January 5, 2008 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla fell on the third lap Saturday and defending champion Virpi Kuitunen of Finland ran her lead in the FIS Tour de Ski to nearly 40 seconds heading into the final stage. On the men’s side, Czech Lukas Bauer padded his lead to nearly 110 seconds.

Stage 7 was a men’s bruising 20km classic technique mass start while the women had a 10km test in steady snowfall.

Norwegians Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset and Jens Arns Svartedal staged a photo finish in the men’s race with the jury deciding Hjelmeset was the winner. Each posted a time of 1:00.17.8 for the six-lap race in Lago di Tesero. The next 10 racers were within 12.8 seconds of the lead.

Bauer, exhibiting strong double-poling, won three intermediate sprints, adding a 45-second bonus to his overall time and appeared set to hold on for the victory before the Norwegians skied past him in the final section.

Tord Asle Gjerdalen of Norway, who is runner-up to Bauer with Sunday’s Final Climb stage remaining, was fourth, 5.2 seconds back of his teammates. Bauer, who held the lead through the middle of the race, tailed off to seventh place while Canadian Dave Nighbor, who has doggedly held on through the Tour, had his best result, finishing 32nd as he moved up to 50th overall.

As the Final Climb begins Sunday – with the skiers heading off in handicap-start format, based on their time behind Bauer and Kuitunen, Bauer’s total time is 3:04.22.3. That puts him 1:49.8 ahead of Norway’s Tord Asle Gjerdalen with Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy in third place, more than two minutes behind Bauer.

Kuitunen in Charge

In the women’s mass start, Kuitunen went to the front from the start and caught a break when Kalla went down as she came through a downhill on the first lap. She got back on her skis and machine-like worked her way back to the front as she stalked Kuitunen.

In the end, Kuitunen scooped up all the sprint bonus seconds as she won in 32:48.1 with Kalla second in 32:52.6. Germany’s Claudia Nystad was third (32:53.1).

“I’m tired after all these races and the snow conditions today were very difficult, which made it even tougher to ski,” Kuitunen said. Her goal Sunday is to win. Has she got enough gas left in the tank?

Kalla said she had no explanation for how or why she fell in the first 3.3km lap “but I was off the track and got very angry. I thought it was all over when I fell.” She credited the Swedish waxing team for “a very, very good job” under difficult conditions.

She would have liked to earn more bonus seconds, she said, but Kalla had no problem with Pirjo Muranan pulling back so Kuitunen could get more bonus seconds. “That’s team tactics. Anna [Dahlberg] and I would have done the same in such a situation,” she said.

Overall, after seven stages, Kuitunen’s time of 2:06.44.4 is 39.7 seconds ahead of Kalla. Kuitunen has earned 156 sprint bonus seconds to 85 for the young Swede. In third place is Russian Olga Rotcheva, who’s 1:26.2 astern.

Perhaps of special note: Kalla, 11 years younger than the Finn, is a stronger skater and Kuitunen, perhaps as a smoke screen, was voicing concern early on in the Tour about what the Final Climb would bring. A 40-second lead may not be enough in the 9km skate race.

Results (brief)

Women

1. Virpi Kuitunen (Fin) 32:48.1
2. Charlotte Kalla (Swe) 3.20
3. Claudia Nystad (Ger) 3.56
4. Olga Rotcheva (Rus) 3.63
5. Katrin Zeller (Ger) 3.91

Men

1. Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset (Nor) 1:00:17.8
2. Jens Arne Svartedal (Nor) 1:00:17.8
3. Franz Goering (Ger) 1.24
4. Tord Asle Gjerdalen (Nor) 2.01
5. Axel Teichmann (Ger) 2.13

Full Women’s results.

Full Men’s results.