Norwegian cross-country skier Petter Northug Jr goes into the final leg of the FIS Tour de Ski in Italy on Saturday at the head of the leaderboard after victory in the Cortina–Toblach stage yesterday.
On the day he turned 24, Northug regained the lead of the Tour, which had begun on New Year’s Day with his win in the Prologue at Oberhof, followed by a second victory the next day on stage two in the German resort, watched by around 3,000 spectators in snowy conditions and sub-zero temperatures that dropped to almost minus seven degrees Celsius.
Stages three and four in Prague, Czech Republic, were less successful for Northug as his rivals, including Sweden’s Marcus Hellner, made up ground and overtook him, but his birthday saw him back to his best as he came out first in a three-man sprint finish to win the 36km fifth stage from Cortina D'Ampezzo to Toblach in Italy and take back the lead with just the last two days of action in Val di Fiemme, a little to the south-west of Cortina, on January 9 and 10.
But despite his pleasure at the birthday win, Northug admitted it hadn’t been all plain sailing.
“My body was feeling a bit heavy after the seven-hour drive [from the Czech Republic to Italy],” Northug commented, “and I damaged my ski a bit in the middle of the race.”
Though with his overall time of 2h 40m 48.9s only a relatively slender 20.1s ahead of Hellner in second, Northug is a country mile ahead in the FIS World Cup overall standings with 679pts – 322pts ahead of Hellner in second – while he also leads both the sprint and distance standings outright.
But Northug will know that it’s the time, not points, that decide the Tour de Ski – and will be doing everything in his power to finish first in Val di Fiemme.
Keep up with all the latest results of the Tour at www.tour-de-ski.com.
Comments
Add a comment