December 17, 2011 (Rogla, Slovenia) – Rogla finally got some natural snow overnight making for slower tracks on the 2km course that organizers created with man-made snow for this weekend’s WCup races. Petter Northug (NOR), who hung back for most of the race, picked up the pace near the finish timing his finishing sprint perfectly to edge out Dario Cologna (SUI) for the win. Kazakhstan’s Alexy Poltoranin, who made a bid for the victory in final 2km, was caught but held on to claim third.

Canada’s Alex Harvey lead the North Americans in 10th followed by Devon Kershaw in 16th. The Canucks looked very strong early on with Ivan Babikov leading at the 3km mark and Harvey and Kershaw just behind.

Kershaw claimed the first sprint points at the 5.2km mark, but couldn’t hold the pace as Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) attacked and then the Russians ramped it up taking over the lead in the latter stages. Kershaw ended up 16th while Babikov faded a bit as well finishing 22nd. The final Canadian in the mix was Graham “The Nish” Nishikawa from Whitehorse, Yukon, in 40th.

“Our plan was to be on the offensive for WCup points on the sprints,” said Harvey. “We knew it might cost us at the finish but we wanted to go after the extra points and try to hold on to the end.”

Kershaw concurred with their strategy adding that it was “soft, messy and windy in sections out there.” The 15km classic is one of his favourites and he wanted better than 16th overall. “I worked hard to win the first sprint points but almost thought it was too easy. Then Rickardsson attacked and that forced me to use even more energy leaving less in the tank in the end. It was a tough course and I paid for my early surge especially at altitude.”

Top US sprinter, Andy Newell, scored his first official distance race points leading the Americans in 24th proving that his hard work is paying off.  “Although I have technically scored distance points before in prologue-style events this definitely feels like my first ‘real’ points race,” Newell told SkiTrax post-race. “I told myself I had to score a top 30 in a distance race during the first period in order for me to stay over and race the Tour de Ski so I was stoked that I was able to pull that off today.”

New Hampshire’s Kris Freeman did not have one of his better days finishing 42nd while Noah Hoffman out of Aspen, Colorado ended up 51st and Lars Flora from Alaska placed 54th.

Full results HERE.