February 24, 2013 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Swiss star Dario Cologna left nothing to chance as he timed his attack with about 3km to go in the skate portion of the men’s 30km (15kmCL+15kmFR) Skiathlon to open up a gap large enough to secure his first-ever World Championship gold.

Martin Johnsrud Sundby took silver, maintaining enough energy after attempting a failed but heroic breakaway only 4km into the skate portion. Norway completed the podium with Sjur Roethe taking bronze at two seconds behind Cologna. Defending champion Petter Northug of Norway was slow to join Cologna’s breakaway, and surprisingly, was left off the podium in fourth.

Cologna is the current World Cup Overall leader, and although he has won the overall World Cup title three times, and Olympic Gold, a World Championship title has eluded him. “It’s a great feeling,” said Cologna. “I really wanted to win and I did everything I could. I felt great the whole race. It was a very strong, very tactical race.” Cologna has won the last two World Cup Skiathlons he has entered, one in Alberta in December, and in Lahti, Finland last year.

Johnsrud Sundby went on an incredible charge at 19km, opening up a gap that got as large as 20 seconds. Cologna, who fell early in the race, reeled back Sundby 4km later.

The majority of the race was marked by a slow moving, but chaotic pack with skiers frantically jockeying for position looking for a whole to move up. At 11.25km nearing the end of the classic stage, the top 50 were still within 10 seconds of the lead.

The best North American skier was Canadian Alex Harvey, the Classic Sprint bronze medalist on Thursday. The St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que. skier maintained contact in the large chase pack, finishing 13th 16.1 seconds out.

“It was really fast snow conditions, and the pace was pretty easy with a big, big group of guys the whole way,” said Harvey. “There were two guys wide in the skate and sometimes three so it was really tactical and slow with nowhere to go. We were stepping on each other’s skis and poles, and getting tangled so it was really hard to move up.”

Also finishing within a minute out was his teammate Ivan Babikov in 32nd, who hung with the lead group before fading in the skate portion. “I was feeling really good until the skate, and then my legs felt so heavy,” said Babikov. “I am a little disappointed. That is normally my strength, but I don’t know what happened. I just didn’t feel good out there.”

Canada’s head coach Justin Wadsworth was satisfied with the team’s performance, and is looking ahead to Sunday when the duo of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey try to defend their World Championship Team Sprint title from Oslo 2011.

“The skis were good today, and Alex was feeling quite good, but was a bit too far back to respond well to the attacks. He didn’t use too much energy though and should be ready for tomorrow.” Kershaw sat out the race, with Wadsworth deciding to give him the day to recover to full strength for the Team Sprint after battling illness and his qualification effort on Thursday.

After staying near the front for most of the classic stage the top Americans were Kris Freeman and Noah Hoffman, who fell back to 41st and 43rdrespectively, more than two and a half minutes of the pace. Kris Freeman told Trax: “Classic was not that hard. I can always gauge how the race is going to go as the race goes. You only have so much to burn, and I burned a little too much in the classic race and by the time I got to the skating my legs were a little wobbly. I didn’t have it in the skate portion.”

The action moves to the sprint course tomorrow where the bookmakers have a repeat of a Harvey-Kershaw title at odds of 11/1 in the Team Sprint.