December 19, 2010 (La Clusaz, France) – Swiss skier Curdin Perl anchored his team to a surprising win on Sunday at La Clusaz. Lead by Toni Livers, the Swiss team (Livers, Dario Cologna, Remo Fischer and Perl) skied an impressive race to take the win over the Russian l team (Evgeniy Belov, Alexander Legkov, Petr Sedov and Maxim Vylegzhanin) in 2nd and Norway l (Eldar Roenning, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Tord Asle Gjerdalen and Petter Northug) in 3rd.
Livers broke away early with Belov, and quickly opened up a gap. The Russians and Swiss worked together throughout much of the race, widening their lead to about a minute. When skaters Fischer (SUI) and Sedov (RUS) took over on leg three, they had over a minute on the three-skier chase pack of Finland, Sweden and Norway. The two leaders skied together well, but were slowly bleeding seconds to the chase group.
Leg four saw Switzerland’s Perl really kick it up, putting over 30 seconds into yesterday’s winner Vylegzhanin from Russia by the finish. Vylegzhanin couldn’t hold on, but managed to mitigate the damage enough to survive in second until the line. Third place came down to a sprint between Sweden’s Marcus Hellner, Finland’s Matti Heikkinen and Norway’s Northug – an unfortunate situation for anyone but Northug to be in.
In a move reminiscent of Lance Armstrong’s ‘The Look’, Northug glanced back over his shoulder as if daring Hellner and Heikkinen to challenge, and then made for the line, slotting his team into 3rd.
The Canadian men finished in 9th spot, winning a photo-finish with Norway II to crack the top ten.
The Canuks were lead by youngster Lenny Valjas, who’s in his first month of World Cup action.
“Lenny hasn’t had much World Cup experience but did a great job leading the way and the rest of the guys were solid – it was a good day,” said Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth. “Overall the team did a pretty good job today.”
Valjas held his own with the world’s elite until the final lap on the lead-off leg where he was tripped up on a slippery section of course. He tagged off in 14th position to two-time Olympian Devon Kershaw, who more than made up for the slip, setting the third fastest classic time of the day putting Canada in 10th. Following Kershaw was Ivan Babikov who advanced the Canucks into 8th when he handed off to Alex Harvey who anchored the team. Harvey put in a very strong showing, battling with Kazahkstan and Norway ll as he positioning himself for his finish line sprint with Norwegian Petter Eliassen to claim 9th for the red maple leaf.
From here the Canadians will head to Davos, Switzerland where they will train through the holidays in preparation for the Tour de Ski.
“We’re very excited about the Tour,” said Wadsworth yesterday. “That’s our next big focus before World Championships in Oslo.”
Full results HERE.