After winning the sprint, Johannes Hosflot Klaebo also won the ten-kilometer pursuit race in the Tour de Ski. DSV athlete Friedrich Moch was also able to convince on Sunday (January 1st, 2023) in Val Müstair (Switzerland).
As expected, sprint winner Klaebo pulled away from Federico Pellegrino at the beginning, but behind them the competitors came a little closer. After 1.2 kilometers, Friedrich Moch was also able to hold his position and, protected by the large field, gained a few seconds on the leader.
After the first 2.5 km lap, Klaebo was already nine seconds ahead of Pellegrino. Pal Golberg’s performance was already striking. The leader in the overall World Cup made up a few seconds on his Norwegian team-mate and has already worked his way up from ninth on the grid to seventh.
Golberg shows his class
After 3.7 kilometers, Golberg had almost halved the gap to Klaebo and was only 19 seconds behind the sprint winner from the previous day. 37 seconds after him, Golberg went onto the cross-country ski run. However, the leader continued to gain ground on the rest of the chasing group, by 17 seconds halfway through the race.
Golberg then tried to break away from his competitors and to hunt down the lonely man at the top on his own. Only Pellegrino managed to follow him. But what happened a few places behind was also remarkable. Moch ran a strong race, belonged to the front of the big group and was in a strong tenth place after 6.2 kilometers.
Klaebo leaves no doubts
Klaebo went into the last 2.5 kilometers with a big lead of 16 seconds, apparently living up to his role as favorite, just like in the sprint, when he had won all his races in superior fashion. But Golberg picked up the pace again and, with Pellegrino in tow, reduced the gap. With 1.3 kilometers to go, it was only ten seconds.
In the meantime, Moch could no longer keep up the high pace, but in 14th place he still went to the final meters with a good starting position. There, the 22-year-old lost another place, but still made it into the top 15 (+53 seconds). At the front, Klaebo confidently brought his lead to the finish line and ended up having a ten-second lead over Pellegrino, who narrowly beat Golberg in the sprint.
German athletes with strong performances
Second best German was Albert Kuchler, who managed to catch up brilliantly. He made up 61 places and climbed from 90th to 29th place (+1:37 minutes). Jonas Dobler harmonized so well with his teammates that they made up a lot of ground together, after starting from 82nd he made it to the finish line in 30th place (+1:37 minutes). Florian Notz (39./1:56 minutes), Lucas Bögl (45./2:04 minutes) and Thomas Bing (52./2:09 minutes) also left many runners who had started earlier behind them.