19.2.2017

KATERINA SMUTNA AND MORTEN EIDE PEDERSEN TRIUMPH IN JIZERSKA PADESATKA

Czech Katerina Smutna dominated among women and won the women's race. Tord Asle Gjerdalen, Team Santander, was knocked off his usual perch as Team BN Bank’s Morten Eide Pedersen and Petter Eliassen.

Team LeasePlan, broke away in the long uphill about 19 km before the finish and left the struggling yellow bib holder behind. Those two kept their high pace to the end, and Pedersen repeated his 2015 feat and won the race just ahead of Eliassen. Gjerdalen managed to take the last podium place due to the assistance of Anders Aukland who helped his fellow teammate after the breakaway. Gjerdalen admitted having a strange feeling of lactic acid in his muscles while the two skiers ahead of him said that they felt strong all the way. More than 4 000 skiers participated in today's race, more than 6 500 skiers found way to Bedrichov this weekend.

”I had a good day today,” the extremely happy winner Morten Eide Pedersen claimed after the race. ”I saved some energy in the beginning and wanted to make sure that I have enough power in the long climb where Eliassen did his breakaway. I just tried to keep up with him and once we got the gap, we worked well together ensuring that the chasing group couldn’t catch us. It was about time that we pushed Gjerdalen away from the top podium place! After this, I’m getting ready for Vasaloppet and I feel that I’m in good shape right now and I’ve done all I needed to be on the podium in Sweden.”

In the women’s race, it was a familiar scenario again where Team Santander’s Katerina Smutná, Lager 157 Ski Team’s Britta Johansson Norgren and Team United Bakeries’ Astrid Øyre Slind broke away quite early in the race and kept a pace of their own to the finish. A few kilometers before the finish, Øyre Slind had to give in when Smutná and Johansson Norgren sped up in the final downhill section. On the last hill about three kilometers before the finish, Smutná increased her double-poling frequency and slid away from Johansson Norgren. This is her fifth win in a row in Visma Ski Classics this season making her second to none in terms of the number of consecutive victories in the long distance ski world championship.

”I felt really strong in my double-poling,” the always smiling Smutná admitted. ”I hope that I can keep this up come Vasaloppet in two weeks. This was a tough race as we expected, but I did what I had planned beforehand and it worked out perfectly. Now, I have some time before Vasaloppet where Britta will be tough to beat. It’s her home soil and she really wants to win that race.”

Pedersen’s victory pushed him up on the overall list to second place as Team Santander’s Andreas Nygaard did not race today. Stian Hoelgaard, who was ninth today, is currently in third place, but he is being chased by the aforementioned Nygaard and Eliassen. In the women’s battle for the yellow jersey, Norgren is only 15 points ahead of Smutná, while Slind is third and holds a 28-point advantage over Sara Lindborg of Team Serneke, who was fourth in today’s race.

In the remaining categories, no changes took place as Nygaard and Johansson Norgren continue to lead the sprint competitions while the pink bibs are still being held by Svenja Hoelzle, Team Synnfjell, and Stian Hoelgaard. Team Santander remains the undisputed number one team of Visma Ski Classics Season VII.

The next stop in the tour is the legendary Vasaloppet, 90 km, on March 5. Jizerska Padesatka was the last event in Central-Europe as the rest of the races will take place in Northern Europe. Visma Ski Classics Season VII will end in Finland on April 8 when Ylläs-Levi presents itself as a new race in the tour and a fresh location for the finale.

TOP 5 WOMEN JIZERSKA PADESATKA

# team name time
1 SAN Kateřina Smutná 2:17:34.7
2 LAG Britta Johansson Norgren 2:17:45.2
3 TUB Astrid Øyre Slind 2:18:15.2
4 SER Sara Lindborg 2:23:53.3
5 SPA Emilia Lindstedt 2:26:18.7

TOP 5 MEN JIZERSKA PADESATKA

# team name time
1 BNB Morten Eide Pedersen 1:55:53.1
2 LEA Petter Eliassen 1:55:53.6
3 SAN Tord Asle Gjerdalen 1:57:06.7
4 RMT Ermil Vokuev 1:57:06.9
5 SAN Anders Aukland 1:57:10.2

STANDINGS VISMA SKI CLASSICS COMPETITIONS
CHAMPION WOMEN PRESENTED BY HERTZ
# team name points
1 (1) LAG Britta Johansson Norgre 1285
2 (2) SAN Kateřina Smutná 1270
3 (3) TUB Astrid Øyre Slind 878
4 (4) SER Sara Lindborg 850
5 (5) SPA Emilia Lindstedt 583

CHAMPION MEN PRESENTED BY HERTZ
# team name points
1 (1) SAN Tord Asle Gjerdalen 1164
2 (4) BNB Morten Eide Pedersen 855
3 (3) LEA Stian Hoelgaard 763
4 (2) SAN Andreas Nygaard 745
5 (8) LEA Petter Eliassen 702

SPRINT WOMEN
# team name points
1 (1) LAG Britta Johansson Norgren 260
2 (2) SAN Kateřina Smutná 110
3 (3) TUB Astrid Øyre Slind 85
4 (4) SER Sara Lindborg 30
4 (4) RMT Olga Rotcheva 30

SPRINT MEN
# team name points
1 (1) SAN Andreas Nygaard 186
2 (2) LEA Anders Høst 75
3 (3) LAG Markus Ottosson 71
4 (4) SAN Jens Eriksson 70
5 (5) BNB Morten Eide Pedersen 68

PRO TEAM COMPETITION
# team name points
1 (1) SAN Team Santander 3966
2 (2) LAG Lager 157 Ski Team 2628
3 (3) TUB Team United Bakeries 2232
4 (4) LEA Team LeasePlan 1927
5 (5) SER Team Serneke SER 1455

YOUTH WOMEN PRESENTED BY SEEFELD
# team name points
1 (1) SYN Svenja Hoelzle 348
2 (2) SPA Evelina Bångman 266
3 (3) SYN Kristin Antonsen 225
4 (4) SER Julia Jansson 66
4 (4) SIL Sandra Schützová 66

YOUTH MEN PRESENTED BY SEEFELD
# team name points
1 (1) LEA Stian Hoelgaard 763
2 (2) LAG Oscar Persson 377
3 (3) SYN Torleif Syrstad 346
4 (4) SER Oskar Kardin 297
5 (7) MOR Andreas Holmberg 244






Visma Ski Classics VII (2016/2017):
Event 1: 27th November Prologue Pontresina Switzerland
Event 2: 3rd December La Sgambeda Livigno Italy
Event 3: 4th January Changchun Vasaloppet China 50km
Event 4: 14th January Kaiser Maximilian Lauf Seefeld Austria 60km
Event 5: 21st January La Diagonela St Moritz Switzerland 50 km
Event 6: 29th January Marcialonga Trentino Italy 70km
Event 7: 11th February Toblach-Cortina Italy 50km
Event 8: 19th February Jizerska Padesatka Czech Republic 50km
Event 9: 5th March Vasaloppet Sweden 90km
Event 10: 18th March Birkebeinerrennet Norway 54km
Event 11: 25th March Årefjällsloppet Sweden 55 km
Event 12: 1st April Reistadløpet Bardufoss Norway 50km
Event 13: 8th April Ylläs-Levi Finland 60km