Amundsen joins exclusive club of Norwegian Tour de Ski winners: 'Better than I dreamed of'

Harald Oestberg Amundsen won the 2023/24 Tour de Ski, making no mistakes in the tough final climb stage in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on Sunday.

The 25-year-old had been one of the main favourites to win after Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo dropped out and beat the rest of the competition with consistency and two distance pursuit wins.

Germany’s Friedrich Moch and France’s Hugo Lapalus finished second and third respectively, more than a minute behind the Norwegian champion.

Before Sunday’s men’s 10km mass start free, that includes an uphill climb on an Alpine skiing slope, Amundsen had got himself a comfortable lead in the overall ranking.

With three podium finishes on the Tour, including the wins in the 25km pursuit free in Toblach, Italy on New Year’s Day and the 20km pursuit free in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Amundsen led the overall competition by one minute and 34 seconds. As long as he did not let anyone beat him by more than that, he would win his first Tour de Ski.

And Amundsen did not take any risks, staying with the front of the field for most of the 10km race to finish fifth, 30.2 seconds after the winner Jules Lapierre (FRA).

He becomes the fourth Norwegian man after Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Petter Northug and Klaebo to win the Tour.

”It was amazing,” Amundsen said after hearing Norway’s national anthem as he was crowned the king of the 2023/24 Tour de Ski.

”I was struggling on finding the right words during the national anthem. But this feels better than what I dreamed of.”

Starting the year in the best way possible, Amundsen leads the overall Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup rankings by almost 300 points before compatriot Erik Valnes.

Valnes’s victory in the 15km classic on Saturday had given him a lead in the tight race for overall Tour de Ski second place coming into the last day of the competition. The Norwegian however finished 11th in the demanding climb, having to settle for a sixth place in the overall competition.

Instead it was Moch who led the race for much of the hill, making a steep climb from fifth to second place in the overall rankings.

Before Sunday, the 23-year-old German’s best result on the Tour had been two fifth-places. Then he grabbed his second World Cup podium finish of his career with an excellent timing, beating a field of Olympic and world champions to become vice Tour de Ski champion.

”I still can’t believe it, it is just incredible,” Moch said.

”I decided to go for it and thought that if everything went well I could attack for the podium. But the fact that I ended up in second place is just unbelievable.”

Moch is the first German man on a Tour de Ski podium in 15 years. As he is matching René Sommerfeldt’s second-place in the 2007/08 season, Tobias Angerer, who won the first Tour in 2006/07, is the only German who has got a better result in the competition.

Moch is glad to have broken into the Norwegian dominance on the Tour, where all three podium positions last year went to the Nordic cross-country powerhouse.

”I'm really happy about that, Especially for Lapalus,” Moch said, praising the French No.3 who made it to his first World Cup podium on Sunday, securing a third-place in the overall standings.

”I have often competed with him and we have experienced a lot together. And it's really cool that we're now on the podium together in the overall competition.”

The win surely gives a boost to Moch for the remainder of the season, however first he is focused on rest.

”I’ll definitely take three or four days off now, and then start very slowly again,” he said.

In a big day for French cross-country skiing, Lucas Chanavat (FRA) won the Tour de Ski point standings on 80 points as Jules Chappaz (FRA) finishing second on 59. Sweden’s Edvin Anger finished third on 54 points.

Click here for the final standings of the men’s 2023/24 Tour de Ski.

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