“The majority sees it critically”
Controversial change: Ski stars annoyed by new format
December 31, 2025 – 5:04 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
A new mode is being tried out in the Tour de Ski for cross-country skiers. The reactions of the currently influential personalities are clear – for certain reasons.
Coletta Rydzek’s legs burst, Johannes Hösflot Kläbo’s long face: The premiere of the controversial “Heat Mass Start” mode at the cross-country skiers’ Tour de Ski caused a lot of excitement in Toblach. While Rydzek, who had no chance, lost her third place in the overall standings, Kläbo celebrated a confident victory – and was only twelfth on the day.
“I wanted to do the race quickly and wanted to get the sprint points. That worked well. Then my legs burst on the climb,” said Rydzek on ZDF after she only finished 16th out of 20 runners in her 5 km run after a strong start. With 61st place in the daily ranking, things went downhill to seventh in the overall ranking. The best German was Pia Fink in 14th place.
While on “US Day” Jessie Diggins celebrated her day’s victory and overall lead and Gus Schumacher celebrated his unexpected World Cup success, Norway’s top star Johannes Kläbo was completely satisfied. The record world champion won his race confidently. But because hardly anyone apart from him was providing the pace, Kläbo’s run was ultimately too leisurely – but he still confidently leads the tour standings.
“We were just too slow, it’s that simple,” said Kläbo: “I worked hard with my Norwegian teammate – but the others didn’t.” The best German was Janosch Brugger in 27th place – he was in Kläbo’s race. “It was a lottery,” said Brugger, who was “very happy” with his performance.
In the new format of the “partial mass start” the approximately 80 male and female starters were divided into four runs each, and the best in the overall ranking were put into different races. This is intended to prevent runners like Kläbo, who was quick at the end, from hiding in the field for long stretches, as is often the case in a regular mass start, and then just focusing on the final sprint.
When comparing different races, a Kläbo now has to ensure high speed if he doesn’t just want to win his own race. “If he wants to win, he has to do it himself,” said Brugger. The problem: This time almost only Kläbo was working.