‘I’ve been waiting for this’

In the longest race of the season, a front group of 10 skiers stayed together until the very last kilometre of the race, where anything could happen.

However, when the world’s best sprinter is in the lead group, it is hard to get past him in the end. Golberg, who won the 20km Mass Start Classic in Canmore, Canada, in February, before Klaebo, is one of few who have succeeded.

This time, however, Klaebo refused to miss the opportunity, making sure to be in front of the pack with 400m left to race. Coming into the stadium, he pushed away from the rest with his strong double poling and took his 12th victory this season, 0.4 second before Nyenget and 1.1 second before Golberg.

“It feels amazing,” Klaebo said.

“I just wanted to come first in the last part here because I have lost two sprints against Paal now, I tried to be first this time so it was really fun.

“I don’t think the pace was that high during the race but at the end you’re getting tired and I’m just really satisfied by being the first.”

The Norwegian king of Cross-Country got to climb up to the royal concrete box at Holmenkollen, where he was heard telling Norway’s crown prince Haakon that “it wasn’t that tough, it was pretty calm in the first four rounds but in the end it is tough.”

There is still a long way to climb for Klaebo to be crowned the overall champion this season. The last two seasons’ Crystal Globe winner has struggled with illness and missed several important competitions, including the Tour de Ski, as the overall leader Amundsen has kept an unmatched consistency throughout the winter.

During the 50km race, Klaebo had made sure to pick up as many sprint bonus points as possible, earning an impressive total of 85 extra points of the maximal 90.

With Tuesday’s sprints in Drammen, Norway, and two distance races in Falun, Sweden, left of the season, however, Amundsen still leads the overall standings with 2,345 points – 202 points before the defending champion.