Madshus racer Paal Golberg (NOR) secured his first ever World Cup victory on home turf in Lillehammer. He won the 15K classic with 14 seconds to spare, while fellow Madshus racer Didrik Toenseth (NOR) was third, and posted his first ever World Cup podium finish.
Golberg skied a solid and strategically smart race, which was three laps on a 5-kilometer course at the Birkebeiner Stadium at Lillehammer.
“I wanted to be patient on the first lap. I knew I could ski fast, but I held back at the beginning. On the other two laps, I felt like I could maintain the pace ,” Paal Golberg said to FIS after the race.
“The course seemed really hard when we did our workouts here, but today it didn’t feel that tough with the speed I had,” Golberg said.
Toenseth was also excited about his podium finish, but he didn’t expect it. “I’m really surprised about my third place today. I started early, and I felt very good,” Toenseth said, noting that its always interesting to starting early in an individual start event.
“I tried to open hard and maintain my pace. But I had no idea how fast I was compared to the rest of the field,” Toenseth explains.
Toenseth’s previous best finish at the World Cup is a 4th place in the 15K classic mass start in La Clusaz in 2013.
Men 15 km classic individual start
1. Pål Golberg (NOR), 35:00.0
2. Alexey Poltoranin (KAZ), +14.2 sec
3. Didrik Tønseth (NOR), +15.5 sec