The mass start in the fifth stage of the Tour de Ski was to be a highly tactical race.
Val di Fiemme is a cult place for skiers and a very difficult one: the world championships were held here three times, in 1991, 2003 and 2013, and the current head of the FLGR Elena Vyalbe won two personal and relay victories in the first of them.
The complexity has always been in the terrain.
On the one hand, Val di Fiemme are mountains that, as skiers say, do not forgive mistakes.
On the other hand (and again, thanks to the height), in this Italian place there is almost always cold, dry and hard snow, on which the leaders walk quickly and in about the same way.
Accordingly, starting in a crowd, the riders find themselves in a very dense heap along the course and in a crowd arrive at the finish line.
In such conditions, one cannot be mistaken, one cannot take risks, since any fall can turn into the collapse of all hopes.
And every effort must be calculated very carefully.
Having headed the overall classification of the Tour de Ski after the fourth stage, Natalya Nepryaeva found herself in a difficult psychological situation, when it seems that you should not over-excite yourself with thoughts about the upcoming race and the first possible grandiose victory at stake, but not thinking about it either impossible.
The athlete herself, answering journalists' questions in the mixed zone of Oberstdorf, did not even try to dissemble on this score: "Of course, I think I run for this!"
Well, in Val di Fiemme, Natalia had one task: to try to run away from the most dangerous of her rivals - Jessica Diggins.
Despite the fact that the classics were never considered the strong point of the 2013 Olympic champion and world champion (here in Val di Fiemme) in the team sprint, the American titles and experience spoke for themselves.
The women started quickly, not to say - swiftly.
The absence of the invincible Norwegian Teresa Johaug among the participants of the Tour has greatly adorned the overall picture of the rivalry in the sense that it has become equally acute and extremely reckless.
The first circle began as quickly as possible: Tatyana Sorina, who took fourth place after four stages, almost immediately went into the depths of the group, while Nepryaeva took the lead.
“I was tuned in to the fact that the pace of the race would be fast, but everything went wrong from the very start.
Perhaps we were a little too clever with the skis: they worked great on hold, but it turned out to be very difficult to walk on the plain, ”Sorina admitted in frustration after finishing tenth, 53.1 seconds behind the winner.
This unsuccessful performance lowered Tatiana to the sixth position in the overall standings with a lead over the leader in one minute and 42 seconds.
At the end of the first round, Nepryaeva calmly, without outwardly making any efforts to stay in the leading six, walked at her own pace, in no way reacting to the fact that the leaders were alternately becoming the Finnish Krista Pärmyakoski, Andersson, or the Norwegian Heidi Veng. By the beginning of the second round, the gap between the first group and the main peloton (in its depths Nepryaeva's main rivals in the overall standings were Diggins and the Finnish Kerttu Niskanen) had increased, and it became clear: Natalia's main task was not to come up with unnecessary adventures on her head. This meant not taking risks, being extremely careful on turns and controlling the situation, not trying to win at all costs. Maintain strength, but not for a specific finish, but for the final and most important day for an athlete - a ten-kilometer free style race.
Nepryaeva finished fifth, losing to the Andersson-Veng tandem by only 4.8 seconds.
Commenting on the women's race, the Olympic champion of Sochi Alexander Legkov just at that moment recalled the victory won in Val di Fiemme by Nikita Kryukov in 2013 in the sprint race, and the tactics that the athlete and his coach Yuri Kaminsky perfectly used at that world championship ...
Do not sit down on the descent right next to Petter Nortug, but let the Norwegian go a little, then roll and, as it were, stitch the opponent at the exit.
Nepryaeva did not use the hint.
She was the third to enter the final sharp turn from the descent, and while the commentators were speculating that Natalya had a great chance to compete for the top 3, she emerged from this turn as a leader and jerked uphill in the style of the best traditions of Johannes Klebo.
The Swede and the Norwegian were no longer able to keep this pace.
“I tried to twitch for sprint bonuses.
It seemed that she even twitched, but thought that it was not worth it, and was afraid that it would come out sideways to me.
She was ready for a high pace, women have no other way.
Although on the last lap it seemed to me that the pace has subsided a little compared to the first two.
But it worked well for me.
Now the most difficult day of the Tour is ahead, and it will be necessary to give out all that is left.
At stake is a title, which I do not have yet, ”the athlete admitted after the awards ceremony on Match TV.