Overview
- Organizers split roughly 100 starters into four mixed heats with the stage decided by the fastest time across all runs.
- Gus Schumacher set the day’s best mark at 9:35.4 in the second heat, with Austria’s Benjamin Moser next and Norway’s Lars Heggen the top Norwegian finisher.
- Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won his heat yet placed 12th on time and still held the overall Tour de Ski lead.
- Athletes and coaches questioned the format’s fairness, with Klæbo saying “we were simply too slow,” Janosch Brugger calling it “lottery,” and Germany’s Peter Schlickenrieder urging different ideas.
- Heat dynamics varied sharply as early runs were driven fast by Harald Østberg Amundsen and Emil Iversen, while a tactically slower race left Germany’s Brugger as his team’s best in 27th.