March 11, 2016 (Canmore, Alta.) – Finland’s Matti Heikkinen secured the men’s 15km skate individual start in dominant fashion for his second podium at the Tour. He was joined on the podium by Russian Evgeniy Belov, in second, and Swede Marcus Hellner, in third.

Top-ranked Canadian Alex Harvey just missed the podium with a strong 4th-place finish at 21.7 seconds off the winner. Ivan Babikov also delivered a superb effort with another 10th-place result. Noah Hoffman led the U.S. men’s in 23rd overall.

“I think it’s one of my best races of my life,” said Harvey who was amazed at his strong result as the Canmore course has been challenging for him in the past. “When I was a junior, I was struggling to be top three in Canada just on this course yet I would be top three at World Juniors. Ten days before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in a 15km skate like today, I was 68th.” Today Harvey was reminded that “anything is possible.”

Heikkenin expressed gratitude post-race, for being able to break down Norwegian dominance on the podium – it was also his first win since 2011. “At this point in the season, everyone is tired. I knew that I had to save some energy for the end, when everyone else was feeling tired, and attack,” Heikkinen told SkiTrax.

His race plan, he says, was perfectly executed. He also credited a slow start to his season – he was injured in the autumn – for his ability to peak at this point. “I’m glad to be back in Canada and winning a race like this,” he said.

Calling it his “best race this season,” Hellner was clearly delighted post-race. “Doing well at the Tour of Canada was one of my goals this year.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Belov was humble about his position among his Russian teammates, pointing out that he was just one of a fleet strong skiers. He did point out that his “consistently strong throughout the preparation for this race, so [my] victory wasn’t totally unexpected.”

The Canadian team showed that its home soil success wasn’t a fluke, with four men in the points for the second race in a row.

Throughout most of the race, Harvey was placing the fastest time at the time checks with Babikov and Kershaw near the top as well. On such a tough day with soft snow and difficult climbs, starting controlled helped Heikkinen and Belov come from behind in the later stages of the race.

Babikov follow up his Skiathlon top 10 with another 10th-place finish. “The body felt good, the skis were amazing, and the team worked really well,” said Babikov at the finish.

Kershaw and Killick also broke into the top 30 with a 20th place for Kershaw and 29th for Killick. “I felt really really good for 12km and then the last 3km, I died,” said Kershaw. “The soft snow got me and I really struggled to the line which is too bad because I think I was putting together a really, really good race until that time.”

As the top American Hoffman had nothing but positive things to say. “My best races are at the end, so I was always looking forward to the end of this thing. The soft conditions make it really challenging, but the organizers have done a great job and it’s one of the harder courses we race all year. It’s world class. It was really an honour to race here.”

With a 7th place finish, Ustiugov’s position as Tour leader has made the final day an interesting affair. Northug will start tomorrow 32 seconds back and will have Sundby starting only 7 seconds behind him.

Ski Tour Canada leader or not, that is a formidable duo to have hunting you down. Harvey will stay in fourth position and will defend it tomorrow in the 15km classic pursuit race which is the final stage of the Ski Tour Canada.

Results here.
Overall standings here.