TOUR DE SKI. Strong sprinters were in the ladies 1.3 km free sprint final in Toblach. The fact that Justyna Kowalczyk qualified came as a bigger surprise to most people, as she finished 20th in the same stage last year. Bjoergen started her day by winning the qualification, 4.9 seconds ahead of Kowalczyk, and thereby decreasing the overall lead that Kowalczyk has further, as the qualification time count as today’s time. On the last 200 meters flat part of the stadium, Kowalczyk fought hard against Kikkan Randall and Bjoergen, but had to accept third place. Bjoergen won by her tip of her toe to Randall.
 
Marthe Kristoffersen (NOR) and Denise Hermann (GER) was qualified for the final as Lucky Loosers. Hermann finished fourth, Vesna Fabjan fifth and Kristoffersen sixth.
 
The winner of Tour de Ski 2012 is still not decided, and by Bjoergen’s third stage win in a row, the gap between her and Kowalczyk is now 4.8 seconds. With 15 km free technique on tomorrow’s agenda, Bjoergen will have an advantage, as this is not Kowalczyk’s strongest discipline. Kowalczyk has surprised us more than once though, showing great performance in sprint today, she will definitely not give her lead to Marit without a true fight.
 
Quotes from the press conference:
 
Justyna Kowalczyk:
 
“I don’t know what happened today, I was fast. This is a big surprise for me, I’m still in the lead, and I’m third in skate sprinting – wow”.
 
“15 km skating is not my best distance, actually I hate this distance, but I will try to do my best and see what happens”.
 
Marit Bjoergen:
 
“It was a good race and I’m really happy. In the final I was very satisfied, also with the fact that Kikkan came in between Justyna and I. I’ve taken a lot of seconds the last two days which I’m obviously happy about. It’s really close now”.
 
“I want the race to go fast tomorrow, I know Therese will be behind us, and I want to have as many minutes ahead of her before the final climb on Sunday”.

Morilov wins men's free sprint, Cologna still in the lead

Dario Cologna was the fastest man in the qualification today, pressuring Northug and the others to keep up their speed to not loose seconds on his overall lead. With exciting quarter finals and semi finals where Josef Wenzl (GER) (beaten in the semi-final) and home favourite David Hofer (ITA) showed great performance, nothing was settled before the last final.
 
Lucky Looser Alex Harvey wanted to take the second Canadian win here (Devon Kershaw won this stage last year), but had to see him self beaten in the final, ending at 6th place. The strong sprinter, Nikolay Morilov (RUS) was faster than Northug on the last 100 meters, and could celebrate his first stage win of this year's Tour de Ski. Northug finished second, followed by Cologna, Hofer and Pethukov. Morilov has decided to end Tour de Ski after today's race, and will not compete in the three remaining stages.
 
Cologna is still the Tour de Ski Leader, whilst Petter Northug took back the Overall Sprint Leader bib. The gap between Northug and Cologna is now at 13.5 seconds, much closer than what it was last year at this stage. With a 32 km free distance race tomorrow, where the men will ski from Cortina to Toblach, everything can happen. The weather forecast says snowfall, and the two Tour favourites are most likely to work together as a team and push each other to not loose time on the following group. Alexander Legkov is currently ranked third on the overall list, +1:28.2 behind, Kershaw +2:06.6., Vylegzhaning +2:15.8 and Manificat +2:35.3
 
Three stages remain in this Tour de Ski edition, with the final climb on this coming Sunday in Val di Fiemme.
 

Quotes from today's Press Conference:
 
Nikolay Morilov:
“I believed it was possible to be faster than Petter Northug today, I think it is possible in Tour de Ski”.
 
“I will not continue in the Tour after this race, but I will stay in Italy and help testing skis and support my team.”
 
Petter Northug:
 
“I knew that I had to be in the top and not loose seconds in the qualification. Being in the final today was really important, especially since Dario was there as well. I should have won today, the last 200 meters were embarrassing but I was a bit tired today, and I’m happy with second spot and that its only 13 seconds between Dario and me now”.
 
“I will groom the track for the rest of the guys with Dario tomorrow. We will hopefully cooperate well, and keep the distance back to Legkov and the others”.
 
Dario Cologna:
“It was a good race; my goal was taking as many bonus seconds as possible. I still have a small advantage to Petter, most important wasn’t winning, but rather ski smart and try to save some energy for tomorrow”.
 
“The tactic will be just to start and see what happens. We will probably ski together, but I am sure both of us would like to have a big gap as possible, with Legkov and the others not being far behind”.

FIScrosscountry.com
Wednesday 4 January 2012