Got into the top ten: Korostelev and Nepryaeva finished the Tour de Ski with dignity
The 20th anniversary multi-day ski Tour de Ski has ended. This time, the organizers limited it to six stages, which took place in two legendary Italian towns — Toblache and Val di Fiemme. For the first time in the four-year Olympic cycle, Russian athletes competed in the Tour de Ski and showed a decent result. Savely Korostelev and Daria Nepryaeva were in the top 20 of the overall standings of the tour before the final uphill race and managed to improve their result during the final start. Considering that this is the debut season for the Russians, and they ran a multi-day race for the first time, their performance can be considered a success.
The Tour de Ski traditionally ends with a freestyle mass start, during which skiers storm a mountain with very steep sections (their gradient sometimes exceeds 25%). The results of this race are often unpredictable, and new names keep popping up. This is due to the fact that a race of this format is held once a season, and not all athletes get to participate in it. It's a unique experience, and now our young stars have received it too.
Iversen defeated Korostelev at the finish line
After failing in the sprint and failing to qualify, both Savely and Daria were eager to win back and show good results in the distance race. However, it was unclear what could be expected from our athletes in the uphill race — they had never climbed the Chermis Alps. We do not take into account the mountain race at the Russian Cup, since there is also a blue difficulty level track, and it is not at the same altitude as the Val di Fiemme track.
The men were the first to go the distance. Korostelev started at number 13 with a total lag of 3 minutes and 2 seconds behind the leader. Savely was 48 seconds short of the top ten, which he had already visited in the framework of the multi-day race, which is quite a fixable situation for the mountain, because all sprinters usually fall out of the top in this race.
If we talk about the mass start itself, then during the race the Russian looked more than confident: he passed the first part of the race in the leading group. Strictly speaking, nothing more was required of him, and the main showdown begins on the mountain itself. At one of the cut-offs during the race, Korostelev managed to mark himself as the leader. However, he failed to retain this position.
Chermis Korostelev started his ascent on the Alps impressively. For a long time, he managed to hold on to the leaders of the race, which were Norwegian Mattis Stenshagen and Frenchman Jules Lapierre. Gradually, these two still managed to break away from the Russian. Therefore, our athlete had to settle for solitude at first, and closer to the finish line, the company of Norwegian Emil Iversen.
Right up to the end of the race, it was believed that Savely would be able to maintain his position in the top three. According to the television picture, he looked fresher than the Norwegian, and at times he even managed to create a small gap from his competitor. Only by the finish, Korostelev's strength ran out, and Iversen caught his second wind and eventually finished third, leaving the Russian skier in fourth position.
However, it's definitely not worth getting upset over such a result. Yes, the new milestone of winning the cup race was close, but Savely performed very well during the multi—day race. Right now, the main goal of our skiers is to get in shape and gain international competitive experience before the Olympic Games, which will begin in Italy in less than a month and a half.
The winner of the uphill race was Stenshagen, who was able to prove himself at the Tour de Ski to the fullest. Over the past six races, the Norwegian has scored two wins, one second place and the title of the best climber. Lapierre, a Frenchman who has managed to climb the mountain even first in the past, finished second. The leader of the overall standings, Johannes Klebo, took 12th place at the last stage, losing almost a minute to the winner. But this was more than enough for the five-time Olympic champion to become the first skier in history to win the overall Tour de Ski five times.
According to the results of the entire multi—day event, Savely Korostelev managed to take the eighth place in the general classification, which is simply a success for his debut performance. In addition, the Russian settled on the fifth place in the ranking of mountain climbers. Now that our skier has felt the taste of the fight for medals and the feeling of contact with the strongest athletes, the results should only grow. On the eve of the Olympics, this is very encouraging.
Nepryaeva's performance is also a success
If we talk about the women's race, it is worth noting that it presented several intrigues. Yes, everything was clear with the winner of the tour long before the start, but the leadership in the sprint and mountain competitions was played out on January 4. And from the first meters of the race, it became obvious that the fight for both titles would be serious.
Three skiers, Maya Dahlqvist, Nadine Fendrich and Johanna Hagstrom, competed for victory in the sprint standings during the race. Yasmi Joensuu could also have forced the fight on them, but the Finnish woman was clearly out of shape. As a result, the silver jersey holder Maya Dahlqvist retained the lead, who managed to produce amazing acceleration before the desired cutoff.
Teresa Stadlober and Jessica Diggins competed for the first place in the climbing competition. If we talk about the Austrian, then it was she who managed to give some kind of unrealistic uphill climb. She started it in the tenth position, but eventually managed to get to the fourth place. If we take the pure climbing time, then Stadlober would definitely be the first, since at the very beginning of the mountain her lag was more than 20 seconds.
Although Diggins lost the purple jersey, she still remained the leader in the general classification. And hardly anyone could have overtaken her there, because the American's form in the last season of her career does not raise any questions. Jessica finished the final race in second position, although she lost about 15 seconds to the leader duo a few hundred meters before the finish. Thus, Diggins won the Tour de Ski for the third time and consolidated her position in the World Cup.
The winner of the mass start was Norwegian Karolina Simpson-Larsen, who did not give up the first place for a second during the uphill climb. For a while, Heidi Weng managed to hold on to her teammate. But she was unable to hold onto the second place by the finish line, eventually dropping to third place.
Daria Nepryaeva, like Savely Korostelev, had the best race for herself in the framework of the multi-day race. The Russian skier managed to finish in sixth place, which allowed her to participate in the award ceremony for the first time in her career, as the top six have been honored since this season. On the mountain, the athlete could not maintain the pace of the leaders. But this was mostly due to the fact that Daria got lost in the general group on a flat area and was far enough away from the first places. However, she had the opportunity to work in Teresa Stadlober's back, which the Russian did not take advantage of.
Overall results of the multi-day event
The multi-day race was quite successful for Russian skiers. Especially if we talk about distance races, in which our athletes demonstrated their best results. Before the round, based on the results of Davos, it was quite difficult to imagine that any of the Russians would be able to get not only into the top 6, but even into the top ten.
In the overall standings of the Tour de Ski, Savely is in eighth place, and Daria rounded out the top 10, which is also worthy for the debut season. However, one should not forget that the main stumbling block for Korostelev and Nepryaeva remains sprints, in which they failed to demonstrate any successful results.
Meanwhile, the world leaders were once again able to demonstrate their form shortly before the main start of this season. Klebo still looks bleak in distance racing, but before the Olympics, his progress in this component is a matter of time. Diggins came to her final season in great shape, which she now just needs to keep until the Games.
Unexpectedly, the Swedish women's team performed poorly for itself, which has not won a single victory. Here, of course, everything can be attributed to the removal of the leaders, but even without them, there are those who are able to demonstrate outstanding races. It is especially unexpected to see such performances after the representatives of this country did not give a single gold medal to their competitors at the 2025 World Championships.
Now we will see the best skiers only on January 17, when the sixth stage of the World Cup will be held in Oberhof, Germany. He will include only two races in his program — the "favorite" for our athletes is the free style sprint and the 10 km classic.
Final overall standings of the Tour de Ski
Men
1. Johannes Klebo (Norway) — 1:56.12,4
2. Mattis Stenshagen (Norway) — 30.1
3. Harald Amundsen (Norway) — 1.08,2
…
8. Savely Korostelev (Russia) — 2.28.5
Women
1. Jessica Diggins (USA) — 2:11.26,1
2. Teresa Stadlober (Austria) — 2.17.7
3. Heidi Weng (Norway) — 2.31.6
…
10. Daria Nepryaeva (Russia) — 4.55,5.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
