Cross-country skiing - Long Distances
During the night between 3 and 4 January in Changchun, in northeast China has staged the 15th edition of Vasaloppet China. The female test was dominated by Russian Olga Rotcheva that has annihilated the competition coming to the finish line with an incredible advantage of 1''43 "the winner of Sgambeda Britta Johansson Norgren. In the men testing the 'final sprint awarded the norvese class 1990 Andreas Nygaard.
Wednesday 4 January 2017 7 minutes reading time
After nearly a month of Christmas break the thrust slipped specialists are back to confront; and the first time in seven editions of the Visma Ski Classics circuit, in a competition outside the European continent.
The nearly 600 departing athletes faced each other on a 25km loop, to be repeated twice.
The men's race was conditioned dall''assenza of many of the most important athletes of the circuit, who have decided to boycott the Asian trip to focus on Kaiser Maximilian Lauf on 14 January. Dell''intero men's podium's Last stage - Gjerdalen, Eliassen, Chernousov- no one was at the start this morning.
The men's race saw a group of sixteen athletes driving a wedge between himself and others during the first half of the race, after which the 'single sprint points of the day went to Sweden's Jens Eriksson, the Santader Team, in front of Andreas Nygaard. In the second half of the race the peloton head has thinned, to include the eight athletes who have played the final victory in the sprint. Here, after selling the sprint halfway through the race, the Norwegian Nygaard took the final success in front of the Swedish partner. Third in the 'other Norwegian Stian Hoelgaard, the Lease Plan team, the third podium in SkiClassics circuit after the two obtained last year in the most prestigious Marcialonga and Vasaloppet.
"The first lap was very quiet, everyone was just waiting to see what would happen," said a smiling Andreas Nygaard, the first success in a Ski Classics race. "After the intermediate sprint we increased the pace and the second lap was fast enough, at least until the last five kilometers, when we started to prepare for the final sprint. At the end I was so tired that I expected the others surpass me, but no. I'm really happy to win this race. Now I want to go home and get some sleep ''. "
Among Italians at the start was the author of un''ottima performance Bruno Debertolis Team Xcalibur. After holding the leading group until mid-race he had to give up the lead group, but still finished tenth, two minutes and a half behind the winner.
In the women's race, all eyes were focused on winning the Sgambeda Britta Johansson Norgren. Also given the 'absence of Katarina Smutna, only it seemed able to rival the Swedish in the first two races of the season. After the start the race seemed destined to an already written epilogue, with Norgren in the head to make the pace and the other designed to break away. Surprisingly, the Russian Olga Rotcheva has instead kept the pace of the Swedish, creating a tandem that already half boasted two minutes of advantage on the third, a lonely Masako Ishida, and more than five minutes on the first train of pursuers.
The Russian, having anticipated a couple of seconds the Swedish rival on the split, has fielded an unimaginable progression for what he had done to see Sgambeda. After he outdistanced the Team 157 rival continued to increase the advantage, until you get to the posting of 1''43 recorded at the finish line. The Japanese Ishida Team United Bakeries, preserved by a wide margin his third place, came to the finish with 4''14 "delay.
"Perfect race, wonderful track, I'm really happy," said Olga Rotcheva. "This was a great experience, it's a dream come true."
As for the General Classification Visma Ski Classics, the 'absent Gjerdalen remains in the lead with 284 points, with Nygaard and Hoelgaard respectively recovered 25 and 11 positions and are located at 280 and 263 points. The winner of last year Eliassen, absent today, remains at 240 points.
Female, taking advantage of dell''assenza Smutna, Johansson Norgren reaches 465 points and leads to 95 points advantage on sull''austriaca, stops at 270. Among them fits thanks to today's victory Olga Rotcheva, with 275 points.
Athletes of Visma SkiClassics who competed in China will have to dispose of fatigue and jetlag soon. The next challenge for them will be the Kaiser Maximilian Lauf, which will be held January 14 in Seefeld in Tirol.
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