January 10, 2015 (Val di Fiemme, ITA) – Germany’s Tim Tscharnke claimed an exciting victory by 1/2 boot length in a photo-finish over Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin in men’s 15km CL at the Tour’s penultimate Stage 6 in the final charge to the line. Dario Cologna of Switzerland recovered from earlier fall with Evgeniy Belov (Rus) to claim third at only 0.4s back.

Tscharnke pips Poltoranin ©

In one of the closest competitions this season the top five finishers were separated by a mere 0.7 seconds as fourth and fifth were also decided by photo-finish between Russians Stanislav Volzhentsev and Alexander Bessmertnykh.

The Canadians did not have their best day in part due to their skis being not quite perfect, essential on such a tough course. Alex Harvey finished 34th, Ivan Babikov was 40th and Devon Kershaw was 41st.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

The course was very demanding – 6 laps of 2.5km course – with two significant climbs, followed by a shorter steep climb just before the descent to the stadium. With the changing snow conditions the course also included some challenging downhill sections.

First Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway went down taking teammate Niklas Dyrhaug with him. Later Cologna fell midway through the race on the same hill where Sundby crashed, apparently stepping on the back of one of Belov’s skis in close quarters –  the Russian was not impressed but Cologna recovered to land on the podium.

Cologna and Belov crash ©

Tscharnke’s win was his first since Canmore in December 2012 and the stage saw the first podium without a Norwegian. Petter Northug Jr (NOR) still leads the overall Tour standings despite finishing 21st today with a mere 3.1s lead over Sundby who was 8th place today. Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson, 27th today, still sits in 3rd at 26.8 back.

Final results here.