with a Mass start race on Saturday and the famous Final Climb on Sunday.

Justyna Kowalcyzk - winner of the day, Tour leader
"It was a great race today for me. I did not have any special tactics for today. I only to wanted to go fast and have a good race. 5 km classic is my favorite distance and technique so it was a good day for me. I like Tobach very much. Tomorrow we have a rest day so I will have time to think about the mass start competition in classic technique on Saturday in Val di Fiemme. There a lot girls who can still fight for the overall victory. Petra Majdic, Aino Kaisa Saarinen, Arianna Follis. Everything is still open and there are tough races ahead of us."

Petra Majdic - Tour Sprint leader
"I have had some troubles with my leg. We try to heal it as fast as possibe but with this tough programme it is not easy. But it is getting better. It was really fasr today. All of us went full gas from the start. Justyna was born for 5km. As I do not run many relays I am little out of pace in the 5 km distance so it was not an easy race for me. My service team prepared excellent skis today and I could be very fast.Tomorrow I will try to recover as fast possible and then I will think about weekend races on Saturday in Val di Fiemme."

Thursday 7 January 2010
FIScrosscountry.com

Northug and Kowalczyk are in the lead of the Tour de Ski

After the stages of Cortina and Toblach, Northug and Kowalczyk are in the lead of the Tour de Ski, but on Saturday the Tour reaches Val di Fiemme and everything can still change.

After the stages of Cortina and Toblach, the overall rankings of the Tour de Ski 2010 still look very short, with 4 athletes struggling for the podium among ladies and 8 athletes among men.
It still hard to predict who will be the overall FIS Tour de Ski 2010 winner.

After stages in Toblach, Petter Northug (NOR) keeps his leadership among men, increasing his advantage on his closest competitors for the overall victory, Markus Hellner (SWE) and Axel Teichmann (GER). The race held yesterday in Toblach was dominated by Daniel Rickardsson (SWE), who surprisingly was the fastest on the track, beating Lukas Bauer (CZE) by a few seconds. The leader of the Tour, Petter Northug, finished in third position, followed by Axel Teichmann (GER), Markus Hellner (SWE), Matti Heikkinen (FIN) and Giorgio Di Centa (ITA).
8 athletes in the overall ranking are packed up in less than one minute. 90 bonus seconds will be distributed on Saturday. These athletes are Northug, Hellner, Teichmann, Cologna, Rickardsson, Heikkinen, Bauer and Gaillard, but nor far behind it's possible to find also Giorgio Di Centa, Jens Fillbrich (GER), Rene Sommerfeldt (GER), Ivan Babikov (CAN).

Situation among ladies looks similar, even if the struggle for the podium seems to be limited only to the first four athletes of the overall ranking. In Toblach it was Justyna Kowalczyk who took the victory and reclaimed the overall Tour de Ski leader bib. Arianna Follis (ITA) who took victory over 16 km F on Wednesday finished sixth. Behind Kowalczyk arrived in the order Saarinen (FIN), Majdic (SLO), Steira (NOR) and Skofterud (NOR).

Kowalczyk is now the overall Tour de Ski Leader followed by Majdic, Follis and Saarinen. These are the athletes that will struggle for the podium in Val di Fiemme, but Kristin Stoermen Steira can still fight for a position on the podium, particularly

Val di Fiemme can now only welcome the Tour de Ski and wish good luck to everyone!

Friday 8 January 2010
FIScrosscountry.com