Klaebo makes history with fifth Tour de Ski title: 'It's always great to win'

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo made history on Sunday as he won his fifth Overall Tour de Ski title. The Norwegian Overall Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup leader finished 12th in the Men’s 10km Mass Start Free in Val di Fiemme, Italy, better known as the Final Climb. He led the race in the flatter parts but fell further back into the pack when it got steeper, controlling his lead in the Overall standings. 

Finishing just under a minute behind his compatriot Mattis Stenshagen in first place, Klaebo retained the top spot in the Tour de Ski standings – a position he has held from the first day of the Tour, when he won the Men’s Sprint Free in Toblach (Italy) – becoming the only skier with five Tour de Ski titles to his name.

”It’s always fun to race the Tour and it’s always great to win. I love the concept and everything, it’s great,” said Klaebo, who also clinched the Tour’s Sprint prize.

Last year, he equalled Swiss giant Dario Cologna’s record of four Tour de Ski titles. Now the Norwegian king of Cross-Country is alone on the throne with five trophies from the Tour celebrating its 20th anniversary this winter.

Before the last stage, which ends with a gruesome climb up an Alpine ski slope, Norway’s Lars Heggen had been in second place in the Overall Tour de Ski standings, one minute and 23 seconds behind Klaebo. 

Stenshagen had been in third place, 1:29 behind the leader, and cut almost a minute off Klaebo’s lead as he stormed up the hill towards his second World Cup triumph. Klaebo, however, kept calm and made a push when he needed to, claiming the Overall victory 30 seconds ahead of Stenshagen, as Harald Oestberg Amundsen completed Norway’s clean sweep on the Overall podium, 1:08.2 behind.

After a comfortable Sprint victory in Toblach’s Tour opener on 28 December, he went on to win two more races, making it three victories in six stages of the Tour. 

On day two, Klaebo had to settle for a second place in the Interval Start Classic race in Toblach as Stenshagen, who was 8.9 seconds faster, claimed his first World Cup win. On New Year’s Eve, he finished in 12th place in the Tour-debuting 5km Heat Mass Start Free. But as 2026 started, Klaebo made it back to the top of the podium.

He won the 20km Pursuit Classic on New Year’s Day, beating runner-up Stenshagen by 51.1 seconds, and looked unfazed as he cruised to victory in Val di Fiemme’s Sprint Classic on Saturday.

”The biggest challenge was probably the 5k,” Klaebo said.

After his Tour triumph one year ago, Klaebo went on to win a record six gold medals in six events at the 2025 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships on home snow in Trondheim, Norway, and the five-time Olympic gold medallist said it is ”hard to say” what his biggest achievement is.

Easier to say, however, is that the 29-year-old is not satisfied yet. The victory earns him another 300 World Cup points and at a total of 1,294 points, he has a margin of 246 down to Amundsen, who is No.2 in the Overall standings.

But before dreaming of a sixth Overall Crystal Globe – a record that would tie him with compatriot Bjoern Daehlie as the greatest of all time – Klaebo will be chasing more glory on Italian snow.

In a month, he will be back in Val di Fiemme, hoping to repeat his clean sweep from last year’s World Championships at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, with his confidence boosted by another historic win.

"It’s important to recover well now, then the plan is to go to altitude again and prepare for the Olympics,” he said.

Italy’s home hope Federico Pellegrino claimed seventh place in the Final Climb, bringing him from a fifth to fourth place in the Overall rankings. Emil Iversen (NOR) and Heggen finished fifth and sixth respectively, making it five Norwegians in the Overall top six.

The 20-year-old Tour debutant Heggen had finished second behind Klaebo in the Toblach Sprint to make it onto a sensational career-first podium, and third in the 5km Heat Mass Start, but struggled in the Final Climb. He finished in 29th place in the last stage and fell from second place to sixth on the final day of the Tour.

In the Tour’s Sprint standings, Heggen finished in second place with 43 points – 30 behind the winner, Klaebo. Amundsen claimed Sprint bronze with 31 points, seven more than France’s Jules Chappaz in fourth place.

The 5km Heat Mass Start winner Gus Schumacher (USA) finished in seventh place Overall. Savelii Korostelev (AIN), Elia Barp (ITA) and Benjamin Moser (AUT) claimed the eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.

Click here to see the full Men’s Overall Tour de Ski rankings and here to follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube.