December 05, 2010 (Dusseldorf, Germany) – The Norway II team of Ola Vigen Hattestad and Anders Gloersen charged to gold in the men’s 6×1.6km freestyle team sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany today with Sweden I (Mats Larsson and Emil Joensson) in second and Italy II (Fabio Pasini and David Hofer) in third place. Race day conditions included rain and snow and -1C temperature.

The door was opened for Norway II when a fateful crash on the final corner with Germany II’s Josef Wenzl and John Kristian Dahl from Norway 1, who were leading the race, took them both out of contention and resulted in angry exchanges as they finished 9th and 10th respectively. Wenzl had a slight lead as he charged around the corner in what seemed a sure medal for both and Dahl tried to take the inside but the German gave him no room and the two collided. As a result of the crash Gloersen was able to challenge Joensson and pipped him at the line for the win.

The tight course with sharp corners made for exciting racing, numerous crashes and surprise finishes as both the women’s and men’s final featured unexpected crashes near the finish that affected the outcome. Some felt that Wenzl should not have tried to pass on the corner leaving Dahl little room as they had a comfortable margin – check out this You Tube video of the men’s final.

“Team Sprint has his own rules,” said veteran Hattestad. “We saw that again today. You have to look that you stay out of troubles. I feel sorry for my team mate John Kristian, he did a great race but unfortunately he had an incident with the German racer and felt after the last curve. The course here is hard even if it feels flat, you have no rest time and have to push all the way hard.”

It was a tough day for the North Americans as neither of the two U.S. teams consisting of Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell (USA I), and Chris Cook and Torin Koos (USA II), nor the Canadian squads of Stefan Kuhn and Len Valjas (Canada I), and Phil Widmer and Brent McMurtry (Canada II) qualified for the finals.

“We were going well and with the top skiers until Simi crashed during his final leg,” said Newell. “We were tagging well and skiing fast but he couldn’t make up the time after his crash and we dropped to last place so I ended up skiing the last leg alone. It was great experience for him on such a tough course.”

SkiTrax caught up with Hamilton post race as well. “Yeah, kind of a rough day, but now I realize why Dusseldorf is such a crazy place to team sprint. On the second lap of my final leg, with about 500 meters to go, I was tangled up on the only downhill on the course when a German who cut right in front of me and skied over both of my skis and I didn’t have time to react, I guess that’s part of sprinting in a 12-man pack on a narrow and fast course. I felt way better than I did yesterday, and I’m pretty amped for more WC individual sprints and team sprints this season.”

US coach Chris Grover it’s a case of building on Hamilton’s talent. “It’s a tough course and Andy and Simi were skiing well and looked sure to qualify until the crash. Back in 2009 a crash opened the door for Andy and Torin Koos to finish fourth. It’s Simi’s first World Cup team sprint and now he’s got it under his belt.”

The Canucks were victims of a crash as well as Stefan Kuhn and Len Valjas were also in the running until Kuhn was unable to avoid a mishap in front of him.  “Lenny and I where super pumped with the rain and hard tracks. We were in the second heat with fellow Americans Simi and Newell. I was the lead for our team and have always loved when I’m the starter,” wrote Kuhn by email. “We were in 4th when I tagged Lenny and for the next two rounds we both skied really well but conservatively knowing our last laps would be full on efforts. Just as I got tagged on my last lap the Norwegian skier ahead of me broke a pole. I went to pass (we were in 6th at that time) and a French dude skied right into me and I went down.”

“I fought hard to catch up and stay with them but as I caught them they picked up the pace. Lenny did all he could but we ended 9th and the top 7 went through. We may have had some bad luck but our dynamic duo ladies rock it for the Canadians and climbed the podium!! Super pumped for them and our team rolling to Davos on Monday and hopefully with our bags too!”

For Canadian coach Justin Wadsworth, who saw crashes work for and against the team in Dusseldorf, it goes with the territory. “Phil [Widmer] and Brent [McMurtry] skied well but lost some juice near the end while Stef and Lenny were in the hunt until the crash. We’re here to race and it’s a tight course with very little room for errors.”

It’s off to Davos on Monday for both teams with medals in hand despite having to deal with travel and baggage delays on their way to Dusseldorf from Finland. For Grover it’s two years in row of problems departing from Kuusamo. “We’re definitely not staying there to train next year after the races – we’re getting out as quick as possible.”

Results (brief)

1. Norway II (Ola Vigen Hattestad / Anders Gloersen)
2. Sweden I (Mats Larsson / Emil Joensson)
3. Italy II (Fabio Pasini / David Hofer)
4. Austria I (Harald Wurm / Bernhard Tritscher)
5. Russia II (Nikita Kriukov / Andrey Parfenov)

17. Canada I (Stefan Kuhn / Len Valjas)
20. Canada II (Phil Widmer / Brent McMurtry)
21. USA I (Simi Hamilton / Andy Newell)
23. USA II (Chris Cook / Torin Koos)

Full results HERE or in pdf HERE.