This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com.
Winter endurance sports represent a quandary: training for endurance events requires that athletes push themselves repeatedly toward exhaustion . . . a condition that makes them especially susceptible to transferable illnesses. Influenza caught up with Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo who never even started the 2024 Tour de Ski. Ben Ogden (USA) caught the cold that’s been coursing through the Stifel U.S. Ski Team; he was forced to drop out of the Tour de Ski while standing third overall and wearing the Points Leader’s jersey. This morning in Davos, Switzerland, it was Gus Schumacher who fell ill and was forced to withdraw. Only a few hours after his personal-best World Cup finish (fourth in the Stage 4 Men’s Freestyle Sprint), Schumacher was out of the tour.
Canadian, Antoine Cyr, started the Pursuit in 19th place overall. He fought to secure a place in a group led early-on by Amundsen and Pellegrino, allowing Cyr to fight his way to a tremendous seventh place finish. Olivier Leveille was the only other Canadian finisher in 41st. Julien Locke (CAN) did not start the day’s racing. Only Zanden McMullen (USA) and Scott Patterson (USA) remain in the field for Team USA. Patterson finished the day 24th, with McMullen 28th.
Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) was appearing edgy: slamming his poles on the ground after an untimely fall in yesterday’s sprint competition, wearing the bib of the Tour de Ski leader, but definitely wanting more reward—and respect—than he was getting, Amundsen began today’s 20 k Pursuit looking like a man seeking redemption. He would get it, storming through the finishing straightaway for an impressive victory over his countryman, Henrik Doennestad. In what has become common occurance, a third Norwegian rounded out the podium: Martin Loewstroem Nyenget.
Norway may have swept the podium (again), but there were more national choices among the contenders including Beda Klee (SUI) who finished sixth, Friedrich Moch (GER) who finished fifth, and Hugo Lapalus who finished fourth (only a tenth of a second off the podium).
20 k Classic Pursuit
After a morning snowstorm that profoundly affected the Women’s Pursuit, the Men’s Pursuit was contested on a Classic track that more accurately resembled old fashioned ski racing—fluffy snow, irregular tracks, lower racing speeds, and long laps through the woods. The snowstorm that buffeted the Women’s Pursuit had abated, but new snow would still affect the Classic tracks and the ability of the wax techs to produce fast skis. Fortunately, the entirety of the Davos valley was in shadow by race time, so there would be no sunny patches for wax technicians to anticipate.
With the start order being determined by placings in the prior day’s Sprint competition, gaps between starters were quite narrow—and the earliest starters were sprinters rather than endurance skiers. The day’s first starter, Lucas Chanavat (FRA) had been accused of “sandbagging” in the last Pursuit stage of the Tour de Ski: slow-walking much of the race course in an attempt to save his energy for later sprint stages. With today’s World Cup cameras focused solidly on him (as the day’s first starter), Chanavat began the race with a more honest effort, focusing his efforts on acquiring the Bonus Points available at 3.4 k. He managed to hold his lead, crossing the Bonus Points line just a ski-length ahead of Edvin Anger (SWE). His mission accomplished, Chanavat quickly pulled up after that checkpoint, resuming a pedestrian pace more closely resembling the way he had raced in the Pursuit event last Saturday. Chanavat would ultimately finish the day’s 20 k race distance, but in 79th place, nearly eight minutes behind the leaders.
Anger—a much more accomplished distance skier than Chanavat—continued on alone, pursued at a distance by a group that included Pellegrino (third in overall standings), Haavard Solaas Taugboel (NOR), Matz William Jenssen (NOR), Erik Valnes (NOR), and Lauri Vuorinen (FIN). The group including Amundsen and Cyr followed only a few more seconds behind.
Anger still held a 30 second lead at 8.6 k, but by end of the first of two laps his lead had evaporated. Soon after, he was swallowed up by a 15-man group led by Amundsen. Ultimately, Amundsen and Henrik Doennestad (NOR) got away from the field, sprinting to the finish line where Amundsen out-sprinted Doennestad by less than a second. Their countryman, Nyenget, managed to hold off a hard-charging Lapalus for third.
Amundsen continues in the Tour de Ski leader’s jersey, but now with the measure of respect to which he believes he is due. The Tour seems Amundsen’s to win or lose, with only two distance-race stages remaining (including Sunday’s daunting climb up Val di Fiemme’s Alpe Cermis).
Men’s 20 k Classic Pursuit RESULTS
John Teaford
John Teaford—the Managing Editor of FasterSkier — has been the coach of Olympians, World Champions, and World Record Holders in six sports: Nordic skiing, speedskating, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, triathlon. In his long career as a writer/filmmaker, he spent many seasons as Director of Warren Miller’s annual feature film, and Producer of adventure documentary films for Discovery, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, and NBC Sports.
