Northug is back
Tour de Ski
Thu, Jan 7, 2010 - By FIS
The first A to B race in the FIS Tour de Ski, the winners and also the new Tour leaders were Petter Northug (NOR) and Arianna Follis (ITA).
Petter Northug won a three-man sprint finish to claim the fifth stage of the Tour de Ski from Cortina D'Ampezzo to Toblach. He took the victory after this tough race over 36 km on his birthday 0,4 seconds ahead of last year's Tour de Ski winner Dario Cologna (SUI). Markus Hellner from Sweden took the third place, 0,8 seconds behind Northug.
The exciting race mixed up the Tour de Ski ranking a bit. Northug reclaimed the lead while Cologna is now on second place. Hellner is now on third position while still Jena Marc Gaillard (FRA), Matti Heikkinen (FIN) and Axel Teichmann (GER) have still good chances to be on the podium in the Tour de Ski. So far between Northug and Teichmann are only 22,3 seconds gap.
In the Sprint Tour ranking, Simen Oestensen (NOR) took over the lead with 1:24min while Markus Hellner is second in this ranking with 1:22min.
"It was a very tough race for me today. I tried to stay in th first group but I could not make it. In the overall Tour de Ski standing I have lost too much time and my goal now is to go for the Sprint Bib and win the Tour de Ski sprint ranking." said Simen Oestensen (NOR). Oestensen is the FIS Tour de Ski Sprint Leader
"It was a tough race. Tougher than I had expected. First 20 km was uphill. It was not steep but it was long. On the top I actually felt quite tired. The downhill afterwards was quite demanding as well as I had to work almost the time to maintain the speed. I tried to stay in the group with Dario (Cologna) and Markus (Hellner). It was a very special race going from Cortina to Toblach. It was exciting to go the tunnel, bridges, long uphill then long donwhil and last 3,3 km. It was also special as the first 20 km were uphil and the last 15 km downhill." added Petter Northug jr. (NOR). Northug regained the Overall Tour de Ski Leader bib.
Pleas find results HERE