Diggins wins in an exciting finish
In the victory of the American Jessie Diggins, who prevailed in the freestyle race in a thrilling final sprint against Frida Karlsson from Sweden (+ 0.5 seconds) and the Russian Tatjana Sorina (+ 0.8 seconds), Hennig only came 3.5 Seconds later to the finish. On the first two stages of the tour, Hennig, who suffered from an infection before the tour, did not get past 52nd place in the sprint and 20 over 10 kilometers in the classic way.
Hennig: “I’ve never succeeded in doing that”
“We approached it with commitment, it paid off for Katharina. That was a good end to the year”, was delighted national coach Peter Schlickenrieder after the race in ZDF. Hennig was even in second place at times in the race, but cheered after the competition: “In the freestyle you can still tell my technical mistakes. But I’m so happy with sixth place, I’ve never succeeded.“The classical music specialist said about the tour so far: “I think I needed the races in Lenzerheide, I had a cold before the tour and also had to stop an altitude training camp. I noticed that the day before yesterday, it stuck in my bones. I was disappointed, but knew the reasons. Thank God it worked out. “
Diggins takes over yellow again – Hennig climbs
With her victory, Diggins, who already won the sprint on Wednesday, once again took the lead in the overall standings. The previous woman in yellow, the Finn Kerttu Niskanen, took Diggins from more than 40 seconds. The American now leads Niskanen by 13 seconds.
The 25-year-old Hennig made a good leap. From 21st place she climbed to 13th place, is 1:24 minutes behind the top and around 30 seconds away from the top ten. Last year, the Saxon finished the tour in eighth place overall.
Fräbel and Krehl improve
Antonia Fräbel (Asbach) and Sofie Krehl (Oberstdorf) also ran a bit forward. Fräbel, who started the race with the high starting number 52, was 20th (+ 39.4 seconds), Krehl advanced from starting number 50 to 27th place (+ 49.7 seconds).
The other Germans could not keep up with the high pace at the top and crossed the finish line beaten: Katherine Sauerbrey (Steinbach-Hallenberg) was 41st (+ 1: 21.9 minutes), Victoria Carl (Zella Mehlis) 46. (+ 1: 26.5 minutes), Pia Fink (Bremelau) 47. (1: 26.6 minutes), Laura Gimmler (Oberstdorf) 49. (+1: 36.1 minutes), Lisa Lohmann (Oberhof) 55. (+ 1: 48.0 minutes) and Coletta Rydzek (Oberstdorf) 60th (+ 2: 26.0 minutes) in the field of 66 starters.
Carl gets out of the tour
Victoria Carl, who was able to stay in the top 20 for a long time, is leaving the tour. The Thuringian will no longer be at the start of the classic sprints on Saturday (01.01.2022) in Oberstdorf.
Schlickenrieder: “Good preparation for the Olympics”
National coach Schlickenrieder was already looking ahead. Regarding the changing conditions of the tour with snowfall in Lenzerheide or clear plus degrees in Oberstdorf, the national coach said: “This is a good preparation for the Olympic Games. Nobody there knows what to expect. But there it might be the freezing cold, a storm or the bureaucracy. The better you get along here, the less you can do what is going on China rolls towards us. “