After 15 kilometers of classic skiing, the World Cup's overall leader Alexander Bolshunov led. Two Johannes Hösflot Kläbo had a difficult day and was almost two minutes after Bolshunov. Kläbo also chose to break, which means that the Russian is at the top

- It was remarkable and he saved the energy for the sprint tomorrow, says SVT Sports expert Anders Blomquist.

Johannes Hösflot Kläbo was obviously disappointed after the effort.

- It was obviously heavy to break. I had hoped to join in the fight for a victory at least a podium, but today I was not around. I had a really bad day and then that's just the way it is. I felt the second or third round so it was surprisingly heavy. The first time I have chosen to step off and it sits very, very far in, he tells SVT Sport and continues:

- But it felt like I had no choice today. There would have been no point in waging 40 seats. Hope I can go fast tomorrow on the sprint. I have no explanation and as soon as I got out of the first round it turned completely black.

Heavy Swedish Day

The best Swedish before the ski change was Jens Burman, who was in 23 place, 59.5 seconds after Bolshunov. But as the riders at the top slowed down the pace, Burman could crawl closer. After 22.5 kilometers, he had shrunk the distance to 37.9 seconds and at the second last time the distance was just over 20 seconds. But when the pace was screwed up, Burman thumped again, ending in 16th place. He was 46.5 seconds behind the winner Alexander Bolshunov who sprinted home the victory ahead of Simen Hegstad Krüger and Sjur Röthe.

Behind Burman was Daniel Richardsson who finished in 19th place and he was over two minutes after Bolshunov. Johan Häggström was over 39 minutes after three minutes.