Kowalczyk Defends Tour de Ski Crown

Coming into the final stage, Kowalczyk had a massive 2:08 lead over second place Marianna Longa. It was her race to lose and in typical Kowalczyk fashion she hammered out the fifth fastest time of the day to defend her Tour de Ski title. Even though Kowalczyk won the competition, the big news today was Therese Johaug who had a phenomenal race and was a minute faster than anyone else in the field.

THE RACE

Kowalczyk started the race with a 2:08 and as she left the starting gate, it was the last time the field saw the Pol. The true race was for the positions behind Kowalczyk as the gap between Longa, Follis and Johaug was only 1:20. It was apparent early on that Johaug was going to have a special day as she took 13 seconds out of the lead in the first 1.7km and had surpassed Majdic.

The relentless pace continued from Johaug as she closed in on the Italians and at 2.7km, the Norwegian had taken an additional nine seconds out.

At this point, Kowalczyk and Longa were traveling at identical speeds and the gap between first and second remained 2:08. Follis was gaining on the front two and only had 22 seconds between her and her teammate.

At the base of the hill, it’s where Johaug really shined and started to eat up the snow between her and podium spots. At the 19 minute mark of the race, Johaug had caught Follis for third, but wasn’t done yet and continued on her quest to catch Longa. It was only a couple of minutes later when the Norwegian caught Longa and moved into second.

Ahead of Johaug, Kowalczyk was losing time, but the massive gap she earned in the first seven stages ensured that she would not be overtaken today.

At the finish line, the Pol collapsed in a puddle of exhaustion and tear of joy as she retain her title as Tour de Ski champion. Next across was Johaug who followed suit and crumpled into a pile of exhaustion. Rounding out the podium was Marianna Longa who came across the line in third place.

RESULTS
1. Justyna Kowalczyk
2. Therese Johaug
3. Marianna Longa

FASTEST TIME OF THE DAY
1. Therese Johaug
2. Marte Elden
3. Marte Kristoffersen

Today’s limelight will be shared by Johaug and Kowalczyk. Kowalczyk became the first athlete to retain their Tour de Ski title while Johaug absolutely destroyed everyone in the field today as she was one minute faster than her closest competition and teammate Marte Elden.

I was quite impressed by Norwegians who proved their depth today. Even with no Bjørgen, they still put four athletes inside the top 10; Johaug (2nd), Kristoffersen (7th), Elden (9th), Jacobsen (10th). The biggest surprise for me in this competition was Marte Elden who had break-out performance after break-out performance and has surely stamped her ticket for a spot on the Norwegian World Champs team. Her ninth place in the competition is even more impressive considering she earned only one bonus second in the eight stages.

The Italians were also good and Longa and Follis have become a twosome to be reckoned with. Longa’s performance today was a surprise as I always thought of her as a classic specialist but she showed that she can get it done in the skate technique too.

Cologna Reigns Supreme and Wins Second Tour de Ski

The final day of this edition of the Tour de Ski was blistering in every account. The performance from Bauer to move from 10th to 3rd and the +5 degree weather made for some great racing as Cologna won his second Tour de Ski with a strong performance from Northug to earn second place.

THE RACE

With Cologna and Northug setting out early on. It was Northug who closed the gap by six seconds in the first four minutes. Behind the who it was Jaks ho was being closed down by a chase group of six including Rickardsson, Gaillard, Perl, Kershaw, Harvey and Clara.

Behind the chase pack it was Bauer who was gaining steadily and was setting himself up nicely for the climb.

Coming to 3.5km Northug was still flying and took out another 19 seconds out of Cologna to bring the gap down to 54 seconds. It was a suicide tactic from Northug as he was setting a blistering pace on the flats in an attempt to catch Cologna.

The virtual GPS timing had Northug’s gap down to 40 then 36 then 35 seconds with only 3km left. The real test of attrition started at 5.6km which was the time check at the  base of the hill and Northug’s progress started to stagnate and was 38 seconds down.

Further behind the lead two, the main chase pack of six had caught Jaks and the group forged on and tried to hold off Bauer who was only a few meters behind them at 5.6km.

It was becoming evident that Northug’s fast start was not a maintainable pace as he lost nine seconds in the first 900 meters of the Alpe Cermis to widen the gap between first and second to 47 seconds.

The battle for 11th-14th was a four man race as the pack of Vittoz, Reichelt, and di Centa dropped Filbrich and managed to catch Hellner.

At 7.4km, Northug had slightly recovered and didn’t lose anytime as he opted to not switch into the diagonal skate like Cologna did and grunted up the hill in the off-set.

The chase group started to splinter as Bauer moved from the back to the front and only Gaillard and to a lesser degree Perl were able to keep pace. Jaks, Clara and Kershaw created another group of three as Harvey and Rickardsson began to fall off the back of the group.

