January 03, 2013 (Toblach/Cortina, Italy) – Beautiful conditions graced the Tour de Ski once again for the men’s 35km FR pursuit-style Stage 4 race that saw Canada’s Alex Harvey falter around the 12.7km mark as five leaders established themselves early on with Dario Cologna (SUI), Petter Northug (NOR), and Russia’s Maxim Vylegzhanin and Alexander Legkov with a comfortable 1:30 lead on the chasers.

Petter Northug © Nordic Focus

Harvey got into trouble early and fell back to join Marcus Hellner (SWE), Ilia Chernousov (RUS) and Lukas Bauer (CZE) in the lead chase group as the four leaders would not be caught. Behind three Canucks were moving up the ranks notably Devon Kershaw who has been making serious gains each stage.

In a marked difference over last year where Cologna escaped for the win on this same stage the four leaders exchanged the lead with Northug seeming to do less of the work overall while Vylegzhanin struggled at times to keep pace. Soon after they hit the stadium Northug took the lead and kept the challengers behind him as he claimed the victory, the 15s bonus points, and the red leader’s jersey.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Meawhile Harvey recovered to take 5th as the lead skier in the first chase group and moved from 4th to 6th overall. Kershaw showed his form with the 12th fastest time on the day to move into 12th overall while Babikov also skied well to sit 21st overall as did Len Valjas now 23rd.

The best for the USA is Kris Freeman who also moved up today now 43rd overall followed by rookie Noah Hoffman in 57th with Andy Newell in 67th.

Canada has four skiers in the top 25 and only Russia is better with six, as Sweden also looks strong having four players in the mix while Norway and Germany both have three skiers challenging.

Men’s results here.
TdS M Overall here.