False start for Victoria Carl and Friedrich Moch, but at least a respectable success for Laura Gimmler: The German cross-country skiing team fell short of expectations at the start of the Tour de Ski.
Olympic champion Carl and Moch, who came second overall last year, were eliminated from the qualification in the freestyle sprints in Toblach and now have to catch up in the following distance races.
While the elimination of Moch, who missed the knockout round of the best 30 in 78th place, was only surprising in its clarity, Carl’s mistake was quite unexpected. In 13 sprints since last year’s tour, the Thuringian had only been eliminated from qualifying once and sprinted to fourth place in Lillehammer at the beginning of December – now she was 33rd, 27 hundredths short of making it to the quarter-finals.
The best German in the women’s competition on Saturday was Laura Gimmler, who made it to the semi-finals and equaled her best result of the season by finishing tenth overall. In addition to Gimmler, only Sofie Krehl survived the qualification, but was eliminated in the first knockout round.
Cross-country skiing: Diggins and Kläbo win
The day’s victory went to defending champion Jessie Diggins (USA) ahead of Finland’s Jasmi Jöoesuu and Nadine Fähndrich from Switzerland. Returnee Therese Johaug, who is aiming for her fourth overall tour victory, also missed the quarter-finals in 40th place and thus missed the bonus seconds. However, in the 15 km classic race on Sunday, Norway’s cross-country skiing queen is the top favorite and should straighten things out again.
After the first of seven stages, Moch, who caused a sensation last year with second place in the final, finds himself far behind. The Allgäu native is much more interested in the tough distance races of the coming days and especially the finale at Alpe Cermis on January 5th.
Norway’s top star Johannes Hösflot Kläbo prevailed in the final of the top six on Saturday for his 88th World Cup victory ahead of Lucas Chanavat (France) and Janik Riebli (Switzerland). Jan Stölben and Marius Kastner were the only DSV starters to survive qualification, but were then immediately eliminated in the quarter-finals.
The German women’s team in particular went into the first highlight of the season weakened. Sprinter Coletta Rydzek had to sit out at short notice due to illness, and Carl’s Olympic gold medalist Katharina Hennig had already canceled her start. Carl had been on course for a podium finish for a long time last year, but after a dark day in Davos he ultimately only managed ninth place overall.
Source: www.sport.de