The next time check was at 8.1km and as Cologna went through, he looked very fluid and comfortable as he was only 900 meters from the finish. Just as at the last time check, Northug was no longer losing time, but not gaining either as the gap was 48 seconds.

Further back, Bauer’s pace was almost non-human as he was all alone in the chase for second as he was only 1:20 behind Northug. His gap between those behind him had been increased by

With 400 meters, Cologna finally took a peak behind him and realized he was safe and was able to relax as he turned off the jets and came across the finish line to win his second Tour de Ski.

It was only 27 seconds later that Northug came across the finish to earn second and 1:44 after Cologna came across; Bauer who was the fastest man of the day came to earn the final podium spot.

Curdin Perl was the next man across to put two Swiss athletes in the top four and Roland Clara came across the line with gusto as he rounded out the top five.

RESULTS
1. Dario Cologna
2. Petter Northug
3. Lukas Bauer

FASTEST TIME OF THE DAY
1. Lukas Bauer
2. Roland Clara
3. Curdin Perl

Another Tour in the bag and it was won by a very deserving athlete. On Eurosport, David Goldstrom finally admitted his massive man crush of the Swiss athlete as he gave a brief bio wrap on Cologna citing how he spoke Romanish to his father, German to his mother, French and English to the media and Italian to his wax technicians. After this, I immediately thought maybe there’s something to this ultra-talented in all areas of life that makes a champion. Kowalczyk has a similar wrap sheet where she fluent in five languages and has a university degree while being of the best female skiers in the world.

It really good to see Northug in second too. It’s safe to say he’s back to his powers after the horrible start to the season which will thrill Norwegian ski fans. Throughout the race, it was repeated the “what if” question for his poor showing in the second stage where he was denied by Harvey in the quarter-finals to advance. Had he got the same amount of bonus seconds as Cologna that day, they would have been in a dead heat at 7.1km today and would have made for the most exciting finish in Tour de Ski history.

My biggest “what if” question from the Tour is, “what if Lukas Bauer could actually sprint”. Unlike Cologna and Northug who picked up 238 and 178 respectively, Bauer had a mere 25 seconds. Bauer’s skiing today was unreal and he was an amazing 32 seconds faster than anyone else today.

Throughout the Tour, the biggest surprise for me was Clara who had a week to remember. He’s always been in the shadows of the likes of Piller-Cottrer and di Centa but he was the man for the Italians in the Tour. His second fastest time today only goes to show how well he is skiing this year. His fifth place overall in the Tour is remarkable considering he collected a whopping six bonus seconds over the eight races.

Of course how can we not talk about the Canadians. A truly historical week for not only Kershaw, but also Harvey. Kershaw’s four podiums including his first ever World Cup victory will have Canadian and North American ski fans alike talking for a long time to come. Both were in contention for the podium but ultimately ended seventh and tenth overall. When you have someone like Bauer chasing you down, it’s going to be extremely hard to earn that final podium spot. I just hope both of them can keep the form right through to the World Champs.

As for Babikov, I believe we still have yet to see the best of him this year. Today’s final stage is his bread and butter, and he was sixth fastest on the day which is a definite step in the right direction. He’s had a slow start to the season thus far and hopefully today’s result will instill some confidence that will see him take his skiing to the next level.

There’s a lot of other performances I want to touch on but I think I’ll leave that for a blog later this week. All in all, a very exciting and memorable Tour de Ski, and for my money, the most exciting one yet.

Til then.

Emphatic for Kowalczyk with Johaug in Tow

The seventh stage was one for two skiers; Justyna Kowalczyk and Therese Johaug.  The race was taken control by the two early and by the eight minute mark they already had a gap on the pack; a gap that would grow to amazing proportions by the end of the race.

Where ever Therese went, so did Justyna. Kowalczyk won all three intermediate sprints while Johaug came second in everyone. The two worked well together to continually increase the gap and by the end of the day it was an astonishing 50 seconds back to third place Longa.

With 1km left in the 10km race, it was Kowalczyk who blew it wide open and put in an injection of pace that Johaug could not deal with. The burst ensured that Kowalczyk won another stage and certainly ensured her the 2010-2011 Tour de Ski crown as she now has a 2:08 gap in between her and second place Longa.

RESULT
1. Justyna Kowalczyk
2. Therese Johaug
3. Marianna Longa

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
1. Justyna Kowalczyk 2:12:17.3
2. Marianna Longa    2:14:25.6
3. Arianna Follis    2:14:50.3

Great day for the Norwegians who had four in the top 10 including Elden who has a career best fourth; as well as, Kristoffersen in seventh and Østberg in 10th.

It was a good day for Saarinen as she finished fifth, but her inconsistent racing over the past week has her way down in 13th and 6:26 behind the lead.

The dominance of Kowalczyk in the competition has been evident and the gaps she opened up in the overall classification in amazing. There is 5:15 between her and 10th place Jacobsen. Truly amazing.