Day 2 summary – Mens 30 km mass-start
The perfect weather and snow conditions in Val Di Fiemme continous, and Wednesdays Mens 30 km mass-start event became one of the all-time best for the sport and TV audience here in Europe.
The race was held on a 7.5 km loop, followed continously with TV cameras placed around the course. The large field started to spread out early, but the lead group was never less than 14 skiers until the very end of the race. The lead group contained skiers from many countries; Sweden , Norway, Germany, Estonia, Austria and Italy, but on the last lap the favorites started to really emerge.
The TV audience saw closeups of several crashes along the way – some involving skiers in the lead group as well. The courses here are very technical, with steep ups and down. The uphill slopes are some of the steepest we see in World Championship venues, the best skiers barely able to climb without herringboning. The downhills contain several sharp corners, and it was amazing to see the “peleton” coming through these parts of the course.
On the last lap, the Estonian Veerpalu got away from the rest of the field, having about a 10 second lead with 3 km to go. Everyone thought the race favorite at that point would just ski away from the field. The Norwegian threesome Ahlsgaard, Estil and Aukland however agreed on something else. At about 1.5 km left they had caught Verpalu, and on the last easy 1 km of the course noone could guess the outcome. Coming into the stadium, the three Norwegians were side by side, with Veerpalu closed in being them, and in the middle track with no hope of passing. The medals were clear, with an amazing Thomas Ahlsgaard first. Thomas had gotten 32 in the Norwegian Championship two weeks earlier, and was not even supposed to ski the race. However, 3 days before the event, he had sent this e-mail message to the teams head coach: “I am feeling great, I want to race”.
With his “clout”, he was entered in the race regardless of his poor pre-Championship results – and showed he is a real Champion. He has now won medals in the last 8 World Championships/Olympics – a feat he is alone with.