Martin Johnsrud Sundby is back in the Overall World Cup leader's bib after a 2.2-second win over teammate Finn Hågen Krogh on Saturday in the men's 10 k freestyle at the Lillehammer World Cup. For Sunday's pursuit, he'll start 20 seconds behind Krogh, who leads the mini tour after two-straight podiums.
Eirik Brandsdal repeated his Kuusamo feat from last year, winning the classic sprint there for the second-straight year. He led a Norwegian sweep of the men's top four, outlasting Northug in a double-pole showdown to the finish, and 21-year-old Sondre Turvoll Fossli placed third in his first World Cup final.
The Weekend Roundup is back! Just because the Olympics are over doesn't mean the season is finished. Catch up with the renewed World Cup action in Lahti, Finland, the IBU Youth World Championships, and the Vasaloppet.
In the final few hundred meters, Pål Golberg stormed ahead of a tiring Teodor Peterson and Alexey Petukhov to win his second career World Cup victory. "It was a crazy final with two falls," he said, "I was bit lucky I could avoid a crash, but luck belongs to sport. Today it was my turn."
It is difficult to pick a favorite in the men's Olympic sprint, but Norwegian Ola Vigen Hattestad made a strong case for that designation, winning the final pre-Games tune-up in Toblach, Italy. Teammate Eirik Brandsdal was second and German Josef Wenzl took third.
Twenty-five days before the Olympics open in Sochi, Russia, Nikita Kriukov couldn’t have timed Sunday’s 6 x 1.6-kilometer team-classic sprint victory much better. The 28-year-old Russian’s execution was right up there as well. Meanwhile, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell teamed up for one of the best U.S. men's team-sprint finishes in recent memory.
Just a few meters ahead coming into the homestretch, Ola Vigen Hattestad stayed ahead and outlunged Alexey Poltoranin of Kazakhstan by a couple centimeters on Sunday, giving Norway I the victory as Kazakhstan placed second and Norway II finished third.
If you missed the 2 ½-minute men’s freestyle sprint final on Sunday in Davos, Switzerland, but caught a glimpse of the top three at the finish – you wouldn’t have a clue what happened. Everyone was happy -- an unusual thing at this level -- and the Norwegian winner, Anders Gløersen, was perhaps the least animated of the bunch.
The official beginning to the 2014 racing season didn't disappoint with tons of exciting nordic action taking place across the globe. FasterSkier was on-site in West Yellowstone to cover the SuperTour opener, Kikkan Randall opened with her best classic-sprint finish of second in Kuusamo, Noah Hoffman notched the fastest men's time in Sunday's 15 k pursuit to end the Kuusamo Ruka Triple, and Tim Burke had his first podium of the biathlon season.
Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) won the first World Cup race of the 2014 season, besting Anton Gafarov (RUS) and Teodor Peterson (SWE) in a classic sprint the kicked off the Ruka Triple mini-tour.
Petter Northug sheltered himself from the wind then surged to the front when it counted, winning each of his heats and ultimately Wednesday's final for his first sprint victory in Stockholm. The win put him ahead of Alexander Legkov and Dario Cologna in the overall World Cup standings and in prime position for the rest of the World Cup Finals.
It was a feel-good day for the top three in the men's 1.5 k classic sprint at World Championships on Thursday, with Russian Nikita Kriukov claiming his first gold and Norway's Petter Northug and Canada's Alex Harvey making the podium in second and third, respectively.
No one has ever raced skied the sprint course at World Championships at full speed before in a pack of six before. There is not yet a standard script written for these 1.2 k and 1.5 k loops, and when athletes don’t know what to expect from their competitors in a tactics-drive sprint heat, an exciting race is sure to follow.
It's been almost a year since Teodor Peterson last stood atop a podium, but on Saturday in Liberec, Czech Republic, he finally had the race he was looking for. He out-lunged Emil Jönsson and Pål Golberg for the classic sprint win; Andy Newell was sixth for his best classic result in three years.
Nikita Kriukov (RUS) outsprinted Petter Northug (NOR) to win the first stage of the Ruka Triple in stunning fashion. Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) was third in first stage of the three event mini-tour in Kuusamo, Finland.
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of
All 2012 FIS World Cup Finals coverage is brought to you through the generous support of Complete Results Matt Voisin contributed reporting.
Eirik Brandsdal (NOR) entered the day planning on being aggressive, and the strategy paid off. Brandsdal skied away from the field in the final of the Drammen classic sprint, winning for the second time this season. Brandsdal may not have been the favorite in this race, but his win certainly was no surprise. The same cannot be said of second-place finisher Lenny Valjas of Canada. The towering Canadian used a strong double pole and impressive...
From the qualifier through to the A-final, recently crowned Tour de Ski champion Dario Cologna (SUI) skied a “perfect” sprint day by all accounts in Otepää, Estonia on Saturday. The current overall World Cup points leader made a statement from the word get-go, posting the fastest qualifying time by an unbelievable 4.2 seconds in a 1.4 k classic. He then went on to decisively win his quarter, semi and final heats. Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR)...