Tour de Ski: Finnish maintenance went wrong with Arsi Ruuskanen

Skin Tour the penultimate stage, the skiathlon, was not for the Finnish men. Arsi Ruuskanen was the 23rd Niko Anttola 30: with me Lauri Vuorinen 44:s.

Of the trio, Ruuskanen had the hardest time, for whom the 10+10 kilometer race was thought to be suitable. He was only a good nine seconds off the lead when he came to the halfway ski change, but the difference doubled in the equipment change.

“It didn’t work out, which is sad,” says Ruuskanen.

Ruuskanen experienced an unpleasant surprise in a ski puddle. The other binding of his skating skis had been left open, which slowed down the process of putting on the equipment.

Maintenance personnel take the athletes’ skis to the stall.

“There was a bit of a worry about whether it would take too much time. Then it went to shit when I couldn’t catch the skis. I don’t know why this had happened. Human error, and I don’t blame the maintenance guys here. I also had a bad run today,” Ruuskanen said.

After the crash, he fell from the top group so much that the free section became “skiing”.

“If you’re behind at the beginning of the week”, it’s damn hard to get up from there.

“If I were the strongest skier in the world, I would ski the bow, but I’m not. It was a bit difficult today, but everyone is struggling. It’s all about the little things. Today was not the best day and the condition here has not been quite as I would have hoped. Disappointment, that’s not it,” Ruuskanen said.

Despite his disappointment, Ruuskanen became the best Finn in the overall competition, in 19th place. On Sunday, his real parade journey is ahead: the final ascent.

Skiathlon second best Finn Niko Anttola said that he actually suffered from fatigue for the first time during the Tour. It showed in the performance.

Lauri Vuorinen, on the other hand, is not a specialist in skiathlons. He suspected Saturday’s bet was the best of his career in combined skiing.

“They haven’t gone very well before. Pertsa felt really good today, but the same pattern repeated itself as on other normal trips: I can’t stand my own fast pace. When I’m in good shape, I can fight against the bad feeling”, now I don’t.

Vuorinen has made it to the semi-finals in both sprint races of the Tour, but it has been more difficult on normal trips. He has been wondering about his slow progress for several days: everything should be fine, but the ski doesn’t really move.

Are you worried?

“Yes and no. I was in a good situation before the Tour, and the Tour got off to a good start. Then something happened and things started to go in the wrong direction.”

Vuorinen did not believe that he had been hit by a bug.

“You have to think carefully about what needs to be done to get back in shape.”

Men’s Norway won the skiathlon Johannes Kläbo. Italian Federico Pellegrino was the second in the struggle and Kläbo’s compatriot Jan Thomas Jensen the third.

Kläbo leads the overall competition by more than two minutes to another Norwegian Erik Valnesiin. of Austria Mika Vermeulen starts the last stage in third place (+2.29).