The 2025-2026 Cross-Country World Cup season is moving towards the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which will be hosted in Milano-Cortina. Currently, a fierce roster of XC skiers are competing against each other to win the famous European mini-tour Tour de Ski. The Tour started on Sunday 28 December and it will end on 4 January. So far, three events out of six have been completed and in this article we will cover them. Also, we are going to try to figure out who will take the overall win of the 20th annual Tour de Ski.

by Sami

What is Tour de Ski?

Tour de Ski is a mini-tournament that consists of several different cross-country skiing events. It’s usually hosted in several different countries in Europe, but this year there are six events and they are hosted in two different locations, both located in northern Italy. The first four events are in Toblach and after those, the skiers travel to Val di Fiemme where two races are held. The last event of the Tour de Ski is the iconic and unique climb up to the mountain Alpe Cermis. Alpe Cermis event is a skate mass start 10 km race, where the last 4 km is an uphill climb.

First event (28 December) – Sprint Freestyle 

The first event of Tour de Ski was a freestyle sprint, and Norway stole the gold in both, women’s and men’s race.

With the absence of Jonna Sundling, who is skipping the Tour, presumably because she wants to be ready for the Olympics, I considered Kristine Stavås Skistad a clear winner candidate for Toblach’s sprint, and she delivered. Second position went to Germany’s Coletta Rydzek, who scored her third career podium. Maja Dahlqvist took third place – it really wouldn’t be a women’s sprint without a Swedish skier in the top three. 

In the final, there was also a scary accident, where Mathilde Myhrvold fell and hurt her shoulder. After the race she went to the hospital for a checkup. With the Olympics only 2 months away, let’s hope for a speedy recovery for her.

Last year’s overall Sprint Cup winner Jasmi Joensuu, who also scored her first World Cup podium in Toblach last year, didn’t reach sprint finals this time. 

Women	Skier	Country	Time
1.	Kristine Stavås Skistad	Norway	2:49.79
2.	Coletta Rydzek	Germany	+0.24s
3.	Maja Dahlqvist	Sweden	+0.35s
4.	Jessie Diggins	United States	+1.32s
5.	Johanna Hagström	Sweden	+16.70s
6.	Mathilde Myhrvold	Norway	+1:20.97s

In the men’s race, after the last event in Davos where the arguably best sprint skier in the history of the sport, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo failed to score a victory, he showed this time once again what he is made of. Norway took a triple win and Klæbo showed Norwegian juniors who is who. Lars Heggen in second place scored his first podium and Oskar Opstad Vike is really standing his ground – With a third place finish in Toblach, Vike continued his streak of three consecutive podiums. 

Men	Skier	Country	Time
1.	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Norway	2:28.82
2.	Lars Heggen	Norway	+0.13s
3.	Oskar Opstad Vike	Norway	+0.80s
4.	Valerio Grond	Switzerland	+1.28s
5.	Lucas Chanavat	France	+2.52s
6.	Janik Riebli	Switzerland	+10.43s

Second event (29 December) – 10km Classic 

Again, victory in both series went to Norway. In the women’s race Astrid Øyre Slind was the fastest, with Teresa Stadlober and Jessie Diggins joining her on the podium. Kerttu Niskanen who is having a tough start of the season was fourth, which means that she is finally finding her form. Frida Karlsson posted the fastest time on the 3.0km interval, but couldn’t keep her speed and was fifth at the end. Diggins looked like a strong candidate to win the Tour overall, with strong finishes in the two first events.

