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December 02, 2018 (Lillehammer, Norway) – The USA’s Erik Bjornsen had an outstanding final race at the Lillehammer Triple, finishing third fastest in the men’s 15km CL Pursuit to end up 32nd overall as Canada’s Alex Harvey held on to 16th in the final weekend ranking. Norway swept the men’s mini-tour podium with Didrik Toenseth taking the win followed by Sjur Roethe in second and Emil Iversen in third.
Bjornsen’s podium was a career-best Euro result. “I’m really excited about the time of day result and hope that I can continue to build through the season,” said Bjornsen. “I haven’t had the results I was hoping for this season so I was thinking of today as a fresh start. I tried to go out relaxed, but fast.
“The goal is to consistently be skiing in the points. The margins are so small that I know if I can ski top 30 every day, then the top 10 finishes start appearing. I love the pursuit start classic races because there are always a bunch of skate specialists to pick off throughout the race. Nothing feels better than passing a guy with a super low number,” he concluded.
Men’s 15k classic pursuit
Men’s overall Lillehammer Triple standings
December 3rd, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Pursuits are weird. the only men who finished in both the top 20 overall and had a top 20 time in the pursuit were De Fabiani, Yakismushkin, and Brugger, who were 12th/11th, 11th/13th, and 17th/1st. everyone was playing it tactically, so it meant the best skiers didn’t put in very good times at all. If stage victories (currently 50 points) like this were worth the same as normal World Cup ones (100), you might see different racing strategies in the pursuit, with some skiers going for the overall win and others going for the best times in the pursuit. With the women, these are often the same, because it is less competitive at the top, but the men’s races would be somewhat different.