Marathon finals: Stupak won bronze at the last KM ski race, Bolshunov took sixth place

Chervotkin's bold attack and Bolshunov's sixth place

The last starts of the cross-country skiing season in the Swiss Engadine took place in a rather unusual format.

First, the men's 50 km and women's 30 km freestyle races were pursuit races - the participants started in accordance with the results of the Saturday mass start. 

Secondly, for Sunday races, the track of the traditional Engadine marathon was used, which runs through the valleys and forests from one point to another.

Skiers could not run in a circle, as it was the day before, and in the event of a breakdown of the equipment, they would have to wait a long time for help from the coaches.

The winner of Saturday's mass start Alexander Bolshunov earned the right to start first in 18 seconds from the Norwegian Johannes Klebo.

For some time the owner of the "Big Crystal Globe" ran alone, but he could not run like that for more than two hours.

A group of pursuers began to grow behind him, and five minutes after the start, Bolshunov quit his job and joined the peloton.

Together, the race participants ran a little more than half the distance.

Bolshunov was accompanied by Ivan Yakimushkin, Alexey Chervotkin, Evgeny Belov, Ilya Semikov and Artyom Maltsev.

The last of them in this race was of particular interest, since he could have climbed to third place in the overall World Cup standings if he had bypassed Klebo and the Italian sprinter Federico Pellegrino by several positions.

The calm course of the race was interrupted by Chervotkin.

He launched a desperate attack and in the moment broke away from the group by as much as 33 seconds.

The Norwegians had to lead the pursuit of him, and even Klebo did not hesitate to pull the peloton with him.

Many could not stand this pace, and 18 skiers remained in pursuit of Chervotkin, including Bolshunov, Yakimushkin and Maltsev.

The leader of the race resisted for a long time.

Although his lead narrowed markedly by the last ten kilometers, the Russian continued to run alone.

With eight kilometers to go, he still won 13 seconds from the peloton and sometimes even increased the lead.

It was difficult for a group of pursuers to reorganize the chase until Bolshunov began to help the Norwegians.

4.6 km before the finish line, Chervotkin gave up after a small narrow climb.

By that time, Maltsev was already far behind, and Yakimushkin could not get close to the leaders.

At the beginning of the third hour of the race, Bolshunov took the lead in anticipation of the final climb, which was supposed to put the skiers in their places.

The Russian was again left alone against half a dozen Norwegians and the Swede Jens Boerman.

Bolshunov started to overcome the rise well, but very quickly he was pushed aside by Burman, Simen Kruger and Hans Holund.

The Russian remained in fourth place and caught a solid gap.

Klebo and Paul Golberg were behind him, and shortly before the finish line, both Norwegians passed the Russian.

Bolshunov became the sixth, and Kruger, Holund and Burman, who had never won a medal in the World Cup, rose to the podium.

Klebo took a small revenge from Bolshunov for the World Championship, beating him two positions in the marathon.

Bronze Stupak and second place in the World Cup

The girls held the last race of the season in front of the men.

The day before, Yulia Stupak won the mass start and could also start at a 30-kilometer distance first, although this did not give her a particular advantage in the race.

Almost immediately after the start, she gathered a group of four skiers: Norwegian Heidi Veng, Swedish Ebba Andersson, German Laura Himmler and American Jesse Diggins.

The Russian woman did not resist and allowed them to take on the burden of leadership.

For Stupak, the main rivals in this race were Diggins and Andersson.

All three girls still had the chance to win the World Cup distance classification.

For this, the Russian woman had to win back 44 points from the American and one from the Swede.

If successful, she could become the first owner of the Small Crystal Globe from Russia since the victory of Yulia Chepalova in 2006.

Approximately 10-15 seconds from the leading group, a quartet of pursuers was formed, which included Tatiana Sorina, Swedish Emma Ribom, German Katharina Hennig and Norwegian Helene Fossesholm.

By the fifth kilometer, Himmler joined them, unable to keep up with the pace of the medal contenders.

Fossesholm volunteered to replace her, but it was very difficult to do this - at that moment a real blizzard began, and the Norwegian with great difficulty tried to close the 22-second gap from the group.

It was too late to come back - it would have canceled all her efforts.

The group of persecutors could not overtake the leaders either.

Stupak, Andersson, Diggins and Veng worked great together at a distance, although the Russian woman did not try to come out ahead and pull her rivals with her.

She had to wait for the finish line, where she could easily bypass at least two Scandinavians.

The girls approached the middle of the distance with the same slender quartet, and Fossesholm still gave up and returned to Sorina's group.

In the last ten kilometers, the pace of the leaders still began to fall.

The girls, one after another, refused to pull the group behind them, but continued to hold the line.

There was no need to fear that they would be overtaken and prevented from playing medals.

The advantage over the group, which already consisted of 18 skiers, was about one and a half minutes.

Three and a half kilometers before the finish line, Diggins became nervous.

She slowed down and began to look back, looking for her pursuers.

But she continued to close the quartet for another kilometer, after which Weng launched an attack.

Andersson tried to support her, but could only break away from Stupak and Diggins.

The hopes that the Norwegian started too early and would get tired by the finish did not come true.

She looked up for half a minute from the Russian and the American.

Andersson, due to the excellent working skis, was able to approach her on the second attempt.

Weng endured to the finish line and confirmed that it was no coincidence that she was the vice-world champion in the marathon - in Oberstdorf, she lost only to her compatriot Teresa Johaug, who left Engadin due to injury.

Andersson won silver and left Stupak in third place in both the race and the World Cup distance.

But the Russian woman, for whom the medal in the marathon became the seventh in the season, for the first time in her career rose to the second line in the overall standings of the competition.

Tatiana Sorina finished sixth, losing to Fossesholm in her group.

A grueling finish to the final women's race of the season!

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Bronze of Julia Stupak - ❤ pic.twitter.com/Nj4q4hJpbu

- Eurosport.ru (@Eurosport_RU) March 14, 2021