Women	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Astrid Øyre Slind	Norway	25:33.7
2.	Teresa Stadlober	Austria	25:40.7	+7.0s
3.	Jessie Diggins	United States	25:42.5	+8.8s
4.	Kerttu Niskanen	Finland	26:06.0	+33.2s
5.	Frida Karlsson	Sweden	26:09.4	+35.7s

What about the men’s race? Mattis Stenshagen claimed his maiden victory in the World Cup, beating Klæbo with a clean 8.9 seconds gap. Emil Iversen completed the podium and with that, it was yet again a triple win for Norway. Iivo Niskanen, who many thought would finish on the podium, took fourth position. Like his sister Kerttu, Iivo is having a quite tough start of the season and in my books, this 4th spot shows that he is doing things right to be in Olympic winning form. Swedish giant Edvin Anger took fifth spot, only five seconds away from fourth.

Overall, it’s looking like another Tour de Ski victory is possible for Klæbo, but there are still many races to go so we will see if there is a new challenger for the title.

Men	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Mattis Stenshagen	Norway	22:11.0
2.	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Norway	22:19.9	+8.9s
3.	Emil Iversen	Norway	22:21.1	+10.1s
4.	Iivo Niskanen	Finland	22:35.3	+24.3s
5.	Edvin Anger	Sweden	22:40.3	+29.3s

Third event (31 December) – 5km Heat Mass Start Freestyle

The United States fights back!

For the first time in the Tour’s history, there was a new heat mass start 5km race. The idea is simple – similar to interval start, fastest time wins, but there is a twist. Skiers are divided in four mass start heats (based on their current Tour position), and that makes things a bit complicated (and arguably, luck is a major factor in this). Of course, it’s possible for a fast skier to just lead from start to finish, but it seemed like following other skiers benefited your time a lot, and it was proven that a pack of skiers (where it can be changed who leads and other skiers can save their energy) is faster than a lone wolf. This is why a bit of “luck” is in the mix. If you can get to a heat where there are fast skiers and can hang on, your finishing position will be great.

Still, this event felt fresh and exciting to watch. With heats taking about 10 minutes from start to finish, the skiers were active, it was really fun to watch. 

In the races, skiers from the United States showed that they mastered this new format immediately.

Jessie Diggins delivered an amazing victory in her heat race. About 500 meters before the finish line, she took off and left no doubt about who deserved to win her heat. Clear victory on her part. Behind her there was a Swedish charge, with Emma Ribom claiming second place and Moa Ilar taking third. On the fourth and fifth spot, we have two young skiers – Leonie Perry, born in 2004 and Alison Mackie, born in 2005 both achieving their career best finishes.

Women	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Jessie Diggins	United States	10:51.2
2.	Emma Ribom	Sweden	10:56.2	+5.5s
3.	Moa Ilar	Sweden	10:58.1	+6.9s
4.	Leonie Perry	France	10:58.7	+7.5s
5.	Alison Mackie	Canada	10:59.5	+8.3s

Gus Schumacher showed us that as a skiing country, the United States is rising to the top. With his second career victory, he is the first non-Norwegian winner in the men’s distance races in the World Cup this year. Benjamin Moser took his first career podium and young Lars Heggen took third place and added another podium finish to his career. Fourth and fifth with the same time respectively, were Jules Chappaz and James Clugnet.

Before, I talked about the luck factory of these heats. Klæbo, who is one of the fastest in the world, was only 12th. He was one of the skiers who tried to speed up his group, and in the end took off and was the fastest. But his heat had slower pace. Of course, if you are good enough you can keep pace yourself, but it still demonstrates the problem with this type of event. Still, I’m not complaining – fresh new podium finishers and skiers who win less often, are great for the sport!

Men	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Gus Schumacher	United States	9:35.4
2.	Benjamin Moser	Austria	9:35.6	+0.2s
3.	Lars Heggen	Norway	9:36.0	+0.6s
4.	Jules Chappaz	France	9:36.1	+0.7s
5.	James Clugnet	United Kingdom	9:36.1	+0.7s

Fourth event (1 January) – 20km Pursuit Race Classic

In the pursuit race, where the start position is defined by the Tour overall position, Klæbo started with a 45-second lead over Lars Heggen. Behind Lars, there were a lot of strong distance skiers and the plot for the race seemed to be how long can Klæbo hold until the chasing group behind him catches up. And what can Iivo Niskanen do in a longer classic race? Iivo started 1:31 behind leader, Klæbo.

