Johaug went about as fast as Northug up the monster hill: – Maybe … – Dagbladet.no

(Dagbladet): No one has gone downhill slopes Alpe Cermis, popularly known as the monster hill in Val di Fiemme, more times than Petter Northug.

He is the only one of the gentlemen who have completed the Tour de Ski ten times and in all editions fought for the podium. Therefore, he always had to squeeze maximum in the bright rough ground.

But last year’s World Cup king has no relationship with the infamous ground. Where he both lost the overall wins and podium finishes, such as on the stage.

In the mountain race is Didrik Tønseth normally seen in a class of its own, while Northug sneakers usually turns off both Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng.

But skiing is different. Tønseth was actually beaten by both Northug and Therese Johaug on today’s stage.

Northug speaks often very down on this leg, but is not too bad. Today he beat including Alexey Poltoranin in duel and distanced uphill specialist Tønseth.

Evenly between Johaug and Northug

He also beat Therese Johaug up the monster hill, but it was just barely. Poor 26 seconds separated between the world’s best female skier and the man who has been the world’s best skier on the men’s side for years.

Johaug could calm down and celebrate victory in his head, while Northug went all he could in the duel with Poltoranin . Thus struck both Northug and Poltoranin nordic queen with just over 20 seconds.

– Therese is perhaps the best-ever cross-country skier uphill on the women’s side. She is absolutely superb. Therese has a very high oxygen uptake and successfully exploited it well. It’s very impressive, said cross country expert Torgeir Bjorn Dagbladet.

Dagbladet measurement is done from the bottom of Alpe Cermis slopes, where Johaug total use 18 minutes and 49 seconds. Northug clocked in at 18 minutes and 23 seconds.

– It is the best Tour’en I’ve gone ever. Perhaps the best ground, says Johaug in an interview to Dagbladet.

Johaug was in a class of their own on the women’s side and could also have asserted themselves against the world’s best cross-country gentlemen. It was Matti Heikkinen, Finn-Hågen Krogh and Martin Johnsrud Sundby who had the best of all time.

Sundby spent 17 minutes and 11 seconds from the first crossing point at the bottom of the hill and into the goal, while Krogh was six seconds faster than the Tour de Ski-king.

– It’s scary

Johaug was thus only a half minutes behind the best gentlemen and 26 seconds behind Northug.

– It is very impressive that the best gentlemen doing the alpine slopes as well, about as impressive as it Johaug do. It is not very shocking that she is so close. Compared with the distance between men and women in athletics, the distance is not so abnormal, says Bjorn.

Many of our competitors are, however, alarmed, including Heidi Weng.

– Therese is completely raw. It’s almost a little daunting, says Weng NRK and laughs.

– I knew that Therese is in a class of its own in the ground. She is tremendously strong, complementing Ingvild Flugstad Østberg.

She was beaten by almost three minutes of Johaug the ground. If there is to be genuine excitement in future editions of the Tour de Ski, challengers must probably have a lead of Johaug for several minutes. The exception is Weng, who was beaten with “only” one minute Johaug.

Optionally Johaug go along with the gentlemen of the monster hill.