Kuusamo, Finland – Sunday November 30th
Men's Cross-Country World Cup
In the first part of the 15+15km double pursuit, the classical part, all the favorites stayed together. Estonian Andrus Veerpalu led after the 15K classic leg, but he lost the lead early in the skating portion of the two-race race.
After the equipment exchange at 15 km, 12 — 13 skiers fought for positions at the front. Not much happened until Sodergren tried to break away, and got about 10 seconds with 5 km to go. Soedergren took a lead going into the final couple of kilometers, but couldn't hold off Teichmann and teammates Rene Sommerfeldt and Jens Filbrich. Five pursuing Germans, with Teichman pulling the pace, slowly closed the gap, but did not catch up to the leading Sodergren until 100m before the finish.
At this point, there was no double about who the winner would be. The tall and strong German was in control, and easily won the final sprint. Teichmann, the reigning world 15K champion, finished in 1:15.52.8 with Soedergren second at 1:15.53.4 as the top seven skiers were within 5.5 seconds of the winner.
A big day for Teichman and the German team, with 5 skiers in the top 7. Sweden got second and fifth place.
Kris Freeman, scoring World Cup points for the third consecutive race, overcame two falls in the 15K classic race to finish 29th overall Sunday, while Carl Swenson was 34th. Freeman, despite the two spills, finished in 1:18.22.6 with Swenson 34th in 1:19.33.9.
“I'm not sure what it was but Kris went down at the bottom of two downhills during the first race, but he got up and back into it,” US Ski Team Head Coach Trond Nystad said. “Without that, obviously he'd have been a lot farther up. Carl had just an average classic race [he was 43rd] and then turned it up in the skate race, so he's starting to ski faster.”
Overall a very exciting competition. The next men's World Cup races are a 30K mass-start, freestyle race and two-man team sprint Dec. 6-7 in Dobbiaco, Italy.
FREEMAN 29TH, SWENSON 34TH IN KUUSAMO SKIATHLON
Men's double pursuit (15 + 15 km) World Cup – Results
1 Teichmann Axel GER 1:15:52.8
2 Soedergren Anders SWE 1:15:53.4
3 Sommerfeldt Rene GER 1:15:54.2
4 Filbrich Jens GER 1:15:55.8
5 Fredriksson Mathias SWE 1:15:57.0
6 Angerer Tobias GER 1:15:57.6
7 Schluetter Andreas GER 1:15:58.3
8 Piller Cottrer Pietro ITA 1:15:59.5
9 Bauer Lukas CZE 1:16:02.3
10 Di Centa Giorgio ITA 1:16:09.2
11 Skjeldal Kristen NOR 1:16:10.0
12 Aukland Anders NOR 1:16:14.0
13 Mae Jaak EST 1:16:14.8
14 Valbusa Fulvio ITA 1:16:37.9
15 Veerpalu Andrus EST 1:16:42.6
16 Novikov Serguei RUS 1:17:12.2
17 Estil Frode NOR 1:17:21.5
18 Checchi Valerio ITA 1:17:22.2
19 Vittoz Vincent FRA 1:17:23.8
20 Fredriksson Thobias SWE 1:17:25.5
21 Vilissov Vladimir RUS 1:17:29.0
22 Pankratov Nikolai RUS 1:17:47.8
23 Bjonviken Tore NOR 1:17:53.4
24 Hofstad Tore Ruud NOR 1:17:55.1
25 Svartedal Jens Arne NOR 1:17:56.0
26 Magal Jiri CZE 1:17:56.9
27 Noutrikhine Andrei RUS 1:17:59.3
28 Stebler Christian SUI 1:17:59.7
29 Freeman Kris USA 1:18:22.6
30 Repo Sami FIN 1:18:26.5
31 Ohtonen Olli FIN 1:18:43.9
32 Similae Tero FIN 1:19:15.9
33 Koch Beat SUI 1:19:33.2
34 Swenson Carl USA 1:19:33.9
35 Virolainen Roman BLR 1:19:49.1
36 Jauhojaervi Sami FIN 1:19:49.3
37 Morko Juha FIN 1:19:53.7
38 Brink Joergen SWE 1:20:03.0
39 Narusk Priit EST 1:20:05.3
40 Golovko Andrei KAZ 1:20:06.7
41 Jonnier Emmanuel FRA 1:20:12.6
42 Zorzi Cristian ITA 1:20:20.5
43 Leybyuk Roman UKR 1:20:24.0
44 Chebotko Nikolay KAZ 1:20:31.7
45 Krezelok Janusz POL 1:20:34.0
46 Rupnik Vasja SLO 1:20:34.9
47 Kurunmaeki Veli-Pekka FIN 1:20:48.0
48 Oestberg Fredrik SWE 1:21:00.5
49 Koukal Martin CZE 1:21:30.3
50 Kozu Masaaki JPN 1:22:31.5
51 Peltotalo Jani FIN 1:23:29.2
52 Salo Jukka FIN 1:23:50.5
53 Burgermeister Reto SUI 1:24:02.3
Sources: Langrenn.com and US Ski Team
