The fifth day of the Tour de Ski was a triumphant one for the Russian team.
Alexander Bolshunov and Yulia Stupak won the pursuit race in the Italian Toblach, and Ivan Yakimushkin and Evgeny Belov added silver and bronze to the team's piggy bank.
For the first time since December 30, 2018, Russian skiers managed to win two golds in one day - then this was achieved by Sergey Ustyugov and Natalya Nepryaeva.
Stupak's gift for his son's birthday
Girls were the first to compete for medals.
The starting protocols for the 10 km race were formed not according to the overall standings, but according to the results of the competitions held on Tuesday.
Stupak was supposed to go the fourth distance 26 seconds behind the leader of the Tour de Ski Jessica Diggins from the USA, and at the same time skip ahead her compatriot Rosie Brennen and Swede Ebba Andersson.
The sixth starting number went to Tatiana Sorina, who had to run after the Finnish Krista Pärmyakoski.
For Stupak, such a pre-race alignment was quite promising.
She always knew how to run the classic move, while for American women this style of passing the distance is a weak point.
The Russian woman from the very start began to work in tandem with Andersson, and soon they caught up with Brennen.
Diggins kept away for a while, but after falling on the descent, the pursuers overtook her too.
After three kilometers, nothing remained of the leadership of the American women.
Stupak and Andersson continued to run at their own pace, hoping to throw off at least one of their fellow travelers, and in the end they managed to get rid of Brennen.
Diggins, on the other hand, endured until the end of the race and clearly expected to use her sprint skills to compete for a third victory in a row.
However, Stupak managed to outplay the American tactically and reach the finish line in a more comfortable position.
The Russian woman crossed the line first, and Diggins lost to Andersson in the fight for silver.
Stupak dedicated her second victory at the World Cup stages to her son Arseniy - on January 7, he will celebrate his first birthday.
Her gold was the first for the women's team this season.
In pursuit races, Russians have never won in the 21st century - the last time a race in this format was won by Yulia Chepalova in March 2000.
Thanks to her success, Stupak also rose to third place in the overall Tour de Ski standings.
Before the three remaining stages, she is 58 seconds behind Diggins, while Brennen is only 36 seconds away.
Other Russian women were also pleased with the results.
Sorina finished sixth and retained the fifth position in the general classification.
Alisa Zhambalova took seventh place, showing her best result in almost two years.
Natalya Nepryaeva closed the top ten, but taking into account the fact that she started 21st and ran on the same legs with Stupak, this can also be considered a success.
Gripping until the finish line 🔥 What an amazing competition of todays 10km C Pursuit 🙌 # fiscrosscountry # tourdeski2021 # tourdeski 📷NordicFocus pic.twitter.com/nJojvJ3nqW
- FIS Cross-Country (@FISCrossCountry) January 6, 2021
Second Russian podium in a row
The men initially had to cover 15 km, but due to technical problems with television broadcasting, the distance had to be reduced to 13 km.
This had almost no effect on the balance of power in the race.
Alexander Bolshunov was the favorite from the very beginning, and less than one kilometer was enough for him to confirm his status.
Having an advantage of eight seconds over Denis Spitsov at the start, the leader of the Tour de Ski increased the gap to 20 seconds in just 900 meters.
The owner of the yellow jersey worked just as effectively for the rest of the race.
For Bolshunov, a group of pursuers of seven people formed, in which there was only one foreigner - the Frenchman Maurice Monifika.
He ran with Spitsov, Ivan Yakimushkin, Artyom Maltsev, Alexei Chervotkin, Evgeny Belov and Andrey Melnichenko.
Monifa could not prevent the Russians from taking the entire podium for the second time in a row, but this was not his main goal.
For him, the top priority was the fight for second place in the overall standings with Maltsev and Spitsov.
In this regard, the pursuit race was successful for the Frenchman.
Almost the entire distance a group of seven people walked in a single formation, but in the last kilometers it was Spitsov who fell out of it.
Closer to the finish line, Maltsev broke the second ski pole, which made him even more behind the peloton.
Monifa was content with the sixth place in the race, but in the Tour de Ski standings, he rose to third place, and reduced the gap from Maltsev to only three seconds.
Bolshunov naturally won, only on the last loop he stopped increasing the lead over his pursuers.
He won the fourth gold in a row, becoming the seventh skier in history to achieve this achievement in the World Cup.
At the same time, in distance racing, Bolshunov does not know defeats already at five starts in a row.
The last time this was achieved by the Norwegian Martin Junsrud Sundby was in 2016.
Ivan Yakimushkin finished second in the pursuit.
The 24-year-old skier has repeated his best career achievement, which he set in the same Toblach last season.
The most experienced Russian skier in the current national team, Evgeny Belov, managed to win the bronze.
He has not won personal medals in World Cup races since December 2018.
Out - stan - ding đź’Ą
Alexander Bolshunov reigns over todays 15km C Pursuit!
Tough task for the chasing group but Ivan Yakimushkin and Evgeniy Belov managed to take top spots!
# fiscrosscountry # tourdeski2021 # tourdeski đź“·NordicFocus pic.twitter.com/pr4BnOqRi6
- FIS Cross-Country (@FISCrossCountry) January 6, 2021