Tour-de-Ski champion, and men's overall World Cup leader, Lukas Bauer (CZE), skied to a 14 second victory over Jaak Mae (EST) in the 15km classic individual start event in Estonia. After Mae, there was a large gap to the rest of the field. Third place finisher Ville Nousiainen (FIN) was 1:05 behind Bauer.
It was a good day for the host nation, with veteran Andrus Veerpalu finishing fourth to give Estonia two of the top four spots. Norweigan classic specialist Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset was fifth.
American Kris Freeman started slowly, ranking 25th after the first 5km loop. By the 10km mark, Freeman stood in 14th and eventually finished 16th in a very tight group. Seven seconds would have moved the American distance skier into 11th.
Devon Kershaw led the Canadians with a 33rd place finish. Drew Goldsack, George Gray, and Alex Harvey finished 44th, 45th, and 46th, all within 3 seconds of each other.
