Klaebo skis solo to win Toblach 20K and retain Tour de Ski dominance
Jan 01, 2026·Cross-Country
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) is still on course for a record-breaking fifth Tour de Ski victory and record-equalling sixth Overall FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup title after cruising to his 103rd individual career race victory in Toblach, Italy on Thursday.
Klaebo, 29, won the 20km Pursuit Classic at a canter with a trademark tactical masterclass to increase his lead in the Tour de Ski standings to 51 seconds with two races to go in Val de Fiemme, Italy this coming weekend. He looks in ominous form with just over a month to go until the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics Winter Games, where he will look to add to his five gold medals.
Klaebo also holds a 30-point lead in the Distance standings, the only World Cup title to have alluded to Norwegian superstar so far.
With the skiers starting based on their positions in the 2025/26 Tour de Ski so far, Klaebo went out 45 seconds ahead of his closest challenger, 20-year-old Lars Heggen (NOR), one of this season’s breakout stars.
The chasing pack, right the way down to Edvin Anger (SWE) in 10th, were all within 37 seconds of Heggen and, as expected, they soon bunched up with the aim of sharing the front-running and slipstreaming in order to close the gap on the runaway leader.
It didn’t work out that way, though. Most experts expected Klaebo to make the chasers work hard for at least two of the five 4km laps, then gradually allow them to close the gap knowing his favourite event, the Sprint, was coming up on Saturday.
This will be followed by Sunday’s brutal Final Climb, by which time Klaebo’s lead should be big enough to claim the Tour title, with his rivals too fatigued after their efforts to catch him in earlier races such as Thursday’s 20K.
As it happened, Klaebo’s team obviously decided it would be best to go out hard and keep going hard on what was a pristine Toblach track after temperatures plummeted to well below freezing overnight.
After lap one, his lead was up to 58 seconds. Two laps in, that had grown to one minute 0.5 seconds. By the end of the third lap it was 1:18.2 and game over. Relying on his smooth style and impeccable technique, Klaebo was able to ease off over the final two laps as the chasers became disparate rather than working together.
Klaebo eventually crossed the line 57.4 seconds in front, a single punch of the air indicating satisfaction but that there was still work to be done.
Another in-form Norwegian, Mattis Stenshagen, was always the most likely to close the gap on Klaebo, having won Monday’s 10K ahead of his compatriot. Stenshagen opened up a 10-second gap on the rest during lap four, eventually finishing 8.7 seconds ahead of Anger, who beat Federico Pellegrino to the final podium place after a photo finish.
It was Stenshagen’s third podium of the season and Anger’s second.
“It was a good race,” Klaebo said, after his fifth individual victory of the World Cup season. “I opened with good pace, and I felt like I had control in the last part, so really satisfied.
“I think it’s going to be interesting for the final two races of the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme. I’m just going to give it my all and see where I stand on Sunday.”
Stenshagen admitted it was “quite a slow start” by the chasing pack and too “relaxed”. “Then I went really fast on the third lap and went for it and got a gap to get another second place, so I was really happy.
“My goal for Val di Fiemme is to try to qualify for the finals in the Sprint then try to ski fast on the Final Climb.”
Anger, by contrast, skied a “super-fast” opening loop to move from 10th into the chasing pack. “It was an interesting race,” he said. “We took a lot of seconds off the guys in front, then it was just a case of keep fighting. The only thing I had in mind was the finish line and to go for it.
“The Sprint will be fun on the Olympic track, then we have a tough day on Sunday. I hope the new year will continue like this.”
The Tour de Ski moves on to Val di Fiemme, also in Italy, starting with the Men’s and Women’s Sprint Classic on Saturday 3 January.
For all the results from Toblach, click here
