Maurice “The Magnificant” Manificat, Bjørgen Does It Again + Relay Predictions

Today was the World Cup resume for the final two weeks of the season. The women’s side saw Bjørgen win handily and continue to show why she is the top female skier in the world right now while France’s Maurice Manificat won his first ever World Cup race. The intermediate sprints enabled Bauer to close his gap on Northug by 120 points while Kowalczyk officially won this years World Cup Overall title with seven races left. Majdic is still in second but won’t be racing again this year and Saarinen is 786 points behind.

Women

The Finnish crowd were let down before the race even started as their medal hopefully for the day; Aino-Kaisa Saarien, decided not to start due to sickness. The race started out very fast and by 3.75km only 13 skiers were in the hunt and by 5km it was down to Kowalczyk, Bjørgen, and Johaug. The fight for top stop continued that way for the remaining 10km.

Kowalczyk looked like she was being broke numerous times in the race by Johaug and Bjørgen as they were able to put a little space between them and the Pole, but you know Kowalczyk wasn’t going to roll and was going to fight to her death to hang on. She was able to catch up and slip regain her composure a couple times and actually try to dictate the pace.

Finally, Bjørgen broke the other two and opened up a decisive gap with 2km left. This meant Kowalczyk slipped into survival mode and began her hunt to regain the distance she lost and in the process dropped Johaug. Coming to the stadium is was clear how the podium would look as there was 50-75m between Bjørgen and Kowalczyk, and Kowalczyk and Johaug.

The race behind the leaders was equally exciting with Sachenbacher-Stehle, Størmer-Steira, Kristoffersen, Roponen, and Longa. In the end, Roponen won that race within the race to give the home crowd something to cheer about as Kristoffersen, Sachenbacher-Stehle, and Longa were all in a photo finish for 5th spot but it ultimately went to the Norwegian.

Results
1. Marit Bjørgen
2. Justyna Kowalczyk
3. Therese Johaug

Norway had another great day at the races and had four of the top eight skiers and six of the top

14 in today’s race. The Italians also showed strong form today with Longa in 7th, Follis in 9th, and Confortola-Wyatt continuing to quietly pick up good results in 11th.

I was particularly happy to see a strong performance from Johaug who was the butt end of some tough press before Christmas in the Norwegian media. It’s great to see her put in a couple strong performances and should do wonders for her confidence for the remaining races of the season. It would be great to see her on the podium in Holmenkollen next weekend and I think they race format will suit her.

Men

I was only able to catch the first 20 minutes of the race and didn’t see the rest due to technical difficulties so the last hour was followed via FIS live splits. Judging from that and twitter feeds, I missed out one a very exciting finish. If you haven’t heard about it yet, here is a brief run down of what happened… Bauer won all the intermediate sprints to collect an addition 60 World Cup points but in the end was out dueled by Manificat for the win.

At the exchange the pack was led by Veerpalu and only had six athletes in it including Bauer, Angerer, Vylegzhanin, Checchi and Manificat but 5km later is was a two-horse race between Manificat and Bauer and they were able to put a lot of time between them and the chasers in the final 10km. Manificat started the sprint early and was too much for the Czech and was able to capture the gold medal in very deserving fashion.

The fight for bronze fell to Chernousov, Yylegzhanin, Veerpalu, and Checchi and Cherousov was able to outsprint the rest to take the bronze.

Results
1. Maurice Manificat
2. Lukas Bauer
3. Ilia Chernousov

I find it always exciting when an athlete steps on the podium for the first time, or on top of the podium for the first time. Magnificat has had a breakout season and this is his second podium of the year and this was only his 21st World Cup appearance.

With Bauer earning those extra World Cup points it will make for a very interesting battle for the World Cup Overall title as the gap is down to 172 points. Norwegian media is already thanking Manificat for “stealing” some of the sprint points from Bauer in helping Northug.

It was a great race for Chernousov who was 20 seconds off the pace but fought to get back into the race and was able out-lunge his teammate Vylegzhanin for the bronze medal. I’m actually surprised to see that Veerpalu was able to hang in with the chase pack for the skate leg to end up in 6th.

Other impressive results came from Petter Eliassen who won the Tour de Ski Norway over the Olympics and was 14th while Tim Tscharnke continues to improve as the 20 year old ended up 16th today.

Relay Preview

Tomorrow will see the last team relay of the year and there are not a lot of teams entered. Each woman will be doing 2×2.5km while each man will be racing 3×3.3km. Out of the 10 teams entered in the ladies race, four are Finnish and two are Norwegian. I expect both Norwegian teams to be on the podium tomorrow.

Predictions

Women
1. Norway I
2. Italy
3. Norway II

Men
1. Russia I
2. Norway I
3. Finland I

Til Tomorrow.