With a huge lead group still right together at the 25km mark, the men's 2x15km Olympic pursuit race suddenly blew apart in the last few kilometers as Sweden's Anders Sodegren and Italians Pietro Piller Cottrer and Giorgio Di Centa put forth an incredible effort on the last major climbs.
Sodegren hammered out a devastating pace on the last huge climb, which left most of the lead group trailing and only the two Italians were able to stay relatively close. Heading into the big downhill towards the stadium however, the Italians' stunningly fast skis overtook Sodegren, who still managed to hang on as they approached the finish.
Then, out of nowhere came 23-year-old Eugeni Dementiev of Russia, who put on an unbelievable kick in the last 400 meters to catch up to–and quickly overtake–the three leaders. Dementiev surged to the front in the stadium to take the first 2006 Olympic Gold in men's cross country, as Norwegian star Frode Estil, who made a similar late appearance after overcoming a broken ski that cost him 45 seconds at the start of the race, fought his way through to silver medal position at the line. The host nation, Italy, had a lot to cheer about as well with Piller Cottrer hanging on for a bronze medal ahead of his teammate Di Centa.
Sweden's Sodegren had to settle for fifth, while some of the pre-race favorites Vincent Vittoz (France–6th) and World Cup leader Tobias Angerer (Germany–12th) never found the climbing power to position themselves near the front for the final sprint. Canadian racer Ivan Babikov, skiing for his home country of Russia, achieved an excellent 13th place, only 16.4 seconds behind Dementiev.
The top U.S. skier was Carl Swenson in 40th, over four minutes back, while Andrew Johnson was close behind in 43rd. Also competing for USA were James Southam (44th) and Lars Flora (46th.) The Canadian men fared better with George Grey skiing right on the lead pack until the last few kilometers, ending up a little over two minutes back in 26th. Dan Roycroft was 39th, Drew Goldsack 57th and Chris Jeffries 62nd.
Olympic Results – Men's 2x15km Pursuit:
http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=10689
1 RUS DEMENTIEV Eugeni 17:00.8 -- 2 NOR ESTIL Frode 17:01.4 0.6 3 ITA PILLER COTTRER Pietro 17:01.7 0.9 4 ITA DI CENTA Giorgio 17:03.2 2.4 5 SWE SOEDERGREN Anders 17:04.3 3.5 6 FRA VITTOZ Vincent 17:07.5 6.7 7 AUT BOTWINOV Mikhail 17:08.5 7.7 8 SVK BAJCICAK Martin 17:08.7 7.9 9 KAZ ODNODVORTSEV Maxim 17:09.6 8.8 10 CZE BAUER Lukas 17:10.1 9.3 11 LIE HASLER Markus 17:10.9 10.1 12 GER ANGERER Tobias 17:12.5 11.7 13 RUS BABIKOV Ivan 17:17.2 16.4 14 CZE MAGAL Jiri 17:21.7 20.9 15 SWE FREDRIKSSON Mathias 17:23.1 22.3 16 ITA SANTUS Fabio 17:25.5 24.7 17 AUT TAUBER Martin 17:28.6 27.8 18 NOR GJERDALEN Tord Asle 17:36.2 35.4 19 ITA CHECCHI Valerio 17:37.8 37 20 EST KOKK Kaspar 17:50.8 50 21 FIN JAUHOJARVI Sami 17:58.1 57.3 22 CZE KOUKAL Martin 18:09.6 +1:08.8 23 GER FILBRICH Jens 18:38.2 +1:37.4 24 SWE OLSSON Johan 18:47.9 +1:47.1 25 SVK BATORY Ivan 18:58.2 +1:57.4 26 CAN GREY George 19:08.9 +2:08.1 27 FRA ROUSSELET Alexandre 19:17.0 +2:16.2 28 NOR ANDRESEN Jan Egil 19:29.8 +2:29.0 29 NOR AUKLAND Anders 19:30.6 +2:29.8 30 KAZ GOLOVKO Andrey 19:34.3 +2:33.5 31 SWE BRINK Joergen 19:35.3 +2:34.5 32 ESP VILARRUBLA Vicente 19:39.8 +2:39.0 33 EST REHEMAA Aivar 19:51.4 +2:50.6 34 FIN SIMILAE Tero 20:04.5 +3:03.7 35 FRA PERRILLAT Christophe 20:12.0 +3:11.2 36 CZE SPERLMilan 20:16.7 +3:15.9 37 SUI FISCHER Remo 20:19.7 +3:18.9 38 RUS LEGKOV Alexander 20:28.2 +3:27.4 39 CAN ROYCROFT Dan 20:53.3 +3:52.5 40 USA SWENSON Carl 21:08.0 +4:07.2 41 SUI LIVERS Toni 21:08.2 +4:07.4 42 JPN EBISAWA Katsuhito 21:16.2 +4:15.4 43 USA JOHNSON Andrew 21:16.8 +4:16.0 44 USA SOUTHAM James 22:05.8 +5:05.0 45 KAZ EREMENKO Dmitrij 22:09.9 +5:09.1 46 SLO BRODAR Nejc 22:23.9 +5:23.1 47 UKR GUMENYAK Mikhail 22:24.6 +5:23.8 48 ROM ANTAL Zsolt 22:29.8 +5:29.0 49 USA FLORA Lars 22:31.2 +5:30.4 50 UKR LEYBYUK Roman 22:31.5 +5:30.7 51 CHN XIA Wan 22:31.7 +5:30.9 52 RUS ARTEEV Ivan 22:36.2 +5:35.4 53 UKR PUTSKO Olexandr 22:37.6 +5:36.8 54 SVK MALAK Michal 23:39.9 +6:39.1 55 ESP RUIZ Diego 24:05.5 +7:04.7 56 SLO MEHLE Joze 24:13.6 +7:12.8 57 CAN GOLDSACK Drew 24:14.3 +7:13.5 58 UKR BATYUK Alexander 24:35.9 +7:35.1 59 JPN NARUSE Nobu 25:21.3 +8:20.5 60 SUI BURGERMEISTER Reto 25:49.9 +8:49.1 61 KAZ KONDROSCHEV Andrey 25:51.4 +8:50.6 62 CAN JEFFRIES Chris 26:17.0 +9:16.2 63 CHN REN Long 26:26.4 +9:25.6 64 ROM GALICEANU Mihai 26:31.8 +9:31.0 65 CRO KLOBUCAR Denis 27:16.4 +10:15.6 66 TUR OGLAGO Sabahattin 28:03.8 +11:03.0 GER SOMMERFELDT Rene DNF FRA JONNIER Emmanuel DNF JPN KOMAMURA Shunsuke DNF KOR PARK Byung Joo DNF CHN HAN Dawei DNF KOR CHOI Im-Heon DNF CHN LI Zhiguang DNF KOR JUNG Eui Myung DNF AND SOULIE Francesc DNF BUL BARIAKOV Ivan DNF FIN OHTONEN Olli DNS
