Tour de Ski Queen Stage 2012: Analysis
Several big fields chased Dario Cologna (SUI) in the Queen Stage of Tour de Ski 2011/2012 from Cortina to Toblach as you can see in the above illustration. However, Cologna did impressive work alone at the front while the followers stopped cooperating, and the gap to Northug and the followers never got much below 1:30 in the end.
The illustration above is a graphical illustration of the race development based on the split times. A line which is flat means that a skier has the same time as Cologna for the split. A line which goes down represents slower speed – a line which goes up represents faster speed.
Studying the illustration, you can see how Petter Northug (NOR) lost more than a minute to Cologna before the first split at 7.7 km (curve falling steeply) – getting caught up Legkov (RUS). As discussed in relation to the GPS-data below, Northug actually caught up with Cologna first, but then was punished for his tough start and “waited out” Legkov.
Stopped cooperating
The strongest skiers in today’s field were the group formed by Hellner (SWE), Manificat (FRA) and Kershaw (CAN). They steadily gained time on Cologna at front up to 20 km – having gained more than a minute when they caught Northug and Legkov around 20 km. Then they slowed down to the speed of Northug/Legkov – and if they had not stopped cooperating when catching Northug/Legkov they would probably have managed to gain even more time on Cologna. However, as in last year’s edition, it looks like the big group stopped cooperating in the last third of the race.
Cologna versus Northug
- I thought that we would ski togheter – and that was also the plan. But I felt really good and saw that Petter was tired, so I tried to ski my own race, Dario Cologna said to NRK after the race.
- I was surprised that I got away from Northug, but I had a very good day today.
The GPS-data is missing for significant parts of the course, but you can still see how Northug started fast and caught Cologna . However, the start was to tough for Northug, who lost a lot of time over a short distance between 4.5 km and 7 km “waiting” for Legkov (dashed parts of the line are areas without GPS-coverage):
- My body was not great today, and Cologna was strong. So I could not join Cologna, and had to wait for Legkov. I think it was better to let Cologna go at that point and wait for Legkov and the group behind, Northug said to NRK after the race.
Manificat versus Cologna
Maurice Manificat was one of the big winners of the day with the second best time behind Marcus Hellner – gaining nearly 1:30 on Dario Cologna. The GPS curve of Manificat versus Cologna shows how Manificat gained a minute on Cologna until 20 km, and then kept the pace for the rest of the course (Hellner’s GPS did not work – he was another 10 seconds faster than Manificat).
Three big groups
It is also very interesting to take a look at the complete field – seeing how nearly no single skiers except for Cologna survived on their own their own throughout the race - just as last year. The rest of the skiers fighting in the top packed themselves into only three big groups.
Note! Lukas Bauer fell after approximate 10 km, broke his pole and lost contact with the group. Vylegzhanin was forced to leave the group as well, and ended up skiing together with Bauer.
