Men’s 50km: A Perfect Day for Norway
Like the women’s 30km, it was another beautiful day for the last cross-country ski race of the World Championships. Coming into the race Northug was the favourite and just over two hours after the final race of the World Championships started, Northug came across the finish line to collect his third gold medal in the past 10 days.
THE RACE
Early on we saw a host of leaders from Duvillard, Goering, Hellner and Northug. Pavels Ribakovs from Latvia pulled a Kershaw and his ski flew off into the bushes and a spectator retreived it for him so he could continue.
At eight minutes we saw a half-hearted break from Manificat and #30 Jauhojaervi who were able to gain 30 meters on the leaders around 2.5km into the race. I think they were surprised by the lead as they skied side-by-side looking back and talking amongst each other about the lead they had gained. I’m guessing the conversation was about letting the pack swallow them up or staying out in front with the current pace they were skiing. However, the pack sped on the downhill meant that they were now once again together with the field.
The next few kilometers we saw the bulk to the lead skied by Piller-Cottrer with Sodergren and Hellner making brief appearances at the front. Coming into the stadium and the first opportunity for a ski exchange, the Italian opted to go for a new pair of skis which meant the first to break the clock was Japan’s Naruse. There were a handful of athletes to change skis but with the lead pack still quite large, they were able to link up with the back as soon as they started to ski again.
The next lap saw Johnsrud Sudby take the lead with American Noah Hoffman right behind him. The pace set wasn’t too fast, but it was still stretching the field out at the back and after 3km at the front it was Perl and Duvillard to take the lead coming through the stadium at 13.3km. Perl continued to lead until the feed in the stadium and the end of the second lap.
THis time going through the ski exchange, almost every athlete opted for new skis as the race was a third done. Going out on the second lap, there was still 42 athletes in the lead and the leader board was being dominated by the French and Norwegian team as they had all four of their athletes in the top 10.
At the beginning of the third lap, there were familiar faces at the front as Duvillard was dictating the pace with Piller-Cottrer and Perl just in behind him.
The first real attack of the day came from Roland Clara at 18.8km and within a couple hundred meters open up a nine second lead. Behind him, the main pack of 38 skiers did not react at all and allowed the Italian quickly get out in front. Manificat was the man who led the chase, and it appeared that Clara’s attack was half-hearted as he let his foot of the gas and looked behind him wondering where everyone was at 19.6km even though he still had an 11 second lead on the pack. I guess he was more surprised than anything that not a single athlete went with him. It was good to see him enjoying the race though as he looked at the camera on the snowmobile traveling down the hill beside him and blew a kiss to the audience at home.
On one of the downhills we saw Angerer eat snow, but the damage was minimal as he got up and was able to hang on to the back of the pack. At 21.6km, the pack was now 35 strong and worryingly for the Russians, both Glavatishikn and Shiriaev were now off the back and 20 seconds off the lead.
Just outside the stadium, Clara was caught by the pack, but he still continued to lead as he was joined up from by Sjur Røthe.
At 23.4km, we saw a new athlete at the front as Aivar Rehemaa from Estonia decided it was his time to take the lead, but it was short-lived as Sjur Røthe had great glide and took the lead and was joined by Babikov. Going up the hill behind frognersetern, Babikov was joined up front by Bauer who had been really quiet for the first half of the race. As the athletes came into the stadium, we saw one final exchange of the lead as Hellner led the athletes into the feed zone before the third ski exchange.
Once again, the majority of the athletes took advantage of the ski exchange and went in for a short pit-stop. On the third lap, it was more the same; top athletes all in the lead pack that was still quite large.
At 27.9km, it was Babikov who decided to test the waters and injected a little pace up front. Just like Clara’s breakaway at the same point a lap earlier, there was no urgency from the pack as the Canadian began to ski away because he attacked just before the set of downhills and going back down into the stadium, the pack speed reeled Babikov back in. However, Babikov still continued to lead going back out on course as Manificat was have a hard time to keep contact with the lead pack.
Around 31km, it was the Swede Olsson who was next to lead while Røthe shadowed his every move. Coming into the fourth ski exchange at 33.3km, every athlete in the lead pack opted to change skis.
The start of the fourth lap saw the most decisive breakaway yet as Piller-Cottrer went off the front and he was joined by Gaillard. The other athletes recognized this breakaway as dangerous and quickly closed the gap led by Hellner. In addition to closing the gap, Hellner blew by Gaillard and took the lead from Piller-Cottrer and put in an attack of his own. Piller-Cottrer was able to hang on initially, but dropped back while Røthe came through the pack to ski up to Hellner. The injection of pace was hurting athletes and at 35.5km, there was now 25 athletes stick in contact.
