Katharina Hennig smiled briefly at the finish, then she fell exhausted in the snow: the Saxon had just managed to catch up in the Tour de Ski. The Olympic cross-country skiing champion from Beijing stormed from 26th to sixth place in the ten-kilometer pursuit on Sunday and underlined her ambitions in the overall ranking after surviving a cold.
Hennig caught a virus over Christmas from his family in the Ore Mountains. “Mom’s garden herbal tea and lots of horseradish”, as the 26-year-old later complained, obviously made the German tour hope fit again. On Sunday, at 1600 meters in Val Müstair, Switzerland, Hennig flew to the front with the second-best time of the entire field.
Hennig was more than a minute behind in the sprint on Saturday, but then made up a lot of ground on her classic-style parade route. Only when the leading group increased the pace in the second part of the race could Hennig, who lives in Oberstdorf, not get any closer. However, she overtook her teammates Laura Gimmler and Sofie Krehl (both Oberstdorf), who had already impressed on Saturday and both finished in the top ten. Gimmler finished 11th on Sunday, Krehl was 15th and also fulfilled the norm for the World Championships in Planica starting in February.
Johannes Hösflot Kläbo is heading towards his third overall victory
Friedrich Moch from Isny convinced the men. The 22-year-old ran from 17th to 15th place and was even in the top ten at times. Moch made it into a sprint quarterfinal for the first time in his career on Saturday. Olympic champion Johannes Hösflot Kläbo from Norway also won the second stage and is heading towards his third victory in the prestigious cross-country tour.
Kläbo had suffered from a thigh injury during the preparations for this winter, but the exceptional talent has apparently recovered quite well: his success in Val Müstair was his sixth World Cup success in the eighth race this winter. Almost a year ago, Kläbo won gold in the sprint and team sprint in Beijing. In the relay and over 15 kilometers, a silver and bronze medal were added.
Hennig is still a long way from that. The German tour hope had always been the best Germans in the last three editions as eighth twice and ninth once, now she wants to top her results from previous years again. At the finish she was 41.9 seconds behind Norwegian Tiril Udnes Weng, who also leads in the overall World Cup and won her first World Cup on Sunday. The day’s winner prevailed in the final sprint ahead of Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and Sweden’s Frida Karlsson.
Behind the German trio, Pia Fink (Bremelau) was also convincing in 19th place. Victoria Carl (Zella-Mehlis), who surprisingly became Olympic champion in team sprint with Hennig last winter in Beijing, has to settle for 31st place in the tour ranking for the time being content one position ahead of Coletta Rydzek.
After a rest day, the stage race will continue on Tuesday in Oberstdorf with another distance race over ten kilometers, in the third of seven races of the tour, then with individual starts and not in pursuit mode. Hennig, who has already been on the podium twice in the World Cup this winter, should have good chances there as well. In the notorious mountain run in the Italian Fiemme Valley on January 8th, the decision for the overall victory will be made.