February 13, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Martin Fourcade from France took control of the men’s 15km mass start in the final 3 kilometers and won in 39:48.9. Second went to Tomasz Sikora of Poland who shot clean, 3.1 seconds back. Tarjei Boe of Norway added to his lead in the overall World Cup standings with his third place, 4.7 seconds back with two penalties.

Fourcade, who was fourth in the sprint, second in the pursuit and first in mass start, commented on his last loop. “I left the shooting range in third position and quickly got close to Tomasz. On the big uphill I came up on him and went by. I did not realize until that moment that he was the leader . . . when I saw him on the last loop, I told myself that I had to do it; that I did not want to be second again.”

Minus sixteen degree Celsius temperatures greeted the thirty men in the mass start. Jakov Fak of Slovenia led the parade for the first loop and was among the nineteen who shot clean in the first prone stage. All of the top men including Emil Hegle Svendsen, Boe, Fourcade and Carl Johan Bergman remained in the top group for the second loop.

Little changed until the second prone stage, when Svendsen had a single penalty, falling back to the middle of the pack. The pack though was reduced to 12 heading to the first standing stage. Bergman shot clean as did Svendsen while Boe had a single penalty and fell back to sixth position.

In the final standing stage, Sikora who had been among the leaders, shot another clean stage and took the lead. He was followed by Andreas Birnbacher, Fourcade and Boe. It looked like a battle for second and third as Sikora had an 11.9 second lead. However Fourcade had cut the lead in half by the12.7K mark with Boe passing Birnbacher and moving into third. Before the final split, Fourcade had moved into the lead, with Boe and Birnbacher just seven seconds back. He continued to pull away for the victory, with Sikora second and Boe third.

The 38 year-old Sikora, who was recently appointed athlete/coach for the Polish team had his first podium result of the season.

“I was sick early in the season and have been getting better. . . I was not planning to come to the US early in the year, but realized that I needed more races to prepare for the World Championships and made the trip which was quite hard, due to the six-hour time change. I shot well today, but on the last loop my power was gone.”

Regarding his coaching, he added, “I am working with all of the younger athletes on our team. The federation felt that I could communicate with and help them with all of my experience. It is both good and bad. I like being able to help them. But at the same time, it makes it hard to concentrate on my own races; I find myself frequently thinking about them.”

Boe could almost be called the “Ironman” since he has not missed a competition all season and this week had three third places. He commented on today’s near-miss of first place. “Today I thought my shape was good enough to win, but then you have one extra mistake too much and you are third.” Boe retains the Yellow Bib going into the World Championships.

The biggest splash of the week for North Americans was Lowell Bailey’s ninth place today, a career best. Bailey had two penalties, one in the first prone and another in the first standing stages, yet managed to finish only 38.3 seconds out of first place. He was a late addition to the field after being in the group of reserve athletes, who are added only when one of the original top thirty decides not to start.

After struggling in yesterday’s pursuit competition, when he arrived at the shooting range minus one of his magazines, he was determined to get back on track today if given a chance.

“I went over that mistake a hundred times in my mind in the last 24 hours,” he commented. “I have never done that before. However, I had shot a lot of extra rounds yesterday trying to get a good zero and just failed to reload after that.”

On getting a personal best in Fort Kent, he added, “I have to say that I would have not been up here if not for the Maine Winter Sports Center and the people here in Fort Kent. I trained up here for a year after getting out of college and that experience helped me get to where I am today.”

Birnbacher finished fourth, with two penalties, 5.5 seconds back. Boe’s teammate Alexander Os finished fifth, also with two penalties, 28.6 seconds back. Svendsen was sixth after three penalties, 30.6 seconds back.

Today’s Mass Start competitions wrap up the IBU World Cup events in Maine. The series resumes later in March following the  2011 IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from March 3-13.

Full results HERE.