Hellner’s pace had now splintered the field as there was a lead three of Hellner, Northug and Chernousov closely followed by another foursome of Clara, Cologna, Angerer and Vylegzhanin. 25 seconds now separated the top 25 athletes.
Coming down the big hill, a lead group of seven formed consisting of the athletes mentioned above while a big chase group worked hard to close the gap and once again the field was together as they approached the stadium. At 38.3km, Hellner was still leading, but the lead group had ballooned again and was 22 athletes strong.
At 39.2km, the lead group was splitting into two distinctive group with 12 in the lead, followed by a chase pack of 10 led by Babikov who were four seconds off the pace. However, the downhills acted as friends for the chasers as they were able to erase the deficit they faced a kilometer beforehand, but Clara was the one casualty and was unable to regain contact.
Hellner continued to lead in the stadium as the athletes came through for their last opportunity to change their skis. Interestingly, while many of the athletes choose to change skis, both Dolidovich and Bauer opted not to and opened up a 10 second lead on those who changed skis. It was only a short time later that the Czech and the Belarussian were once again a part of the lead pack.
As the pack settle, once again it was Hellner to take over from Rickardsson and increase the speed at the front. The pace increase was minimal and at 43.8km there was still 20 athletes in with a chance, but Cologna was now finding the pace too much. Just as the athletes went through the time check, it was Rickardsson to inject some speed and his attack was breaking the leaders and the lead group was down to eight athletes, before Rickardsson let up and wanted to someone else to take over the pace. This meant that the lead group was now back to 12 athletes as Rickardsson had successfully dropped the likes of Bauer and Hellner from the front.
Coming through the stadium for the last time at 46.6km, it was Sodergren leading the way and there were more athletes joining the fight as the top 17 were only separated by eight seconds now.
With only 3.4km left it was time to wait and see who was going to attack first. The first attack didn’t take long as it was Finland’s relay star Juha Lallukka to attack first and at 47.5km he had managed to drop all but seven athletes. The Finn continued to lead up front, but athletes were recovering from the damage by the initially burst and with only 1.6km left, there were still 11 athletes in the main pack and in for a fight for the podium.
Coming down the hill before frognersetern, it was chaos as Dolidovich ate snow as the tail of his ski caught the tip of Gjerdalen’s in coincidental contact and for his troubles he broke a pole in the fall especially taking him out of contention. Moments later the exact same thing happened to Eliassen as the tail of his ski was knicked by Rickardsson’s tip which had the Norwegian on the snow and visibly frustrated.
Ahead of the chaos, it was Vylegzhanin leading down the hill and attacked while Northug and Gjerdalen hung on coming around frognersetern. Coming into the stadium, it was down to Vylegzhanin and Northug for top spot and just like the pursuit, Northug pulled ahead of Vylegzhanin with a couple of poles right before the last uphill at the far end of the stadium. As Northug skied over the hump into the finishing straight, it was his race to lose and this time the Norwegian star was in a flat-out sprint in an attempt to hold off Vylegzhanin who had not given up on the top spot. As Northug came across the finish line to collect the final gold of the World Championships he collapsed into a heap as did Vylegzhanin. In third, the crowd was thrilled to see Gjerdalen take the final podium spot. In the fight for fourth, it was Harvey, Angerer, Røthe, and Rickardsson in a fight and it was the diminutive Norwegian Røthe who edged out Harvey for the wooden medal.
RESULTS
1. Petter Northug
2. Maxim Vylegzhanin
3. Tord Asle Gjerdalen
It only seemed fitting that Norway would win the finally cross-country ski race of the World Championships. While it wasn’t the most exciting (I’d go as far as saying the least exciting race of the World Champs), it was enough for the tens of thousands of fans as Norway incredibly grabbed three of the top four positions. Had someone told me that Gjerdalen would finish third and Røthe fourth, I wouldn’t confidently told them they should lay off the crack pipe and that they were delusional. Fair play to the Norwegians, a fantastic day for the home of cross-country.
A great race for Vylegzhanin to who collected his second silver medal of the Championships.
As for other very impressive finishes, my hats off the Juha Lallukka, this 31-year old Finn has been around for a long time but amazingly has only 18 World Cup starts to his name. Even more impressive is that he has six World Championship starts on his rap sheet which means, if I do the math correctly, 25% of his starts on the world stage, have been at the biggest ski show on Earth! And it’s not as though as he’s performed poorly at World Champs either. Dating back to 2007 in Sapporo his individual results go as follows; 11th, 15th and 8th. Hopefully, he’ll be able to run the season out on the World Cup circuit with the National Team.
