International ski races for men in the absence of Russians, as expected, are more like the Norwegian championship, and the Tour de Ski was no exception.
With only one small difference: if at the stages of the World Cup the owners of gold medals changed, then Johannes Klebo, who won the tournament for the third time, rose to the highest step of the podium after six races of seven out of seven this year.
Thus, the five-time Olympic champion set a unique record for the number of victories in the competition stages.
Earlier, Sergey Ustyugov and Alexander Bolshunov were the first to finish five times each, also having crystal pyramids in their collection of awards - the Tour de Ski trophy.
Now the bar has been raised even higher.
Well, in total, all the multi-day races have not yet submitted to anyone.
The Norwegian also leads in the total number of victories in tournaments of different years - 17. He surpassed the achievement of compatriot Teresa Johaug and Justina Kowalczyk from Poland, who took gold 14 times.
Among men, earlier the best result belonged to Petter Northug - 13 races won.
Of course, such success became possible due to the removal of the Russians, who repeatedly won the fight against Klebo.
Now, the Norwegian, who has regained his form, does not give anyone a chance to get closer to him, which sometimes surprises him.
“Honestly, I expected that in the mass start in the sixth stage, the rivals would be a little faster, but everyone saw that the group was very tight, so I only needed to get in the right position in the second part of the race.
I wonder why Kalle Halfvarsson didn't try to do more.
On the track, he looked very strong, he had unreal gliding on the slopes, ”NRK quotes Klebo.
At the penultimate stage, Johannes was nervous not only because of the Swede.
Just before the start, the zipper on his suit broke, and a new athlete was brought only five minutes before the start of the race.
“If I had to drive 15 kilometers with a bare stomach, the result would not be very good.
We are constantly learning as we live.
Perhaps now I will have to carry a spare ski suit with me, ”the skier admitted after the finish.
However, it feels like the Norwegian rivals give up even before they go on the track.
So, two-time Olympic medalist Hans Christer Holund simply does not believe in the possibility of getting around a compatriot.
“We have to be honest.
The fact is that he is better than us, ”VG quotes the words of the athlete.
As a result, before the final climb to Alpe Cermis Klebo had an advantage over the closest pursuer Halfvarsson by more than one minute.
However, the last stage, the length of which is very small - only nine kilometers, is the most insidious on the stage race.
In women, on Sunday at the top, Frida Karlsson became ill.
The Swede won the overall standings for the first time in her career, climbing the 15th mountain, but she left the finish line on a stretcher and then could not take part in the awards.
Klebo, who was in no hurry to rejoice and celebrate his triumph, was also afraid of getting up the day before.
And he turned out to be right.
Before the cutoff of 7.5 kilometers, the athlete stayed in the group of leaders and felt comfortable, but the last segment of the distance became a real test for Johannes.
He was 45.5 seconds behind winner Simen Krueger.
Fortunately for the five-time Olympic champion, Halfvarsson performed even worse and even dropped to sixth overall.
And on the podium in the end were only the Norwegians.
The Klebo company was made up of Kruger and Holund.
According to the coach of the national team Yuri Borodavko, the absence of Bolshunov and Ustyugov does not detract from the merits of the Norwegian.
“This should be taken as a fact of achievement.
What can I say, Klebo is by far the strongest skier and proves it.
Our guys would impose a fight.
But the most ungrateful thing is that, starting with the word "if", you can agree on the devil knows what.
Let's just take this Klebo achievement.
When there is a full-time fight, then we will check.
And so these are all empty words, ”RIA Novosti quoted Borodavko as saying.
I agree with the expert and commentator Dmitry Guberniev.
In his opinion, the Norwegian is not to blame for the removal of the Russians from the competition.
“This record can be called full-fledged, no matter what anyone says.
Nowhere in brackets will it be written: Russian athletes did not take part in these competitions.
A record is a record, there can be no questions, congratulations!
It is clear that if our strongest had competed there, then Klebo, to put it mildly, would have been problematic to achieve such a good result.
But in this situation, this is not a problem for Klebo.
Anyway, our problem.
And we congratulate him, he is an outstanding athlete!”
- Guberniev said in an interview with "Championship".