Relay day at Lillehammer World Cup
Dec 05, 2021·Cross-Country
For the third and final competition day of the Lillehammer World Cup edition 2021, Relay competitions were on schedule with 18 Teams for the Men’s Relay and 16 Teams for the Women’s Relay signed up.
For the Men’s 4 x 7.5km the top favorites were undisputedly the Norwegian team who went into the competition with a record of having won 25 Men’s Relay in the World Cup, including 11 of the last 14 Relays. The only Nation that has been on the heels of the Norges was Team Russia.
Men’s Relay
On the race course, the first knuckle fight of the Men’s Relay indeed went down between both Russian and Norwegian Teams. Russia II had sent Ruka’s Sprint C winner Alexander Terentev into the first leg who advanced the leading group away from the successors. By the first exchange, Erik Valnes from Team Norway I had taken the lead.
After the first exchange it was Alexander Bolshunov taking over for Team Russia I and the knuckle fight continued with Norway’s Emil Iversen. But the pace in the front was reduced and Italian’s Francesco De Fabiani managed to catch up to the leaders, with the chasing group in his back.
Finland I with Iivo Niskanen took his chances to speed up and managed to advance his Team to the leaders group.
Heading into the third leg and thereof in the first lap in Free technique, Denis Spitsov took over for Team Russia I and together with Remi Lindholm from Team Finland I headed out with a rough 10 second margin. Yesterday’s winner and second placed Norwegians Simen Hegstad Krüger and Hans Christer Holund took over and fired up in their final lap. Only the Russian Teams joined along.
The knuckle fight between Norway and Russia was not over until the finish line where Johannes Høsflot Klæbo brought Team Norway I another victory in a tight finish Sprint with Sergey Ustiugov. Team Russia II concludes with a strong second place. Thanks to the 23 year-young Harald Østberg Amundsen, Team Norway II leaped on the remaining spot on the podium in a near-photo finish with Ivan Yakimushkin from Team Russia II
