“It’s just crazy. It’s all the better because today was a day where I didn’t necessarily believe in it,” cheered Vermeulen. “Yesterday I didn’t feel well at all and I basically just lay in bed all afternoon.” But right after the start of the race he had a very good feeling. “In the end everything came together and I knew that at the end everyone would be at their limit and everyone would have a strenuous race in their legs. The finish sprint clearly proved one thing: I can only sprint well when it’s about something.”
Vermeulen had planned to stay in the top ten of the overall World Cup for the North American tour, which will take place in Canada and in Minneapolis in the USA until the end of next week. At around the 4 km mark he started to escape and stayed solo in the lead until after the half-time timing, where he received 15 additional points for the World Cup. Soon after Vermeulen was “swallowed” by the field, Krüger finally made a decisive move and left. Behind them a fight broke out for places.
Despite his strenuous escape, Vermeulen continued to stay in the top group and collected two more points in another bonus sprint. In the last two kilometers he picked up the pace again. In the finish, the ÖSV athlete also showed sprinting qualities by only having to admit defeat to Amundsen out of five athletes. Vermeulen’s celebration when he crossed the finish line and afterwards about what was for him a historic result was appropriate. In Ruka and Val di Fiemme he had already achieved fourth places in 2023/24.
While Vermeulen achieved the best Austrian World Cup result among men since Christian Hoffmann’s third place on March 8, 2009 in Lahti and moved up to five points from seventh in the World Cup, Stadlober is already 14th. She collected one bonus station an additional point. At the finish, the Salzburg woman was 5.8 seconds behind the overall World Cup leader Jessie Diggins from the USA, who remained victorious. The ÖSV athlete was only 2.5 seconds behind the Norwegian Heidin Weng (+3.3), who was third behind the French Delphine Claudel (+2.6).
Like Vermeulen, Stadlober had good material. As is often the case in the mass start, she clung to the top group, but lost a bit of contact with the top six in the last of four laps. With the French Flora Dolci (+4.2), who ultimately came in fifth behind the Norwegian Astrid Oeyre Slind (+4.1), she fought back before the final sprint and left two competitors behind her. It is Stadlober’s third best result of the season after fourth and fifth place in the Skiathlon in Trondheim and on the final stage of the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme.
“It was a really cool race today and I would never have expected such a result considering the last skating races,” said Stadlober happily. “The route here is very demanding and it was therefore a real elimination race in which athletes kept dropping out. On the last lap we accelerated again. I felt really good.”
The Olympic bronze medalist in the skiathlon will start in another mass start race on Sunday, over 20 km classic. On Saturday and Tuesday, sprints in free and classic style are on the program, in which their compatriots Benjamin Moser and Michael Föttinger will compete. Vermeulen had also considered this, but he also has a strenuous mass start competition as a fixed point on Sunday.
2024-02-09 21:05:07