The day before, many were surprised that only 30 athletes took part in the women's race from the general start, but the men's was even less representative.
In total, only 24 skiers showed up, among which there was not a whole scattering of stars.
Almost the entire team of the Tyumen region, which excelled in the relay two days ago, did not run the 50-kilometer “classic”.
Missed the race Artyom Maltsev, Ivan Yakimushkin and Denis Spitsov.
And this is curious, because the latter preferred to compete with Alexander Bolshunov and the company to perform in a freestyle marathon in Demino.
Alexander Terentiev, who specializes in sprint, and Andrey Melnichenko did not reach the final stage of the Champions Heights.
But as it turned out later, that was not all.
At the last moment, Anton Timashov, Nikita Shestakov and Ilya Kuznetsov decided to take a breather before the Russian Championship.
In this regard, the peloton immediately looked quite small, and by the fourth kilometer it had practically lost one more representative.
Roman Parfyonenko was hopelessly behind already at the start and by this moment was losing 50 seconds to the leaders.
Subsequently, the representative of St. Petersburg completely refused to continue the fight, and over time, five more athletes followed his example.
In total, only 15 people made it to the finish line.
Apparently, the men were closely following the yesterday's race of the girls and therefore, until a certain point, did not dare to force the course of the race.
The leaders alternately became Alexander Bolshunov, then Sergey Ustyugov with Alexei Chervotkin and Ilya Semikov.
True, the first of them made me a little worried when, at the mark of 14 km, it dropped to the ninth position.
Then even Alexander Legkov, who commented on the race for Match TV, suggested that the condition of the three-time Olympic champion leaves much to be desired.
But later he dispelled these fears.
As usual in a marathon, a group of leaders began to form after the first half of the distance.
The trio in the person of Semikov, Chervotkin and Ustyugov suddenly went into the lead, and only the same Bolshunov, Evgeny Belov and Alexander Grebenko risked rushing in pursuit of the fugitives.
But the last two didn't last long.
For another couple of kilometers they tried to maintain the pace, but then they themselves “fell off”.
No, both did not give up and completed the race, but the gap from the quartet was colossal and amounted to more than three minutes.
Like the day before, one of the main intrigues was which of the main contenders for the awards would decide to change equipment and how this would affect the results.
In the women's mass start, none of the medalists, including Natalya Nepryaeva, began to "change shoes" and in many ways this helped them to succeed.
For comparison, Veronika Stepanova, who came to the pit stop, not only lost the initiative, but also lost precious seconds.
And in an attempt to catch up with competitors, she spent too much energy and subsequently left the stadium with difficulty.
But this time, things turned out differently.
So, 15 km before the finish line, only Ustyugov refused to put on new skis, but he did not extract serious dividends from this.
If he managed to get rid of Semikov, who had dug in on the shift, Bolshunov and Chervotkin quickly overtook their counterparts and subsequently even dropped him to third place.
Oleksandr and Aleksey obviously walked faster and probably made Sergey himself think about the need to try on a new set.
There was an opportunity to do this - but only five kilometers before the end.
And this is extremely dangerous.
“What about changing skis?
Actually, I missed it (laughs).
No decisions were made.
Maybe he didn't take it seriously.
All the problems are in my head, psychologically I was ready that I would finish last or penultimate, but in the end this is how it turned out, ”Ustyugov later admitted on Match TV.
Sergei failed to provide adequate resistance to Bolshunov and Chervotkin.
If he was still trying to hold on until the 46th kilometer, then the difference in the freshness and condition of the skis became noticeable to the naked eye.
The rivals rushed forward and left their partner in the golden relay four far behind.
As a result, he crossed the line 21 seconds after the winner, but he did not miss the bronze.
Semikov lost over 46.
The fate of the gold medal was decided a few tens of meters before the finish line.
Bolshunov and Chervotkin took the lead in turn, but Alexei was not ready for the last acceleration of one of the main characters of the Beijing Olympics.
On the descent, Alexander literally "flew away" from him, perfectly passed the turn and did not miss his own.
The gap was 4.3 seconds.
“I feel fine, in some places it was difficult.
Most of the distance I had to work ahead, which affected my well-being.
The guys made a good competition, fought to the finish line.
He did the right thing by changing skis, and they started to ride well.
Ustyugov rode on one pair?
They rode well with him, ”said Bolshunov.
If for Alexander it was the sixth medal at the "Champion Heights" (four gold and two bronze), then for Alexei only the second.
Previously, he took silver in the 15 km freestyle race, and now he has become the second in the marathon.
“I was determined to fight for the victory, because I understood that during the tournament the condition was getting better.
Saved energy.
I wanted to fight, and I was psychologically prepared, but it wasn’t enough.
He practically did not work in front, he changed skis in time, but Alexander was better, and now there was a gap at the finish line between us ... You know, Bolshunov had a floating pace, somewhere it was good, but he understood that on the steep parts it tightened his muscles, already there was not enough shock work, a good push, and therefore he tried to follow only Bolshunov.
I said to myself: “Be patient,” Chervotkin appreciated the performance.