My heart truly pours out to Dolidovich today, the 37-year old Belarussian could possibly had his last World Championships race today of his career and the way it ended was tragic. When he went down with less than a kilometer left, he was in third place skiing on Vylegzhanin’s shoulder. He could very well have improved upon his fourth place he earned in the pursuit. I guess that’s the luck of sport sometimes.
On the North American watch, it was Harvey to lead the way as he was in the fight for fourth, but photo finish gave the spot to Sjur Røthe and Harvey had to settle for fifth place today. Next was Babikov who had a ton of TV face time today, but he ran out of juice in the last 2km and settled for 17th.
The Americans were led by Hoffman who also got some TV time in the first third of the race and finished a respectable 30th. He was followed by Flora (39th), Elliot (40th) and nordic combined athlete Billy Demong (51st).
Well the race are over and next weekend is usual business as the World Cup circuit resumes and the athletes head to Lahti for a pursuit and a classic sprint. I’ll be back tomorrow with a full wrap of everything that went on the past 10 days.
Til Then.
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NordicXplained 
I think Lallukka is a freestyle distance specialist (like Tore Ruud Hofstad), so that’s probably why he has so few World Cup starts.
I agree with lleimmoen, I’m glad they kept the 15k as an interval start, because the “luck factor” is bigger in the 50k. Especially with the smaller loops they use nowadays, you might find many “trains” consisting of racers on different stages of the race. But I also think the best racer would win anyway.
Northug actually won the interval start in Kuusamo last season, so he has shown he’s capable of winning those too. But he is just one of many guys capable of doing just that, whereas he is the best mass-start athlete.
I read somewhere (probably langrenn.com) that Kristen Skjeldal thought Northug would focus on winning the interval start in the next championships, as that is the only championship title he’s missing. I suspect he might be right, but I don’t think Northug will do it at the expence of his sprinting abilities.
Thanks for the insight. I rarely get tired talking about cross country skiing.
Yes, my point was that the problems with 15k interval start are far increased in the 50k. As Carrie pointed out, racers also get attached whilst on different laps. This was not a problem in Holmekollen as they used the big 10k loop but it is a very common thing in other places where they use 5k or even 3.75k or 3k. It is good for the spectators at the spot but not for the fairness of the race.
And it is not only the matching that matters. There is also the snow conditions. They may be slightly different throughout the 15k (or not slightly, as we have seen in Sapporo for instance) but this becomes much more of the factor again with the 50k. Here the chances of racers are pre-determined at the start which is certainly not good.
That being said, I very much enjoy watching the interval starts as well. And I hope the Holmekollen 50k returns next year. I think it might since there is even a 30k interval classic schedulled for Nové Město earlier next season.
And now, again, to Northug. There is no doubt that he is better in mass start (and sprint) than he is in the interval start. But, from the last seasons he has indeed got places 3, 4, 7 in the free style and 1, 3, 8 in classic. Plus, another top 3 in 10k classic stage, plus places 1 and 3 in the free style prologue (that is shorter, yes, but still an individual race). If you look at anyone from the current field and their results these past three years, you would hardly find a better statistic. Heikkinen with the current win and a win last year. But who else? Hellner has two wins in the free style but no podium in the classic. Cologna, no podium in the world cup 15k classic and the only win in the 15k free olympics. Who else? Bauer comes to mind (my country man), he has great individual results, but certainly not superior now, quite the opposit. So it is not fair to underestimate Northug in the interval start, he is not clearly as dominant as in the mass but he is there among the top. Some will argue that he sucked in the championships, it is true, in Liberec, his classic was not yet well devoloped, in Vancouver, wax played the factor – and that is no excuse as we could see with Rickardsson and others in Oslo. And one thinks he could never win a 50k interval, see this for an argument, at the age of 21 he finished 12th in Holmekollen. I do not think there ever was such high placement for a 21 year old.
Till next time.
Yes, Lallukka is definitely a freestyle distance specialist. Hopefully, we’ll see him more often before he decides to hang up the skis.
It’ll be interesting how Northug approaches Val di Femme in 2013. It’s much more of a gamble for him when he enters individual starts though. One his best day he surely can win those races, but not on a mediocre to okay day, because there’ll be another athlete on their best form to take the win. For mass-starts though, I believe Northug can still take the victory even when he’s having a mediocre day at the office.
Great summary, and equally great comment. I think one way to mix things up would be to run the pursuit in reverse order: mass-start the skate leg, then have athletes transition at halfway to classic (though without a pause). Not only would this favor strong classic racers in a way that the current order does not, but it would also accent the pursuit-ish nature of the second leg, which often now features a bunching up of racers who’d been spread out in the CL leg.
