Italy – Pietro Piller-Cottrer (ITA) won the World Cup Final Prologue over an easy course in St. Caterina, just 0.1 seconds ahead of Tord Asle Gjerdalen of Norway. Third place went to Czech Martin Jaks, 1.8 seconds behind the winner. This was Jak's first ever World cup podium finish.
The race counts toward the World Cup Final (3 competitions in 3 days), which is a kind of ‘Mini Tour'. To get the World Cup points for the overall and sprint World Cup standings from today, the racers must finish all three races.
Piller-Cottrer started fast was second at 0.8km already second, while Gjerdalen (28th at 0.8 km) and Jaks (30th at 0.8 km) were increased their speed to the end of the race.
Said Piller-Cottrer, “It was a great victory today in front of the Italian crowd. Everybody was cheering me along the whole course — it was fantastic to race here in St. Caterina. These World Cup points are also very important for me in the overall ranking and the distance ranking. Entering today i was fourth in both standings.”
The tight fight for the overall sprint World Cup ranking on the men's side has been decided. Norweigan Ola Vigen Hattestad took the title over Swede Emil Joennson. Both sprint specialists could not crack the top 30 so Hattestad's two point lead holds up.
 finished 10th (Photo Credit: Swix Sport)</font></center></p></div></div></div><div class=)