Stepanova's jerk

The stage of the Russian Cup in Tyumen ended with the identification of the strongest in the races with a general freestyle start for 10 and 15 km, respectively. And to some extent, this was a new test for the athletes this season, because at the previous stages they did not compete in this discipline. With the exception of the “classics” race in Tyumen, where Veronika Stepanova and Alexander Bolshunov took the top. And although this time the conditions were different, they were considered the favorites.

And this victory was especially important for the native of Elizovo, who won one of the last three races. Stepanova took gold in the time trial at the tournament in Kazan, but in the skiathlon she was content with silver, and the day before she was only ninth in the sprint. And before the start of the race, she even promised to rehabilitate herself for this failure. And this would have been most welcome, because by this time both Elizaveta Pantrina and Anastasia Kuleshova had come close to her in the overall standings.

This trio performed successfully and this time, however, Tatyana Sorina intervened in the dispute over the medals. The Beijing Olympic relay champion missed most of the season and returned to full action only a month ago. But it was not possible to rise above the eighth line. This time she immediately settled in the leading group and stayed in it until the very end, and on the last climb she rushed forward and was ahead of not only Kuleshova, but also Evgenia Krupitskaya. And won a bronze medal.

“I’m not quite in perfect condition yet, but today I’ll give myself a four. The most difficult thing for me was that there was a lot of snow, and my foot was unstable. There was a risk of getting off. I fought not with the girls, but with myself. Egor (Sorin. -

RT

) holds me back, does not allow me to work to my maximum. On the last day in Tsaghkadzor we almost broke up (

laughs

). He didn’t let me do the work I planned,” the skier admitted on Match TV.

In addition to Sorina, Pantrina also worked well on the final climb, who was the first to rush in pursuit of Stepanova, who had secured a solid groundwork. But she was no longer able to catch up with her. Veronica completed the distance in 29 minutes 13.6 seconds, six and a half ahead of the silver medalist. And in the last meters she seemed to “stick her nose” at her rivals. True, according to the winner herself, she did not try to offend any of her counterparts, but allegedly wanted to repeat the famous gesture of the legendary Norwegian colleague.

“Petter Northug taught me before the Olympics. I decided to repeat his masterful finish... It's nice to keep my word. You can say I made a prediction, and it came true, as Mohammed Ali said6... Today I “rushed in a carriage”, tried to escape, but it didn’t work. Then I decided to tactically expand along the distance. The coach spoke information about the route, but I decided not to wait and took the initiative into my own hands. I feel great,” Stepanova said.

Duel between Bolshunov and Chervotkin

In turn, it was much more difficult for the undisputed hegemon of Russian ski racing. By this time, Alexander Bolshunov had won 16 victories at the Russian Cup stages in a row and was preparing to extend this phenomenal streak. But in the mass start for a long time I could not break away from the competitors. After 6.3 km, he was only tenth and only then began to gradually gain momentum, but his opponents did not lag behind. So, two kilometers before the finish line, 15 people were located ten seconds away, and Savely Korostelev was in the lead.

But as it turned out later, the 20-year-old athlete made a grave mistake when he decided to overtake the three-time Olympic winner and take on the burden of leadership shortly before the end of the race. First, he let Bolshunov and Alexei Chervotkin go ahead, and then lost in the battle for the bronze medal. As a result, Pavel Solovyov became fourth, and Anton Timashov, who had never risen above tenth place at the Russian Cup stages of the 2023/24 season, won bronze.

The duel between Bolshunov and Chervotkin turned out to be incredibly exciting. And at first it was not the favorite who went first. Thanks to a great spurt on the climb, Alexey took the lead and gave hope for a sensation, but Alexander very quickly “killed” it. On a flat stretch, he outflanked his opponent solely using his legs and did not miss his goal, winning his 17th victory in a row in magnificent style.

“The race was good. Everyone tried their best, they were very good competition at every kilometer, they tried to use different tactics. But today I also wanted to win and I’m glad that I managed to win. Lyokha Chervotkin was greatly surprised when he began to “jump” so much. I understood that if he started like this, then I could support him in this. It was important for me to push harder than Lyokha. I did this on the descent to get more speed. The turn there was dangerous; we skied into it a couple of times during the course. The main thing was not to fall over,” admitted Bolshunov.

In turn, although Chervotkin was happy about the first medal in 2024, he called the race difficult. According to him, Bolshunov himself provoked him into a breakthrough when he did not develop the advantage he had gained.

“When Sanyok pulled for the first time, I seemed to support him, I thought that he would go to the end. Then I see everyone remained in the crowd. Sanyok also realized this and slowed down... I don’t like this finish... It seems like you’ve worked out the climb, then you go downhill and rest. But the one who sits in the bag, so to speak, has a good advantage. At the finish line, I took my cue from the situation. I hoped that I would work in the back, but when the guys started working uphill, my speed was higher, I had to jump out and try to run away,” said the silver medalist.

But if Chervotkin managed to surprise and almost interrupted Bolshunov’s incredible streak, then Sergei Ustyugov disappointed. He has not competed since November and returned only at the stage in Tyumen, where he had previously not performed well in the sprint. And it seemed that at a longer distance he would look better. But in reality, everything turned out the other way around. For some time, the Olympic champion in the relay race stayed in the general group, and 5 km before the finish he was less than six seconds behind Bolshunov. But either he got stuck in the peloton and was unable to support the breakthrough of the leading group, or he distributed his forces incorrectly. And he placed only in 26th position with a large lag (+ 52.5), forcing us to seriously think about his prospects at the All-Russian Winter Spartakiad.