March 06, 2016 (Quebec City, Que.) – Canada’s Alex Harvey, dubbed the Prince of Quebec by World Cup points leader Martin Johnsrud Sundby from Norway, raced to 4th in the men’s 15km FR Pursuit at Quebec City in ideal conditions and sits fourth overall.

With bluebird skies and ideal gracing the Plains of Abraham, the world’s best made their way around a 4km course four times to wrap up the eastern portion of Ski Tour Canada.  Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov led from the start holding off legendary powerhouse, Norwegian Petter Northug, to claim the win and retain his overall lead.

Fellow Norwegian, Emil Iversen, initially bridged to Northug, but fell back losing substantial time to cross the line in third as the Tour now enjoys two rest days prior to the final four races of the season in Canmore, Alta.

Behind Sundby quickly gobbled up the 16-second gap to Harvey, going on to ski to fastest time on the day. Sundby told media, “It’s so cool to have the opportunity to do a race with him [Harvey] today and his home crowd. I actually didn’t hear my coach one time during the 16km today, and that’s quite an amount of kudos for the homecrowd.”

“I asked him if he wanted to do some work in the last lap and he said ‘no man’, I thought on the last uphill that I had to let him take the finish because we are in Canada, and he is the Prince of Quebec.”

Harvey passed Sundby on the final corner accelerating down the finishing lanes ahead of Sundby to claim the ninth fastest time on the day and 4th overall at the Tour. Harvey offered a different story saying, “He knew I was the better sprinter. He did more work than me out there, that’s certain…when the guy with the yellow bib is with you, you try and let him do all the work.” Harvey added that he has target looking ahead in the Tour is, “…Emil Iversen, and we made a lot of time on him.”

With more distance races upcoming in Canmore, Harvey has a good chance of reeling in Iversen, sitting 47 seconds behind the young Norwegian sprint sensation, but must be weary of a strong Sundby on his tail.

Fellow Canuck Devon Kershaw lost a spot on the overall leaderboard dropping to 21st overall. The Sudbury skier who rocked the Nordic world in 2012 finishing second overall to Dario Cologna (SUI), expressed his frustration at being unable to ski his own race as he was swallowed by the large wave start behind him.

American Erik Bjornsen finished the day with the 42nd fastest time on the day, to drop him to 32nd overall telling media, “There was a big surge on the third lap, and I wasn’t able to hold it and lost quite a bit of time on the last lap. Starting to feel the Tour a little bit, but feel like I’m pacing it and have a lot of energy left, so I’m ready for Canmore.”

Fellow Americans Noah Hoffman (35th), Simi Hamilton (37th), and Scott Patterson (38th) packed the top 40 with stars and stripes. Canadian Ivan Babikov crashed on a downhill on the second lap and lost time on the group he was skiing in to finish 36th on the day.

NDC Thunder Bay’s Andy Shields skied an impressive race finishing the day in 65th with the 30th fastest time. Shields was all smiles in saying, “It felt great, I had a lot of energy out there today, and skied a great race.

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First of all, happy to make it to Canmore. A little bit scared about getting lapped but I knew if I had a decent race I’d get through, and I had an amazing race so that’s way more than enough to get to Canmore. I’m excited to keep racing World Cups, and looking forward to the classic sprints in Canmore, on my kind of course.”

Graeme Killick raced through a solid performance to finish with the 32nd best time of the day and at the finish line commented, “It was okay, I mean I haven’t been too strong in skate this year. I didn’t want to lead too much, and was able to sit in front of the second wave for most of the race. I think we moved up a bit and threw some people. Overall I was happy to maybe get a little bit better seeded for the pursuit in Canmore.”

Killick was excited to be heading west to his current home of Canmore in adding, “It’s going to be nice to get back home, since November I have only been there something like five days. It’s going to be nice to get back home and do some races on my home course. I really like the World Cup course we have there, I’ve had some good results, so I’m excited.”

Len Valjas finished 53rd on the day, commenting, “It was better than yesterday when I was missing a gear. Today was much better and it felt like I was able to ski well. As far as distance races go, I think this was a pretty good one for me.” Valjas added, “Lungs are feeling way better, and I also had a lot more snap today.”

After securing his Sprint Crystal Globe the day before, Federico Pellegrino went on to ski the 5th fastest time of the day placing 28th. “Today I was looking to stay with the others like Hellner, Duvilliard, Heikkinen, all good skiers. We were able to gain some positions, I had really good feeling today, I haven’t been able to do distance all season. At the start of the season I wanted to a lot more distance races, but could only do relays. But receiving the Sprint Crystal Globe yesterday was quite something.”

Ski Tour Canada picks up again in Canmore on March 8 with a Classic sprint on a grueling course. The shift in scenery will bode well for the distance skiers as three of the four remaining races are distance events. Canada and the USA have had success at Canmore World Cups in previous years, and hope to continue their impressive start the inaugural Tour.

Results here.
Standings here.