Race development: 15 km classic WC opening
Johan Olsson skied a fantastic last part of the race – taking the second World Cup victory in his career. 31 seconds is a huge winning margin in international cross country skiing. Above you see the race development in a SplitsBrowser.
The SplitsBrowser (see above) compares the race development of different skiers in a graphical way. A flat curve means that a skier is fastest on a split – when a curve goes down on a split, the skier looses time. Split number 3 is at the end of the first loop of 4, split number 6 at the end of the second loop and split number 9 at the end of the third loop.
Just like Bjørndalen
- I tried to do the same thing as Ole Einar Bjørnalen did here a few years ago. Open slowly, and then speed up in the last part of the race, a very happy Olsson said after his victory after admitting that Bjørndalen is his big role medal regarding skiing technique.
As you can see from the SplitsBrowser screenshot above or the interactive SplitsBrowser here, Dario Cologna was the fastest starter, seemingly on the way to victory. However, Cologna used too much energy in the first loop, loosing a lot of time in the second part of the course.
Fast second loop by Clara
Roland Clara skied a very fast second loop, but this seemed to cost a lot of energy. In the end it cost him the second spot to Petter Northug.
In the two last loops, there was nothing to do with Olsson. Alexey POLTORANIN was closest in the finish – but POLTORANIN lost too much time in the start of the race to fight for a place on the podium.
Northug in second
Petter Northug was the big Norwegian favourite ahead of the race.
- 30 seconds is a lot, but I am still satisfied, Petter Northug said after the race.
Northug had a good last part of the race – “only” loosing 7 seconds to Olsson on the last 3.75 km loop.
- Johan Olsson got to relax at the back of a big group of skiers for a while, which helped him gain some energy. That helped him a bit.
First loop time (main part of loop)
| 1. | 05:23 | Dario COLOGNA | SUI |  |
|
| 2. | 05:27 | +00:04 | Calle HALFVARSSON | SWE |  |
| 3. | 05:27 | +00:04 | Roland CLARA | ITA |  |
| 4. | 05:27 | +00:04 | Sergey TURYCHEV | RUS |  |
| 5. | 05:27 | +00:04 | Sjur ROETHE | NOR |  |
| 6. | 05:29 | +00:06 | Petter NORTHUG | NOR | |
| 7. | 05:30 | +00:07 | Johan OLSSON | SWE | |
| 8. | 05:30 | +00:07 | Remo FISCHER | SUI | |
| 9. | 05:31 | +00:08 | Maurice MANIFICAT | FRA |  |
| 10. | 05:31 | +00:08 | Alexander LEGKOV | RUS | |
| 11. | 05:31 | +00:08 | Finn Haagen KROGH | NOR | |
| 35. | 05:38 | +00:15 | Alex HARVEY | CAN |  |
Second loop times (main part of loop)
| 1. | 05:34 | Roland CLARA | ITA | |
|
| 2. | 05:37 | +00:03 | Johan OLSSON | SWE | |
| 3. | 05:38 | +00:04 | Alex HARVEY | CAN | |
| 4. | 05:39 | +00:05 | Remo FISCHER | SUI | |
| 5. | 05:40 | +00:06 | David HOFER | ITA | |
| 6. | 05:40 | +00:06 | Calle HALFVARSSON | SWE | |
| 7. | 05:40 | +00:06 | Dario COLOGNA | SUI | |
| 8. | 05:41 | +00:06 | Nikolay CHEBOTKO | KAZ |  |
| 9. | 05:41 | +00:07 | Petter NORTHUG | NOR | |
| 10. | 05:42 | +00:08 | Alexander LEGKOV | RUS | |
| 11. | 05:42 | +00:08 | Martin JOHNSRUD SUNDBY | NOR | |
Third loop times (main part of loop)
| 1. | 05:36 | Johan OLSSON | SWE | |
|
| 2. | 05:43 | +00:07 | Tarjei BOE | NOR | |
| 3. | 05:44 | +00:08 | Alexey POLTORANIN | KAZ | |
| 4. | 05:45 | +00:09 | Alex HARVEY | CAN | |
| 5. | 05:46 | +00:10 | Martin BAJCICAK | SVK |  |
| 6. | 05:46 | +00:10 | Pietro PILLER COTTRER | ITA | |
| 7. | 05:46 | +00:10 | Anders SOEDERGREN | SWE | |
| 8. | 05:47 | +00:11 | Lars BERGER | NOR | |
| 9. | 05:47 | +00:11 | Ville NOUSIAINEN | FIN |  |
| 10. | 05:47 | +00:11 | Jiri MAGAL | CZE |  |
| 11. | 05:47 | +00:11 | Petter NORTHUG | NOR | |
| 14. | 05:49 | +00:13 | Roland CLARA | ITA | |
| 20. | 05:50 | +00:14 | Remo FISCHER | SUI | |
| 21. | 05:51 | +00:15 | Calle HALFVARSSON | SWE | |
Last loop times
| 1. | 07:54 | Johan OLSSON | SWE | |
|
| 2. | 07:56 | +00:02 | Alexey POLTORANIN | KAZ | |
| 3. | 08:00 | +00:06 | Lars BERGER | NOR | |
| 4. | 08:00 | +00:07 | Marcus HELLNER | SWE | |
| 5. | 08:01 | +00:07 | Petter NORTHUG | NOR | |
| 6. | 08:02 | +00:08 | Remo FISCHER | SUI | |
| 7. | 08:03 | +00:09 | Aivar REHEMAA | EST |  |
| 8. | 08:03 | +00:09 | Ville NOUSIAINEN | FIN | |
| 9. | 08:04 | +00:10 | Roland CLARA | ITA | |
| 10. | 08:08 | +00:14 | Finn Haagen KROGH | NOR | |
Interactive SplitsBrowser:
The day of the big surprises
Looking at the 234 predictions in the WhoWins XC-predictions for this season opener, you can see that Olsson and Roland Clara are the big surprises. Clara was only tipped inside the Top 5 by three of 234 people – whereas Olsson was tipped by 38 people. Calle Halfvarsson in 4th spot was another big surprise – and so was Alex Harvey in 5th and Remo Fischer in 6th. With many surprises, there were also many disappointments today; the biggest being Marice Manificat who was the hightlight of last weekend but who finished only 17th today. Also the Russians (Legkov and Vylegzhanin), Rickardsson, Cologna and Hellner disappointed.
