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Holmenkollen is the home of Norwegian cross country skiing. It’s their Yankee Stadium, their Churchill Downs, their Wimbledon Centre Court, their Indianapolis Speedway. It’s the place where the Kingdom of Norway would usually crown its greatest champions, identify its cultural icons. But Norway already did that a week ago in Trondheim at the FIS World Championships where Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) so totally dominated the racing that no other performance in World Championship history even begins to compare. Klaebo sits alone atop the throne of Nordic skiing, making today’s races at Holmenkollen less of a coronation, and more of a victory lap.
But Klaebo was not the only one racing in Holmenkollen, and the event staged on Holmenkollen’s first day of racing—the 20 k Classic Interval Start—was not likely to be his best. Frankly, Klaebo’s six gold medal performance in Trondheim could easily have been upset by the presence of Iivo Niskanen, the Finnish Classic specialist who skipped the championships due to lingering illness. Had Niskanen been healthy for the 10 k Classic in Trondheim, Klaebo’s World Championship headlines might have been markedly different. But the stars aligned over Klaebo in Trondheim, allowing him to etch his name into skiing’s history books. In Holmenkollen, just one week later, Niskanen might’ve been hoping to etch his own name . . .
If he hoped to do so, Niskanen would be forced to do things the hard way: his start position in Holmenkollen made him the first of the true contenders to start. He races hard regardless of start position, but he would be at the disadvantage of having all his Norwegian rivals (Klaebo, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, Simen Hegstad Krueger, Erik Valnes, Paal Golberg, Andreas Fjorden Ree) start behind him. They’d get plenty of useful information, while Niskanen would race virtually alone.
In the end, Niskanen looked as though his recovery from the flu was not yet complete. He and Klaebo both skied with little fire, with Klaebo finishing 14th, and Niskanen a DNF.
The athelte who did display considerable fire was Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR) who seemed to be channelling the bottomless disappointment that must’ve resulted from his untimely fall in last week’s World Championship 50 k. Nyenget stormed through all the checkpoints of the Holmenkollen 20 k Classic on his way to an astronomical 51 second victory. He was joined on the podium by William Poromaa (SWE) and Simen Hegstad Krueger (NOR).
Canadian finishers included Olivier Leveille in a terrific 10th place, followed by Xavier McKeever 28th, Remi Drolet 47th, Thomas Stephen 52nd, Max Hollmann 57th.
Among Americans, Gus Schumacher delivered a masterfully paced performance to finish seventh, only 22 seconds from the podium. Other Americans included Ben Ogden 33rd, Kevin Bolger 36th, Luke Jager 59th.
“I’m feeling tired after the 50 k, for sure,” said Schumacher. “But every day was getting better than the last this week . . . still, maybe the last lap was a bit too hard for going faster. Definitely not super easy to nail the individual start 20 k pacing!”
20 k Classic
The men’s 50 k race in Trondheim concluded only a week ago, but the conditions in which the men’s field raced that World Championship event were nowhere near as taxing and exhausting as those experienced by the women’s field. Even so, the lingering stresses of such a 50 k race influenced FIS to replace Holmenkollen’s usual 50 k race with a 20 k Classic event on the World Cup schedule.
Holmenkollen offered racers an18.6 kilometer course (shortened from the original 20 kilometers due to weather and course considerations). Starting a few hours after the women’s event (won by Therese Johaug), the weather in Holmenkollen had warmed to over 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky had gone from sunny to overcast, so the waxing remained straightforward despite the warm temperatures.
Niskanen has dominated 10 k Classic races on the World Cup circuit this season; Holmenkollen represented his opportunity to re-establish himself at the top of the Classic field, and to seek a bit of retribution for the World Championship medals he perhaps missed due to his absence from Trondheim. But Holmenkollen proved to be too quick a return to action for Niskanen, who found himself already 10 seconds behind the leaders at the two kilometer mark. His technique appeared efficient, but his tempo slow and uninspired. Like Niskanen, Klaebo came through the two kilometer checkpoint some 10 seconds behind the leaders. Both pre-race favorites continued to lose time throughout the day with Klaebo finishing 14th, and Niskanen abandoning the race entirely.
Gus Schumacher (USA) skied strongly through the early checkpoints, delivering split times in the top ten of a tightly packed group of early leaders.
“The strategy was mostly pacing-related,” said Schumacher after the race. “I felt like I paced it pretty well. Don’t feel like I could’ve gone too much easier in the middle, but there’s always more room for me to relax and have more energy for the finish.”
Schumacher continued to accelerate through the middle kilometers, moving past Golberg, Ree, and Hugo Lapalus (FRA) into the fastest position at 14.4 kilometers. Schumacher was later supplanted by Amundsen, Krueger, and William Poromaa (SWE) with all the leaders being overhauled by Nyenget who seemed unmatchable on his way to the win.
Starting 66th, Nyenget began delivering split times well ahead of all other contenders, appearing to channel his frustration that had begun with his untimely fall in last week’s World Championship 50 k. He established a 35 second lead over all other contenders by the halfway mark.
Schumacher crossed the finish line 2.5 seconds behind Golberg. Both would sit and wait to see what placings their finishing times would earn them. Lapalus bumped Schumacher down by .1 seconds. Each successive finisher took over the lead; first Amundsen, then Krueger, then Poromaa, and finally Nyenget who crossed the finish line right after Poromaa, and 51 seconds ahead of everyone. Poromaa had the race of his life—second place in this World Cup 20 k Classic—and nearly found himself getting caught on course by Nyenget.
“Everyone was speaking since the 50 k that ‘you will have your revenge next week,'” said Nyenget in post-race interviews. “I feel I really had a great day, and got my revenge, if you can call it that.”
Holmenkollen is the venue where Norway crowns its heroes. He may have missed that opportunity in Trondheim, but Martin Loewstroem Nyenget more than made up for it on the storied trails of Holmenkollen.
Men’s 20 k Classic Interval 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.
