January 03, 2012 (Toblach, Italy) – Following yesterday’s rest day the tension is building at the Tour de Ski as Dario Cologna of Switzerland flexed his muscles to finally take over the race lead from Norway’s Petter Northug with his third place finish in the men’s 5km individual start 5km classic race in Toblach, Italy. Northug faltered on the stage as his 12th place finish opened the door for his Swiss rival.

The day belonged to Russian strongman Alexander Legkov who scored his first podium of the season as Eldar Roenning, Norway’s classic elder statesman, completed the podium finishing in 2nd.

Canada’s Devon Kershaw was the top North American on the day, finishing in 18th place at 24.6 seconds behind Legkov. Racing on waxeless zero skis, Kershaw admitted to letting today’s tricky wax conditions get the better of him psychologically: “I didn’t have the power like I usually do with classic and I needed to trust my skis more,” he said in a team release.

The Tour is beginning to look more like a three-man race, with Cologna moving into the overall lead by 15 seconds, followed by Northug and then Legkov, who has closed the gap to Northug to less than 30 seconds.

“It was a short race but it was very tough,” Cologna told FIS XC, “because you have to go at very high speed the whole track, but it was a good race for me. I had a good start yet not too fast, I had good speed and I’m happy to take over the lead. It was good to take some seconds and have a little advantage for the sprints tomorrow.” But Cologna conceded that “…it’s not a big gap, 15 seconds is not much”.

Kershaw’s teammate Alex Harvey also had a less than stellar day but despite today’s disappointment the Sudbury native holds onto 5th place overall . “The skis were great, but it is tough to trust that when you don’t ski much in these types of conditions because in your head you know there is no wax. The body felt good,” he added, “but I had a really hard time transferring the power today. In a short race like this – that is death.”

Harvey placed a disappointing 29th at 37.5 seconds back of the leader, a result he attributed to a poor warm-up course: “It was so flat on the warm-up loop so I couldn’t warm up hard enough,” Harvey complained. “For a five-kilometre you have to spike the lactates before the start so I spiked it during the race and then I was done,” he said. “My skis were really good and I was expecting a good day. I’m not happy.” With today’s result Harvey drops to 15th overall in the Tour.

Teammate Ivan Babikov, meanwhile, skied a gutsy race while nursing an injured wrist and finished in 72nd place. “It was kind of hard, and my body wasn’t there today,” said Babikov. “Before the race I felt fine, but during the race something was missing. I couldn’t double pole at maximum. Maybe I was too cautious because of my wrist and couldn’t push too hard, but it is what it is.”

It was another tough day for the US team as well, with Simi Hamilton pulling out the Tour prior to today’s race, the victim of a stomach virus, according to Head Coach Chris Grover. The sole remaining US man in the Tour, Kris Freeman, finished 52nd on the day.

Men’s stage 5 results HERE.
Men’s Tour de Ski overall HERE.