During the ski jumping of the nordic combined, which lasted until the start of the relay race, there was still light snow, which then soon stopped. It was not an easy decision for the best ski and the Norwegians also had significant problems in the first half of the race. The new Norwegian starting skier Tiril Udnes Weng let the others do the work and skied in the middle of the group, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg even lost contact with the other teams. At the beginning of the race, the Finnish first skier Johanna Matintalo (FIN) was able to escape from the others in her second 2.5-kilometer lap. After the handover, Frida Karlsson (SWE, Fischer ***) was able to approach Kerttu Niskanen (FIN, Fischer ***) after the first kilometer, followed shortly afterwards by Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, who fell behind several times. Halfway through the race, Finland and Sweden were just ahead of Norway. Therese Johaug was able to close this gap within a few meters and during her five kilometers she made the crucial gap to Laura Mononen (FIN). Since Ebba Andersson (SWE, Fischer ***) had left to Oberwiesenthal (GER), the Swedes placed the inexperienced Rebecca Öhrn (SWE) in third position, who fell back after just one minute of racing and before the end of her five kilometers she was caught by Russia's Ekaterina Smirnova (RUS, Fischer ***). Heidi Weng secured the undisputed Norwegian victory, Krista Pärmäkoski (FIN) kept the gap constant at 30 seconds and cheered for second place. In the fight for the last podium spot, the Swedish Maja Dahlqvist (SWE) outsprinted Yana Kirpichenko (RUS, Fischer ***).
In the 20 minutes between the women's and men's races, it had started snowing again - stronger than during the women's race. This time, too, there were problems with the skis for many classic skiers, for example in Russia II, Sweden and for Iivo Niskanen (FIN, Fischer ***). Norway started as a big favorite into the race, all other nations (except local heroes from Finland) did not start with their best formation - even Alexander Bolshunov (RUS) did not start. But in the tactical competition, many teams stayed together for a long time or, due to the slow pace, sometimes made up a large backlog, so that even weaker teams had every chance. When the two Russian teams were in front, the pace was high - otherwise things were slow. That of course played into the cards of the Norwegians with final skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Andrey Melnichenko (RUS, Fischer ***) made the preliminary decision by accelerating the pace 1.5 kilometers before the finish, when he was able to break away with three other athletes: As expected with Klæbo, but the Italians and Swiss were also surprisingly with them until the end. It happened as it had to happen: The Russian set the pace to the end and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo passed by as soon as he entered the stadium, securing the relay victory for himself and his team-mates Pål Golberg, Hans Christer Holund and Sjur Røthe. In the end, Melnichenko ran out of strength and was outsprinted on the home stretch by Roman Furger (SUI, Fischer ***), who like his team-mates Beda Klee (SUI), Dario Cologna (SUI, Fischer ***) and Jason Rüesch ( SUI) was fallen behind several times. Nevertheless, Roman Furger was there at the decisive moment and the Swiss quartet cheered for the surprising second place. Third place went to the Russians Ilia Semikov (RUS, Fischer **), Alexander Bessmerthnykh (RUS), Denis Spitsov (RUS, Fischer ***) and Andrey Melnichenko followed by the surprisingly strong Italians Giandomenico Salvadori (ITA, Fischer *** ), Francesco de Fabiani (ITA), Stefano Gardener (ITA, Fischer ***) and Stefan Zelger (ITA, Fischer ***).
* = Fischer skis
** = Fischer skis and bindings
*** = Fischer skis, bindings and boots
