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The 2023-2024 FIS World Cup season ends as it began—an all-Norwegian podium. After 20 kilometers of Mass Start Freestyle racing, the race was decided among a crowd of red race suits as Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo sprinted to first, followed by Gjoeran Tefre second, and Martin Loewstroem Nyenget third.
It’s been a season defined by the accomplishments of Klaebo (with 16 individual race wins and the Sprint Globe), but concluding with the awarding of the World Cup Overall Crystal Globe to Klaebo’s teammate, Harald Oestberg Amundsen (who also won the Distance Globe). And few teams in the world of sport dominate their discipline quite like the Norwegian men’s team does in cross-country skiing.
Klaebo missed nine race starts this season (due to illness), including the entirety of the points-rich Tour de Ski. Still, of the 24 races he entered, he won 15—an extraordinary level of consistency, excellence, and dominance. Regardless, the lead built in the World Cup Overall standings by Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) was such that Klaebo would have needed to win Falun’s 20 k Freestyle—and win all the bonus points—while Amundsen finishing far down in the standings. Coming into today’s race, Klaebo trailed Amundsen by `112 points. With maximum of only 130 points available in todays race (100 for the win, 30 bonus points), Klaebo would have needed to run the table AND have Amundsen basically fall off the edge of the map. While the likelihood of a Klaebo win was fairly high, the odds of Amundsen performing so poorly were quite low.
20 k Freestyle Mass Start
A massive men’s field—94 starters—lined up to challenge Falun’s four-lap course. Unlike the Women’s 20 k Freestyle Mass Start (contested earlier in the day) that began with a full-gas effort from eventual race winner, Jessie Diggins (USA), Klaebo and Amundsen led the field out of the stadium at a moderate pace.
Scott Patterson (USA), Gus Schumacher (USA), and Zanden McMullen (USA) came through early checkpoints in the top twenty among a solidly packed lead group. Leading through the middle kilometers of the race, Mika Vermeulen (AUT) took the first bonus points followed by Klaebo and Amundsen. Soon after, Hugo Lapalus (FRA), Jens Burman (SWE), and Friedrich Moch (GER) moved toward the front to assist Vermeulen in making the pace in front of a train of red-clad Norwegians.
Amundsen spent his race situated between fifth and tenth positions, a place unlikely to jeopardize his Overall standing while allowing him to keep an eye on other contenders in front of him. Ultimately, Amundsen began to show signs of fatigue at the rear of the 16-man lead group as a steady, regular increase of pace eventually began whittling away the contenders with every rise in elevation and increase in speed. Pace was made in the final lap by Iver Tildheim Andersson (NOR) and Gjoeran Tefre (NOR) (winner of the recent Norwegian National Championships 10 k), in the company of Klaebo and Vermeulen. With one kilometer remaining, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR) drove to the front to challenge Klaebo. But, as he has done so many times before, Klaebo powered into the lead down the final descent into the stadium. Tefre followed closely—and gave good chase down the finishing straightaway—but Klaebo was simply not to be denied, crossing the line for his seventh straight World Cup victory.
“Since Oberhof it’s been really amazing,” said Klaebo in post-race interviews. “So it’s good to finish up this way.”
Nyenget held on for third. Amundsen secured his World Cup Overall championship with a 17th place finish, only ten seconds behind the winner.
Schumacher and Patterson finished in the lead pack, 12th and 15th, respectively. Other American finishers included McMullen 27th, Kevin Bolger 44th, Zak Ketterson 45th, Peter Wolter 60th, Michael Earnhart 79th. Among Canadians, Antoine Cyr was 26th, Sam Hendry 39th, Xavier McKeever 68th, Sasha Masson 73rd, Pierre Grall-Johnson, 85th.
After eight World Cup seasons, the Falun 20 k represented the final race of Scott Patterson’s (USA) distinguished career, one highlighted by eighth and 11th place finishes in the Olympics, and a top-ten finish in the World Championships 50 k.
Men’s 20 k Freestyle Mass Start 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.
