Cross Country Skiing - Long Distances
At exactly seven days from Kaise Maximilian Lauf, Saturday, January 21 was held in the Engadin the fifth stage of the marathon Visma Ski Classics circuit. In a glacial environment, with temperatures near -20 degrees, to prevail were the bronze 50km Sochi 2014 Ilya Chernousov and the 'Austrian Katerina Smutna.
Monday 23 January 2017 4 minutes reading time
Founded in 2014 as a competition open only to professionals, the second edition has opened registration also to amateurs. Now in its fourth edition The Diagonela saw more than 500 athletes clash on 50km, and another 200 in the abbreviated version of 30km.
The men's race saw during the first 20km succession several attempts to escape, which stretched the lead group on several occasions. From mid-term onwards it has formed a group of about thirty units continued undisturbed until eight kilometers from the finish. Here Morten Eide Pedersen broke through the inertia, sticking firmly and earning up to ten seconds on the group. As last weekend to close the gap was Thord Asle Gjerdalen followed by a squad of athletes. So tains all of the climb towards the center of Zuoz one kilometer from the finish, the Russian Ilya Chernousov set a progression that made additional selection of an already very stretched group. The 'single to keep the queues of Russian was the aforementioned Gjerdalen, with a quartet of athletes immediately after them. Sull''ultima climb and nell''ultimo straight Chernousov managed to resist all''attacco the Norwegian, going to reverse what happened in La Sgambeda and gaining his first success in a Ski Classics competition. Behind the duo, Oeystein Pettersen has resisted the explosive ending of the Norwegian Johan Kjolstad countryman.
In the women's competition as usual the Elite women are games with 15 minutes early on men. The 14 professionals at the start have remained compact until mid-race when Katerina Smutna and Britta Johansson Norgren have pulled the enemy. The two protagonists of this season, in pairs, have gained several minutes advantage over the others. Probably wanting to avoid a repeat of what happened at the Sgambeda, where Norgren had claimed their best qualities of sprinter, Smutna attacked five kilometers from the finish. The 'Austrian succeeded in its intent, increasing the pace much to boast the finish line a lead of 1''03 on Swedish. Third classified in more than four minutes the 'other Swedish Sara Lindborg.
In General Classification Smutna continues to pay the 'absence in the Asian leg, but reduced the lead of rival to 105 points.
Among men, aided by the tenth Andreas Nygaard, Thord Asle Gjerdalen back atop the standings with 624 points, against 555 of the younger rival.
The Visma Ski Classics continues without pause weekend, the athletes will be back on track in fact, already on January 29, for the 44th edition of La Marcialonga.
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