Therese Johaug was also in a class of her own in the Davos high altitude. As usual, she gained many seconds on her competitiors in the climbs, and in the downhills in the second half of the lap she could hardly increase her lead due to her light weight. After the first lap, Johaug was 17 seconds ahead of Jessie Diggins (USA) and 19 seconds ahead of Heidi Weng. The American lost some seconds on the increasing kilometers of the second lap, so that the second place went to Heidi Weng, 30 seconds behind Johaug. Diggins took 36 seconds longer than the winner for the ten kilometers at 1600 meters above sea level, but quite clearly she sent Teresa Stadlober (AUT, Fischer ***) off the podium. The 26-year-old from Salzburg once again showed a very good race and, despite her midfoot injury in summer, is already very close to the podium, 12 seconds behind Diggins. Kerttu Niskanen (FIN, Fischer ***) finished sixth ahead of Katerina Razymova (CZE, Fischer ***), who proved that she can not only race inside world-class level in a classic style like in Ruka. The surprise of the day was the Norwegian Magni Smedås (NOR, Fischer ***). The 24-year-old finished eighth, 1:16 minutes behind the winner thanks to a first-class second lap in which she lost only 18 seconds to Johaug. Sadie Maubet Bjornsen (USA, Fischer ***) and Charlotte Kalla (SWE, Fischer **) completed the top ten.
Olympic champion Simen Hegstad Krüger (NOR) celebrated his second World Cup victory over 15 kilometers in the men's competition. In the first half of the race, the 26-year-old fought a duel with the Ruka winner Iivo Niskanen (FIN, Fischer ***), but the Finn lost significantly in his second lap from the descent and ended up only fourth. Krüger won by 19 seconds over Sergey Ustiugov, who was still within striking distance after the first lap, but was already 16 seconds behind after the second lap. Nevertheless, after the messed-up start of the season, the Russian had every reason to shine, as did Dario Cologna in third place. Yesterday he was deeply disappointed and wordlessly stormed past all media representatives. He had left Ruka early because the calf was pinching again which was injured years ago. Today it didn't seem to be a problem, even if he started the race cautiously and only increased significantly in the last lap and made up ten seconds on Simen Hegstad Krüger. Denis Spitsov (RUS, Fischer ***) finished sixth. The Scot Andrew Young (GBR, Fischer ***) was allowed to sit in the leader's chair for a long time and ended up eighth in front of Emil Iversen (NOR, Fischer ***) and Jonas Dobler (GER, Fischer ***).
* = Fischer skis
** = Fischer skis and bindings
*** = Fischer skis, bindings and boots