I was thinking about it too. Even the famous british eurosport duo mentioned it. It would be fun to have the pursuit reverse on that year when the mass start is in free style (aka this year). Thus there would be a mass start finish in free and pursuit finish in classic. But I have a feeling FIS will never do this.
There is actually another discipline I was thinking about but it is probably pretty naive. The idea of a double prologue. You know the short individual race they do in tour de ski or world cup finale. I was thinking they could do for instance 2.5k classic and then (say two hours later) 2.5k free and just add up the times and have a winner. It would be a discipline that both sprinters speciallists and distance racers like Teichmann, Hellner or Northug could do. But then with another discipline the championships would have to last longer although this one would not take so much energy out of the body perhaps.
Another nice report.
Surprised you have found it the least interesting. There is this ongoing debat of mass vs interval start that I want to make a few points about. You may not read this comment but I would be interested of your thoughts.
Many claim that the interval start is where the best skiers win. I am by no means saying that they are any less deserving but it is easy to see something interesting about this championship. Sundby beat both Vylegzhanin and Rickardsson by clear margins in the Individual Classic. Yet one could see he was not superior to them in the relay. Every day is a different, yes. The differences in the mass and interval start are great – tactics, yes. But I find it far-fetched (or actually very stupid) to say that only the interval start shows who is best.
Similar we could see on the second leg of the relay. Volzhenstsev finished fourth in the individual but was no match to Olsson (who was far behind him in the individual) in the relay and moreso to Roenning (who was only two places above).
The wax plays the part, sure.
But my main point is that mass start is by far the most fair of the two. In the interval start, so much is dependent on luck. You could see that with Northug in Drammen, only a week before the championship. He would have never got the third place if Rickardsson had not come by. One should not think this was a rare thing, it happens all the time.
But with the 50k interval start, the luck factor would play far bigger part in the overall result. Two runners running together for 40k will surely do better than a runner of the same capacity running alone. And it would always happen in the current field. Many would probably base their tactics accordingly.
So I am glad they kept the 15k (rather than 50k) interval as the discipline is exciting, nothing against that.
There are people who would claim that Northug can only hang. Well, why not the others hang as well? It is not like the race was decided in the last kilometer. Cologna was out some 8k before the end. Bauer 5k before. Or so. And others as well. Only the fittest could be there for the entire race. And those could fight for the deserving victory.
It is not that it would be impossible to go from the field as Johaug demonstrated the day before. But one has to be good enough (or better than others). Johan Olsson said he was shocked by the capacity that Northug showed and then it is nigh impossible for others to go from him. I think Hellner could on the best of days, or perhaps Heikinnen – once in many trials.
One last point. So there is an interval 15k and a mass start 50k. My concern is actually with the Pursuit, being also a mass start. Again, it is probably more fair than what was there before but I found the 10k + 10k fascinating. Where the first part took place in the morning in 10k classic interval and the latter part in 10k free handicap. But it was only 20k compared to the current 30. Two times 15k in this way could be too much…
…sorry for a confusing prolonged comment.
Haha, don’t apologize for anything, I wish I got more comments like this on the blog! I must say I agree with you in parts and not in others. I agree interval starts prove who is the best athlete and mass starts is more of a combination of the athlete who is the best tactician. Interval starts you’re racing against your self, imagine how poorly an athlete would finish if they paced an interval start race the same as a mass start race where they take it easy the first 25%-50% and then picked it up for the finish?
You noted wax is a huge factor and I agree, I think that’s why cross-country skiing is such a unique sport, because the environment changes every single time a race is held. The only real constant is the athletes fitness, and even that is changing from week to week. That’s why we saw Rickardsson finish 42nd in the 15km classic, in which he was a favourite, and then in the lead pack right to the finish in the 50km skate, a technique that he doesn’t prefer.
I have to disagree with the luck factor though. There is a certain degree where an athlete will get lucky sometimes as a fresh athlete will lap just when they start the race. But the odds of that happening are more often than not, especially in the case of medallist.
As for bringing back the split-pursuit, an interesting idea but I think the FIS has other race ideas that they want to try out before they go retroactive on race formats.
And for Northug, we always give props to Kowalczyk for “digging deep” and “being tough” which is very true, and I believe Northug is much the same, but in a guys body with better technique. I think Northug godlike-sprint at the end of mass starts overshadows what a good skier he is too actually hang onto the lead after continual attacks as athletes try to get rid of him. But that’s why he’s the best mass-start athlete in the world right now, but will probably not make the podium in an interval start unless he gets pulled along.
Thanks again for the comment, wish I got more like this. Writing my response I realized that in your comment, you managed to cover 4-5 talking points. Impressive!