Worrying sight of a slumped Frida Karlsson – Here we go to the final climb of the Tour

Frida Karlsson was exhausted after a 15 km traditional style mass start in Val di Fiemme on Saturday. After the finish line, he got stuck into the project for a while.

– Frida and Jessie Diggins the situations are questionable before Sunday’s final ascent – especially when you remember both of their finishes last season on the Alpe Cermis ski slope, says Iltalehti’s skiing expert Reijo Jylhä.

Karlsson collapsed at the end of last year’s Tour. He was given first aid and transported away from the ski center on a stretcher.

Diggins was also very tired after last season’s Tour.

– How well will they recover by Sunday, when neither of them is the world champion in energy refueling? Do they dare to refuel, how should they, Jylhä ponders.

– At the very least, you have to make sure that both are in the same condition as a year ago, the expert adds.

Neck seam

Diggins leads the Tour by 42-48 seconds to the trio Jonna SundlingKarlsson et Kerttu Niskanen.

– I don’t think it will be over. Diggins can push himself so tight. If the race format was a chase and Diggins had to go alone at the front, the situation would be different. Now he can control the speed and ski with others.

Jylhä says that the two-time winner of the Tour Heidi Weng is Niskanen’s biggest challenger in Sunday’s final climb in the race for second place. The Finnish and Norwegian have a difference of 15 seconds before the final stage.

– The interest is focused on Frida’s coping. I believe that Kerttu and Weng will cope better. The Swedish sprinters at the top are not in their strength area at the end of the climb. Kertu has a pretty good head start on Weng, so she doesn’t need to tactic. It is realistic for Kertu to take second place.

The win was decided

The men’s Tour victory was already decided in Davos, Norway For Harald Amundsen. He has a one and a half minute head start on the next one.

Norwegian Erik Valnesof Norway Martin Nyengetof France Hugo Lapalusof Switzerland Beda Klee and Norway Henrik Donnestad are competing for second place. The men are within 23 seconds of each other before the final climb.

Rough ceiling

This year’s landmark Tour has had an exceptionally high number of dropouts.

Seventy women started the tour, but before Sunday’s race there are only 30 names on the start list.

99 men started the Tour de Skin, and before the final ascent there are 53 skiers on the start list.

Iltalehti found out that, at least in a season without value competition, the dropout rate has never been as high as it is now.

– It reflects the appreciation of the Tour. The collective illness in many teams in December also has an effect, Jylhä states.

– In the early years of the Tour, you had to ski to the finish to get World Cup points. Now you don’t have to do that. That’s why we interrupt much more sensitively than before. The best will benefit by skiing through the Tour, but the majority will experience more strain than benefit, the expert adds.

There have been two options on how to break the cycle of mass suspensions.

1) By restoring the old rule that mc points can only be obtained by completing the Tour.

2) By placing the sprint as the second last stage. With that, the sprinters are involved at least until then.

Jylhä considers both ideas valid and brings up her own idea.

– What if the last stage was something other than the final climb? Alpe Cermis could be skied, but it wouldn’t be the last race. In road cycling classic races, the last stage is usually flat and you come to the city – in that sport there is not the same culture of stopping as in cross-country skiing.

Final stages of Tour de Skin 2023–24 Finnish time: men from 3:30 p.m. and women from 4:45 p.m.