After today’s races, the chase for the overall Crystal Globe have once again been flipped on their head. Both Majdic and Northug had races to forget and those chasing them, namely Kowalczyk and Cologna, proved why they deserve to have a say in the matter. The distances today were shortened from the usual 15km/30km to a more reasonable 10km/20km as this was the second of three races in consecutive days for the athletes at the end of a long season. br /br /span style=”font-weight:bold;”Men/spanbr /br /Today saw the men’s race run before the women’s race, which rarely happens on the World Cup circuit. The race was a very exciting display of talent for the spectators as there were many lead changes. At 7.5km there was a three man break away that had Bauer, Angerer, and Legkov 21 seconds in front of the main chase pack. Vittoz was stuck in no-man’s land with 10 seconds on either side of him but he was able to pull in the leaders by the exchange. br /br /On the skate leg, Bauer was quickly dropped from the group to be replaced by Di Centa and Cologna, and it seemed that Angerer was beginning to loose touch with the leaders. With only 5km to go, Gaillard, Magal, and Angerer regained contact with the leaders to make the lead seven. Only 15 seconds behind the group was a 16 man chase group.br /br /At the top of Morderbacken, Cologna had broken the leaders and only Legkov and Vittoz had managed to hold on. The last 2km, which was mostly downhill, saw some great pieces of skiing from some athletes in the chase group; particularly, Marcus Hellner and Piller-Cotter. The finish saw Cologna gain a 10m gap over the rest while Angerer, Vittoz, Hellner, Piller-Cottrer, and Legkov fought it out for the silver and bronze. br /br /Both Hellner and Piller-Cottrer today had very impressive skate legs. Hellner was 27 seconds behind the lead at 7.5km and Piller Cottrer was 43 seconds behind at the same point. Quite amazing skiing to come back into the lead and finish 2nd and 4th respectively.br /br /
