The Slovenian Petra Majdic won todays 10km classical Mass start race in a tight finish and took all 45 possible bonus seconds from the intermediate sprints and the finish. Majdic is leading now the 4th FIS Tour de Ski with 31,4 seconds ahead of Justyna Kowalczyk who had a crash on the last lap of today's race and finished only on 23rd place.

Majdic, who skied a no wax ski, started into the competition with a "full gas tactic", crossed as first both intermediate sprint line and took the victory in a photo finish final ahead of the surprising Elena Kolomina (KAZ). The home favourite Marianna Longa finished third, 1.0 seconds behind the winner.

After the second last stage today for the ladies, only three ladies have a good position to win the 4th edition of the Tour. Petra Majdic as the leader, Justyna Kowalcyzk and Arianna Follis (ITA), who is 56,5 seconds behind the leader. Aino Kaisa Saarinen has already a gap of 1:35,4 min to Majdic after the todays tough race where she finished 28th.

The Tour Sprint ranking will win Petra Majdic with an advantage of 1.04min ahead of Arianna Follis and Aino Kaisa Saarinen, when they arrive tomorrow at the finish on the Alpe Cermis.

Petra Majdic - winner of the day, Tour leader, Tour Sprint leader
"I am absolutely happy about my today's performance. I felt very well at the start. It was fun to have bonus points in the race. My service team did excellent job. My skis were just perfect! I wanted to fight for the first bonus seconds and I did not want to wait. In mass start I am usually little bit afraid of donwnills. It was the case as well here. I skied carefully not to fall down. In finish I noticed that someone is coming close. It was Elena Kolomina. I said to myself that I will not lose victory this time. It happened to me that I lost the first position in the finish. Tomorrow we have Alpe Cermis. I am always nervous about the big climb. My tactics will be simple. I want to keep the same pace all the way up and ski as fast as possible."

Victory of Lukas Bauer in 20km classical Mass start race at Val di Fiemme

Lukas Bauer from the Czech Republic was the fastest on 20 km C Mass Start. Petter Northug (NOR) finished as second with 31,5 sec time gap. Third in the finish was Axel Teichmann (GER) with 33,3 sec on Bauer.

Petter Northug defended the overall Tour de Ski leader bib but his advantage over Bauer is as short as 8,3 sec. Axel Teichmann is in the overall Tour de Ski standing third with 1:30.3 time gap on Northug.

FIScrosscountry.com
Saturday 9 January 2010