Cross-country skier Coletta Rydzek lost her podium place in the overall ranking at the Tour de Ski.
At the premiere of the controversial “Heat Mass Starts” format over 5 km, the 28-year-old from Oberstdorf did not get past 61st place on New Year’s Eve in Toblach and slipped to seventh place in the tour rankings. Given the difficult races in the coming days, sprint specialist Rydzek had no realistic chance of a podium anyway.
“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 run after a strong start.
The day’s victory was secured by the American Jessie Diggins, who is clearly leading the Tour de Ski and is heading towards her third overall victory. “It was really fun,” said Diggins, who won ahead of Swedes Emma Ribom and Moa Ilar.
The best German was Pia Fink in 14th place. Helen Hoffmann and Katherine Sauerbrey took second and third place in the first of four runs, in which Rydzek also started. However, the race ultimately turned out to be a slow one – Hoffmann (24th) and Sauerbrey (25th) fell far behind Sofie Krehl (21st) in the daily standings.
In the new format of the “partial mass start”, the approximately 80 starters were divided into four runs, and the best runners in the overall ranking were put into different races. All times were included in an overall result.