March 19, 2011 (Falun, Sweden) – Petter Northug (NOR) won the men’s 10+10km Pursuit in Falun today in commanding style as he marked every move at the front then out-paced Giorgio Di Centa on the final climb to the finish to solo in for the victory as the valiant Italian settled for second while Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) finished third.

Russia looked strong as the race began with Alexander Legkov (RUS) taking an early lead on the first classic leg with Rickardsson in second and Legkov’s Russian teammates Petr Sedov, Ilia Chernousov, and Maxim Vylegzhanin all at the front.

The pack would not them get too far ahead reeling them in as Rickardsson assumed the lead at the 7.5km mark with Legkov still challenging in second. As the first exchange approached Sweden’s sprint king, Emil Joensson, stretched his legs moving into the lead and hit the exchange at 10km first, followed by Legkov in second, Rickardsson third, and Lukas Bauer (CZE) 4th.

Di Centa was in 7th, Northug was 9th and the USA’s Kris Freeman was 15th, Canada’s Alex Harvey was 16th, Devon Kershaw (CAN) was 18th, Ivan Babikov (CAN) was 26th, Graham Nishikawa (CAN) was 35th, Lars Flora (USA) was 48th and Andy Newell (USA) was 49th.

On the skate portion, Rickardsson regained the lead and attacked, with Northug the only skier to go with him. Then Di Centa put in a monster effort to bridge up to the leaders and put distance between himself and the other pursuers. At the 12.8km mark, it was Rickardsson in the lead, with Northug and Di Centa at his heels.

In another aggressive move, Di Centa attacked trying to gap the others as the final Morderbacken climb approached. But he could not shake them. Up the climb Northug matched the Italian as Rickardsson struggled. At the 15km bonus mark, Northug surged ahead picking up the 15 bonus seconds, with Di Centa scoring ten and Rickardsson five. Then the wily Norwegian dropped back into second, only to attack before the final climb and leave Di Centa behind to claim the victory.

The North Americans were not in contention during the race and unable to mount an effective attack while Babikov logged the fourth-fastest skate leg to finish one spot behind Harvey, the top North American finisher in 13th. Freeman was the best US skier in 20th. Kershaw finished 26th, Nishikawa was 37th, Flora finished 45th and Newell was 49th.

Northug has a substantial margin heading into the final 15km handicap race on Sunday – Joensson is second in the mini tour at 1:27.6 behind while Rickardsson sits in third at 1:37.2s behind.

Full results HERE.
Mini Tour Standings HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Petter Northug (NOR) 57:32.2
2. Giorgio Di Centa (ITA) 57:34.8
3. Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) 57:42.4
4. Dario Cologna (SUI) 57:50.4
5. Jean Marc Gaillard (FRA) 57:51.7

13. Alex Harvey (CAN) 58:04.2
14. Ivan Babikov (CAN) 58:04.4
20. Kris Freeman (USA) 58:50.6
26. Devon Kershaw (CAN) 59:23.5
37. Graham Nishikawa (CAN) 1:01:51.5
45. Lars Flora (USA) 1:03:22.6
49. Andy Newell (USA) 1:06:07.2