December 29, 2011 (Oberhof, Germany) – Norway’s Petter Northug fired warning shots signaling his full intention to finally win the Tour de Ski overall this year with a win in the men’s 4.1km Prologue, beating TdS arch rival Dario Cologna of Switzerland by 0.7 seconds. Northug, current leader in the World Cup overall standings, has been runner up at the Tour for the last three years.

Cologna, the defending Tour de Ski champion, settled for second today while France’s Maurice Magnificat showed a strong hand as well finishing third in today’s race. For North American fans Canada’s Alex Harvey powered to a very solid 6th place finish underscoring that he’s in contention as well.

“When I heard I was fighting for the victory it gave me more power,” said Northug in a FIS XC interview after the race. He cautioned not to place too much emphasis on today’s result however, and clearly has his sights fixed on winning the overall title: “I don’t think anyone will remember who won the Prologue in Oberhof when we’re standing at top of Alpe Cermis,” he added.

Canada’s three-man team also had an excellent start to the Tour. On his way to 6th place Harvey was indeed challenging for a podium spot in the closing metres of the race before fading slightly prior to hitting the finishline. Harvey was pleased with his result nonetheless. “Any time you’re in the top 10 in the world you can’t allow yourself to be disappointed,” he told SkiTrax by phone earlier today, “so I’m really happy … it doesn’t mean much for the Tour in the overall, but it’s a good sign of where my shape is at.”

“Pacing is important, you know, you don’t want to start too hard, because you don’t want to blow up near the end, but you have to start pretty fast and not give up time early on. For me I always tend to start a bit conservative, but today I tried to go a little bit harder and I was 13th at the first time check and for me that’s quite a fast start, usually I’m around 20th, so it was good aggressive start for me.”

Harvey was leading, in fact, going into the final kilometre of the race, but with fatigue settling during the final metres he lost a second or two. “Coming into the finish I got a little tight and probably lost some time, I was just getting really tight and unstable because I was giving it everything I had.”

Harvey’s teammate Devon Kershaw, meanwhile, finished a very solid 12th on the day. Kershaw started slowly and was skiing in 31st position at the 1.7km interval before accelerating on the 2nd lap and making up 19 positions to finish in 12th. While he was a little frustrated with his pacing Kershaw was still “…happy to have made up a lot of time in the last part of the course and obviously I’m super happy to be in 12th and happy with the way the body felt.”

In terms of strategy for the day Kershaw told SkiTrax: “I was just trying to keep a level head and ski ‘big’ and smooth and powerful and then in the latter part of the course really attack, attack, attack and push really hard into the downhills to carry my speed through.”

Ivan Babikov was further back, but still managed a personal best for the Prologue, finishing in 38th position.

Andy Newell led the American men with a 29th place finish. “Maybe the hardest WC point I’ve ever scored today,” he later tweeted. Newell was skiing as high as 18th at the first interval, but lost time near the finish as he started to fatigue. “I felt ok today,” Newell told us, “and was having a pretty good race up until the last few hundred meters and then really blew up and lost a lot of time.”

“Sometimes that’s just the way Prologues go,” he continued, “pacing is so important in these races and if you don’t nail it just right it can be tough. But I recovered pretty well after the race and I’m still feeling ready to go for tomorrow.”

Newell was followed by teammates Simi Hamilton and Kris Freeman, who came in 63rd and 64th respectively. Hamilton, who finished 10th in the Rogla sprint race before Christmas, was a little disappointed after fighting somewhat with the icy conditions. “Today went alright, not great,” he commented by email post-race. “It was really fast and icy and although that has sometimes suited me well in the past, I struggled with balance and power application a bit today. It was a tough course for sure… one that will be helpful to be familiar with in the coming years.”

“I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the races,” he continued “especially the sprints, and know that if things go my way and my body is feeling good I have the potential to ski well.”

Freeman, who is looking to regain his form following a lacklustre entry to this season, said he started out too slowly, which he attributed to the fact that he has been in a rest and recovery phase recently: “I felt strong but very flat. Not surprising since I have focused more on rest than training in the past few weeks.”

After going through the 1.7km split in 81st position, Freeman was able to make up a lot of ground, moving up a whopping 17 positions! “My strategy was to accelerate throughout the race which I did. My initial speed was just too slow. The conditions were very fast and the downhills were icy and a bit sketchy. I will learn a lot more about where I am at tomorrow.”

Friday’s race features a 15km handicap start classic race, with Cologna heading out 5.7 seconds behind Northug. It will be fascinating to see if Northug choses to work with Cologna to maintain a gap on the field, as they did in Kuusamo, or allow the rest of the field to catch up. Either way, count on Northug to launch his trademark devastating kick in the closing metres, unless Cologna or someone else can dish out a surprise.

TdS Overall top three:

1. Petter Northug (NOR) 7:58.3
2. Dario Cologna (SUI) +5.7
3. Maurice Manificat (FRA) +14.0

Full men’s prologue results HERE.