December 01, 2012 (Kuusamo, Finland) – The Russians are stamping their authority early in the season as Alexander Legkov put in the best time in the men’s Individual 10km FR holding off a hard-charging Petter Northug (NOR) to win by a comfortable margin of 6.2s. France’s Maurice Manificat was on form for third as biting cold conditions of -15 degrees and light snowfall tested the best xc skiers in the world. Legkov’s victory follows Nikita Kriukov’s win yesterday over Petter Northug (NOR) in the men’s 1.4km CL sprint.

Alex Harvey (CAN) lead the North American skiers in 17th tied with Evgeniy Belov (RUS), as the USA’s Noah Hoffman had a strong day and was close behind in 19th – a personal best and his first top-20 – with Ivan Babikov also landing in the points in 23rd. Harvey was 27th in Kuusamo last year so he was pleased with his effort this year.

“It’s a tough course and the cold conditions made for slower snow so I’m pretty happy to see a big improvement over last year. Skating on tough climbs is an area we need to work on and we’ve trained with this in mind… and I’m not at 100% so it’s an encouraging sign,” Harvey told Trax in a phone interview.

Hoffman was also pleased with his day on snow, “I was happy to have a career best race today. It is a nice way to start the season, and I believe I can build on this result. It sets me up well for tomorrow’s pursuit start. I am looking forward to a hard race. The cold doesn’t bother me too much, as long as I dress well, and my skis were great today so I owe a huge thanks to my wax tech Randy Gibbs.”

Babikov continued his strong start to the season telling Trax, “My race went OK, the course was hard but fast and skis worked well. During the race I felt good. It was pretty cold during the race, my thumbs got very cold, but other than that it wasn’t too bad.”

The tough course and conditions took their toll as many top contenders suffered in the brutally cold conditions including Dario Cologna (Sui) in 8th, Marcus Hellner (Swe) in 9th followed by Maxim Vylegzhanin (Rus) in 10th. Czech strongman Lukas Bauer finished in 13th as Alexey Poloranin (Kaz) held on to the yellow leader’s jersey with a 15th-place finish on the day.

Also on the scoreboard were Devon Kershaw (CAN) 35th, Kris Freeman (USA) 36th, Tad Elliott (USA) 69th, Kevin Sandau (CAN) 75th, Len Valjas (CAN) 81st, Simi Hamilton (USA) 82nd, Sylvan Ellefson (USA) 88th and Andy Newell (USA) 91st.

Men’s results HERE.