Spectacular 2nd stage of Tour de Ski decided by photo finish

A bluebird day awaited the FIS Cross-Country family in Lenzerheide (SUI) for the second stage of the Tour de Ski performance by Le Gruyère AOP.The Sprint scheduled Sprint in Free technique promised a spectacular race day.

Swiss spectators gathered along the course already for the qualification. Alike the previous day, conditions on the course were all set for the upcoming Sprint action as Anamarija Lampic from Slovenia reported after her prologue: „It was really cold this morning so the warm up was quite tough. The course is not too fast or too slow and I think it has enough space to overtake and to have interesting heats". Sophie Caldwell (USA) hit the fastest time in the qualification with 3:10.76, followed by local Nadine Fähndrich and US team colleagues Jessie Diggins and Sadie Maubet Bjornsen.

With the news of Stina Nilsson not continuing the Tour de Ski, the Swedish team had one Sprint expert less in the cards but nevertheless had four athletes qualifying. Due to an unfortunate crash in the semi finals, all remaining SWE athletes (Dahlqvist, Sundling, Lundgren) were out which left the final heat with two Americans Diggins and Maubet Bjornsen, two Norwegians Tiril Weng and Falla as well as Natalia Nepryaeva and Anamarija Lampic.

Lampic and Falla crossed the finish line eventually in a tight photo finish, which Lampic decided to her favor by only just +0.03 seconds! Nepryaeva takes the third position 0.47 after the Slovenian and receives the yellow BIB for the Overall lead of the Tour de Ski.

Norwegian top class athlete Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR) lead with a +1.20 sec gap ahead of his favourite Italian contender Federico Pellegrino and local hero Jovian Hediger the qualification results.

"The pace in the semi final was really high and having such a strong competition and tough fights in the heats makes it for sure difficult to stay in shape for the rest of the Tour," said Klæbo after fighting the tough semi final, featuring also Alexander Bolshunov and Sergey Ustiugov from Russia. Bolshunov was unlucky to break a pole in the decisive point just before entering the second lap.

The grand final featured Paal Golberg (NOR), Gleb Retivykh (RUS), Johan Haeggstroem (SWE), Richard Jouve (FRA) as well as Pellegrino and Klæbo. Richard Jouve tool over the command immediately but made sure to keep the pace high, Haggstroem challenged the Frenchman but could not pass by. Only just in the final sprint stretch towards the finish line, Klæbo started to pull out his remaining power and Pellegrino immediately reacted, both taking in Jouve who ends up +0.57 sec behind winning Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. "Racing against Pellegrino is always a great pleasure and we keep each other going fast out there," said Johannes after his victory.