The winner of today’s predictions was pett with 811 points – after having correctly predicted the top men Kershaw and Cologna, while loosing some points in the womens class. Several lost a lot of points due to Emil Jönsson and Petukhov not starting – giving 0 points to all having them on their Top 5 list. One of these was Geraldo13, who lost his overall lead in the Tour de Ski predictions to Gigi today.
About one third of the predictors had Devon Kershaw on their Top 5 lists – but only 3 believed in the Canadian as a winner. Those three got rewarded well – two of them taking the top spots in today’s predictions. Petter Northug and Marcus Hellner also performed better than expected.
Among the women, Arianna Follis was the people’s favourite – but was in the end beaten by a few millimeters by Petra Majdic. Kowalczyk and Kalla were the big disappointments among the women – finishing 22nd and 13th while being on 3rd and 4th among the tips.
Race preview Cortina to Toblach
The mens 35 km pursuit from Cortina to Toblach will be a special race. How much faster can the big pack race compared to the single racers at the front of the field? The question is if the pack will cooperate ; chances are that Northug will wait for the others, and then lie behind. Do the others want to help Northug up towards Cologna?
Cologna says: – I think the next 3 competitions will be challenging. I have no other choice than go in my own speed tomorrow. I will see how big the gap is after a few kilometres and then see what happens during the race
In the race from Cortina to Toblach in last years edition of Tour de Ski, a pack of 4 skiers developed after less than one third of the race – then growing to 6 skiers, with Northug, Cologna and Hellner getting away again in the end. At the start in Cortina, there were 20 skiers within 2 minutes – in the finish there were 18 skiers within 1 minute. Lukas Bauer was actually 2 minutes down in 18th place ahead of the Cortina-Toblach stage last year.
Cologna leads the overall mens Tour standing by 42 seconds ahead of Devin Kershaw. In third position is Marcus Hellner, who got fourth on the sprint (+1.14). Petter Northug is 4th (+1.45). Alexander Legkov 5th (+1.55), Alex Harvey 6th (+2.02), Martin Jaks 7th (+2:10), Simen Østensen 8th (+2.14). Lukas Bauer is all the way down in 10th at +2.52.
The women have only 15 km, and there is less chances that there will be big changes in the top. Also, Kowalczyk is strong enough to ski away from the others alone in the lead, as she showed in the pursuit in Oberhof.
Kowalczyk leads the overall womens Tour de Ski standing by 39 seconds down to Petra Majdic, 1.08 down to Kalla, 1:09 down to Follis, 1:13 to Longa, 1.38 to Lahteenmaki, 1:44 to Haag and 1.59 to Jacobsen.
