Katri Lylynperä enjoyed it, Kerttu Niskanen didn’t

Fun scrimmage or stress-filled battle?

The traditional joint start race of the 20 km World Cup in Lillehammer divided the opinions of the Finnish stars.

Krista Pärmäkoski and Kerttu Niskanen described the dawn as stressful, because there was enough traffic and the downhills piled the women up again and again into a large group.

– The position dropped a lot if someone stepped on a pole or ski, or had to raise their back. Suddenly, 10–15 places were lost, Pärmäkoski said in the announcement of the Ski Association.

– We would like to be able to ski properly in the mass starts of the normal route. The first half of the race wouldn’t be fooling around, Niskanen told Iltalehte.

Perttu Hyvärinen and Katri Lylynperä instead, enjoy the battle on the track. Hyvärinen said in an interview with Viaplay that “it’s fun to chat among the boys”.

– A very entertaining race with a lot of sprint-like elements. It was nice to watch when the group changed lanes. Noticed how mistakes backfired and there were crashes. I had a really good time on the track, Lylynperä beamed.

Iltalehti’s expert Reijo Jylhä the grueling joint start race is explained not only by the track profile, but also by the change in power relations.

The situation can be seen especially on the women’s side Therese Johaugin finished his career.

– Johaug, Iivo Niskanen and Alexander Bolshunov have caused situations in joint start races where many people are not comfortable. The pace has been too fast for many others.

– In women’s skiing, there is currently no superior skier dominating the pace in such a way that it would be uncomfortable for many. That’s why the race was only decided at the end.

Not an easy place

Now especially the women have to train and prepare for the fact that the joint start races will only be decided at the end.

For others, an intermediate start is clearly a more preferable form of competition.

– Intermediate start and joint start are different. If you don’t adapt to the joint start, it doesn’t feel comfortable as a race. It’s certainly not an easy place to ski, Jylhä knows.

The biathlon course used in Lillehammer was also not suitable for Niskanen. It was hard to tell the difference on the easy track.

– The challenge of Kertu is terrain profiles with short steep climbs. There were sections in that as well, where you had to make a lot of rhythm changes. Kerttu likes to ski longer and gentler climbs.

The World Cup continues next weekend in Beitostölen, Norway. There, there is a tougher track and a normal distance as an intermediate start.