The first part of the World Cup stage in Dresden was not very successful for the Russians.
On Saturday, only Gleb Retivykh managed to make it to the sprint final, who eventually took the last sixth place.
The biggest sensation with a minus sign was the failure in the qualification of Alexander Bolshunov, who only for the second time in his career did not pass it in this form at the KM stages.
On Sunday, he had a good opportunity to rehabilitate himself in front of the fans in the team sprint, where he played in tandem with Gleb Retivykh.
Last season they won this event in Dresden.
At the same time, a strong sprinter Alexander Terentyev did not find a place in the squad this time.
However, the favorites did not experience the slightest problems in the semifinals.
They did not pass the first part of the distance too quickly, saving strength, and sometimes even dropped to the fourth line, risking falling out of the finalists.
However, at the right time, the world champion began to demonstrate proprietary acceleration and run away from competitors.
Actually, on the eighth lap, Bolshunov brought the Russians into the lead.
The representative of Great Britain tried to throw him the glove at the penultimate stage, but Retivykh calmly covered the last part of the distance and crossed the finish line first, ahead of the British by 0.44 seconds and 0.77 from the French.
But the second pair from Russia - Denis Filimonov and Fyodor Nazarov - failed to make it to the final.
Initially, they had a good chance of competing for a spot in the top 4.
Only the Italian Federico Pellegrino fled from the stars with them.
The rest could be fought on equal terms.
And domestic athletes in the first circles did it, keeping in the group of leaders and keeping their strength at the decisive stages.
Unfortunately, in the middle of the race, a serious trouble awaited them.
Filimonov, getting into a dense group of rivals in the transfer of the relay, broke a stick and lost a lot of time on this, having driven almost the entire circle with one.
The Russians even dropped out of the top 15.
After that, it was almost impossible to fight for getting into the top four.
Denis, as the first number, did everything to return the duo to the fight, but it was almost impossible to overtake opponents on a narrow track.
It was no longer possible to rise above the eighth line, and all that remained was to watch the final from the sidelines.
But Bolshunov and Retivykh were considered one of the main favorites of the decisive race.
Two Norwegian duos Thomas Hölland Larsen and Even Nortug and Sindre Björnestad Skar and Howard Solos Teugböl, the Italians Francesco de Fabiani and Federico Pellegrino, the French Richard Jouvet and Luca Shanava and others also had the opportunity to fight for medals.
The Russians from the first meters, as expected, entrenched themselves in the group of leaders.
However, in the first half of the distance, no one was in a hurry to get ahead.
And the second Norwegian duo took everyone with them.
Domestic skiers practically kept behind them.
As in the semifinals, Retivykh lost a couple of positions at his stages, and Bolshunov immediately won them back.
Moreover, on the fifth lap, Alexander broke into a clean second place.
The real struggle for awards unfolded already at the eighth, when his partner, sitting behind Northug's back, went into the lead.
Bolshunov picked up the acceleration of his partner and temporarily came out on top.
The zealous in this fight managed to stay the second.
His compatriot, at the last stage for himself, did everything possible to win.
He ran away from both Norwegians and did not let anyone bypass him at the finish line, showing the best time.
Alas, his friend from the national team had no strength left for the last lap.
Nortug and Teugbol calmly fled from him.
Fortunately, Gleb managed to keep at least the third line in the fight against Pellegrino and provided the team with a bronze set of medals.
In the women's team sprint, Russia was also represented by two duos.
Khristina Matsokina and Natalya Nepryaeva ran in the first semifinal, and Anna Grukhvina and Anastasia Faleeva in the second.
Unfortunately, only the strongest of them managed to get into the decisive race.
Matsokina and Nepryaeva faced resistance from two Swedish couples: Yonna Sundling and Maya Dalkvist, as well as Jenny Solin and Moa Lundgren. Norwegians Christine Stavos Skistad and Matilde Murvold could not be discounted either. The main thing is that the Russian women initially managed to keep up with the group of leaders. On the icy track, they kept behind the Scandinavians. At the same time, no one made powerful accelerations and attempts to break away.
Matsokina, as expected, looked weaker than her compatriot and at her stages lost two or three positions, but Nepryaeva, with her speed, quickly returned what she had lost.
It was her brilliant finish that allowed the domestic duo to finish second, just 0.85 seconds behind Sundling and Dalkvist.
The Norwegians, one more Swedes and Finns were left behind.
And since four duets were directly selected for the final, the Russians did not have any problems.
But Grukhvina and Faleeva turned out to be uncompetitive in their race.
They initially had few chances against such skiers as American Jessica Diggins, Slovenian Anamaria Lampic and Norwegians Magni Smedos and Julie Mure.
At first, domestic athletes were still in the group of leaders, but then they began to give way.
The faster Grukhvina tried to do her best to keep her chances of reaching the final, but it was all in vain.
In the last stages, the backlog of Russian women began to grow literally before our eyes.
As a result, only the sixth line in 13.5 seconds behind Diggins and Julia Kern.
It didn't work out to be among the “lucky losers” with the best time either.
Unfortunately, Matsokina and Nepryaeva did not manage to win medals in the final, although most of the race they were fighting for getting into the top three.
At the same time, they had very serious rivals: Dalqvist and Sundling, who took first and second places in the sprint the day before, Diggins and Kern won their semifinals, Slovenes Lampic and Eva Urevc, Finns Yasmin Kyahyara and Yasmi Joensuu.
But in the first half of the distance, everything went well for the Russians.
On the fourth lap, Nepryaeva made a great dash along the outer radius on the transfer of the relay and brought the duo to the top.
The blockage, into which the Slovenian and the American fell, also turned out to be on hand.
After that, it seemed that the domestic athletes would not miss the awards.
Alas, they did not have enough strength for the second half.
First, Khristina and Natalya released the Swedes to the first place.
Then, on the eighth lap, Matsokina completely rolled back to the fourth line.
Her partner tried her best to maintain a spot in the top three, but her teammate had no strength left at all.
At her last stage, the young Russian woman not only allowed the Swede, Slovenian, Finnish and American to break away, but also allowed the Norwegian Christina Stavos Skistad to get around her.
After that, there was no talk of medals, although Nepryaeva managed to finish fifth.
The expected victory was won by Dalkvist and Sundling, who were 1.11 seconds ahead of Diggins and Kern and 1.21 seconds ahead of Urevc and Lampich.
Thus, even the fall did not prevent the USA and Slovenia from climbing the podium.