There were no bonus seconds for the overall to gain today, but there were bonus points for the Point ranking in the first split after 1.7 kilometers of the intervall start race for the ten fast starters. The 15 points for the sprint jersey were cleared by Sergey Ustiugov, who started the race furiously and initially neither gained time nor lost to his direct competitors over the next few kilometers. From the beginning of the second lap, the Russian recovered well and was continuously expanding his lead. At the finish, 22 seconds separated him from Ivan Yakimushkin and 29 seconds from Alexander Bolshunov (RUS). Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (NOR, Fischer ***), who led the Tour de Ski after two stages with a 32 second lead over five almost simultaneous athletes, kept up quite well in the first lap, but then lost so much time that he gave the tour leadership to Ustiugov. Hans Christer Holund (NOR, Fischer ***) crossed the finish line as the best Norwegian in fifth, ahead of the next two Russians Artem Maltsev (RUS, Fischer ***) and Andrey Melnichenko (RUS, Fischer ***). Denis Spitsov (RUS, Fischer ***) finished tenth and completed the sensational team result as the sixth Russian in the top 10, which was also overjoyed by coach Markus Cramer (RUS): "Respect for performance, 3 on the podium and another three in the top 10. Thank you also to our technicians, it was a perfect end of the year."
=> Tour de Ski
A little later it was surprisingly tight in the women's race over ten kilometers - the first distance defeat in a long time was so close .... With only 0.7 seconds ahead Therese Johaug took her next stage win and thus the lead in the Tour de Ski back. Natalia Nepryaeva (RUS, Fischer ***), who led the Tour de Ski overall ranking just ahead of Lampic (SLO, Fischer ***), Johaug and Tiril Weng (NOR) after the first two stages, lost 26 seconds and became in sixth. It was Ingvild Flugstad Østberg who almost took the victory from Therese Johaug, but finally proved that she is in perfect shape after her forced break. It was just as close as between Johaug and Østberg in the battle for third place, which Ebba Andersson secured just ahead of Heidi Weng (NOR, Fischer ***). Sadie Maubet Bjornsen (USA, Fischer ***) finished eighth, tenth went to Katharina Hennig (GER, Fischer ***).
=> Tour de Ski
