After fantastic days at the Tour de Ski, the German cross-country skiers came away empty-handed on Wednesday (January 3rd, 2024). In the freestyle sprints in Davos, the DSV team remained without a top ten place. Katharina Hennig and Friedrich Moch, who were well placed in the tour standings, even failed at the qualification hurdle.
At least Victoria Carl, who runs a fantastic Tour de Ski, survived the qualification. However, the Thuringian had to give up the freestyle sprint in the quarterfinals for the first time since the end of November. With 16th place in the final tally, Carl still collected a few bonus seconds, maintained her good starting position and saved energy for the 20 kilometer pursuit on Thursday (January 4th, 2024 from 10:45 a.m. in the live stream and live ticker). Carl continues to head towards the first top 3 placement by a German runner in the stage race.
Svahn makes history
Besides Carl, only the strong sprinter Sofie Krehl made it to the quarterfinals. In an extremely fast run, the German had to settle for fifth place. Victory was secured by sprint star Linn Svahn from Sweden, who achieved the feat of becoming the first woman to win all four sprint races of the Tour de Ski. Kristine Stavaas Skistad (Norway) came second, Tour leader Jessie Diggings finished third.
Rydzek missed the finals by a whisker
Coletta Rydzek, who came in 31st, missed the finals by the blink of an eye. On the other hand, Hennig, who is still weak after a corona infection and was at least able to save her strength after qualifying, was a good two seconds too slow. Hennig was eliminated in 36th place, Lisa Lohmann remained “stuck” in 41st place.
Fink misses the second part of the Tour de Ski
Pia Fink didn’t even start. The runner from Bremelau showed mild symptoms of infection on Tuesday evening. “Considering there are four tough stages left on the Tour, with no real recovery time, we decided not to take any risks”, team doctor Tom Kastner explained the measure. Fink was in 22nd place overall after three stages.
Pia Fink missed the second part of the Tour de Ski.
German men have no chance
The DSV men’s team is still complete and, surprisingly, a German, Friedrich Moch, is also at the top of the tour rankings. The best DSV cross-country skier was in a brilliant sixth place at the halfway point of the tour, ran to 47th place in Davos, the highest city in Europe, clearly missed the final and thus had time to rest for his pursuer on Thursday.
National coach Peter Schlickenrieder had already feared that the performance of his athletes could decline compared to the other nations. “We didn’t do any altitude preparation for the tour like the Scandinavians – especially the Swedes and Norwegians”says Schlickenrieder. In addition to Moch, Marius Kastner and Lucas Bögl also did not qualify for the finals.
Friedrich Moch failed to qualify for the cross-country sprint in Davos.
Anian Sossau and Jan Stölben played the two German solo entertainers. However, neither made it past the quarterfinals.
Amundsen unlucky to fall
The sprint was dramatic for the leader of the Tour de Ski, Harald Oestberg Amundsen. The Norwegian fell in the quarterfinals and lost valuable and planned seconds. Amundsen had to watch in frustration as Lucas Chanavat (France) surprisingly ran to victory. Edvin Anger (Sweden) and Federico Pellegrino (Italy) sprinted onto the podium. The Norwegians came away completely empty-handed.
Chasers on Thursday
After the sprint races, there will be a pursuit in Davos on Thursday (January 4th, 2024), after which we will finish in the Italian Val di Fiemme, where the legendary climb awaits the Alpe Cermis ski station.