Well, Klæbo held the lead until the end and took his 103rd career victory. Behind him was Mattis Stenshagen, who took off from the chasing group and never looked back. Third place was still possible for anyone in the chasing group. In the end, there was a race to the finish line between seven skiers. Edvin Anger and Federico Pellegrino were fastest of the chasing group, and finished with exactly the same time. Anger took third place with a ski boot’s length. Fifth went to Emil Iversen, who was closely behind.

Niskanen, known for his classic style performances, finished tenth, almost two minutes behind the leader. I expected more from him, but it’s still a top 10 finish. Plenty of time to get better before the Olympics. In Milano-Cortina, there is a 50km classic style race, and Niskanen wants to achieve his fourth Olympic Gold there. Is it possible that he has trained for longer races and lost a bit of speed for these shorter races? We will see that in February.

Overall, it looks like if Klæbo stays healthy and avoids getting ill, this year’s Tour will be Klæbo’s fifth overall victory. 

Men	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Norway	46:01.7
2.	Mattis Stenshagen	Norway	46:52.8	+51.1s
3.	Edvin Anger	Sweden	47:01.5	+59.8s
4.	Federico Pellegrino	Italy	47:01.5	+59.8s
5.	Emil Iversen	Norway	47:01.9	+1:00.2s

Later that day, the women’s race was held. Current Tour leader Jessie Diggins started with a lead of exactly one minute over Moa Ilar. Current second place holder Astrid Øyre Slind did not start and is no longer in the Tour, same for Emma Ribom, who was sixth. 

A bit unsurprisingly, Diggins held on. Stellar first lap where Jessie extended her lead, almost sealed her victory, as long as she could hold on to her own pace. And so she did, and victory went to the USA. It will be hard for anyone else to win the overall Tour now – event after event, Jessie Diggins is competing for victories. 

Moa Ilar and Teresa Stadlober formed the first chasing group behind her, and took turns setting up the pace. They were looking strong as well, but couldn’t close the gap to the front. With a fierce duel at the end and only 0.3 seconds between them, they took places two and three.

A bigger chase group was formed behind these two, who really tried to catch the podium places but fell just under 20 seconds short, and in the end it was led by Jasmi Joensuu. Career best distance race for Joensuu, and fourth place goes to Finland. Fifth in the finish was Heidi Weng from Norway. This group was interesting to follow, as many skiers were setting up the pace and anyone could have taken the fourth spot. Among this group were Kerttu Niskanen and Ebba Anderson, strong distance skiers and I thought that they were going to catch the podium places. But since they couldn’t shake off skiers with better speed reserves, it was looking grim for them.

Frida Karlsson was interesting to follow, similar to the 10km interval classic, started the race well and was looking like a candidate to score a great position today. But somehow she again hit a wall quite early in the race. If at the Olympics she can hold on the pace she starts these races, she will be a medal candidate.

Women	Skier	Country	Time	Gap
1.	Jessie Diggins	United States	52:14.8
2.	Moa Ilar	Sweden	53:50.0	+1:35.2s
3.	Teresa Stadlober	Austria	53:50.3	+1:35.5s
4.	Jasmi Joensuu	Finland	54:09.1	+1:54.3s
5.	Heidi Weng	Norway	54:09.8	+1:55.0s

Toblach done, now off to Val di Fiemme!

Tour de Ski in Toblach is done now and it will continue in Val di Fiemme from 3 January, with classic style sprints. After the sprint, 4 January will be the Alpe Cermis mountain climb.

There we will see which skiers will take the Tour de Ski overall victory, but in my books it’s already sealed for Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo and Jessie Diggins.

Header photo credit: FIS/ActionPress/Pierre Teyssot