Comment Kerttu Niskanen staged a big surprise and got the stamp his brother already had

Olympic- and the World Championships have their own chapter, but the third last day of 2021, ravaged by a corona pandemic, was one of the finest ever in the World Ski Cup.

Suddenly it doesn’t occur to me that Finnish skiers ever celebrated the women’s and men’s mc victory on the same day, and now it was the siblings!

Kerttu and Iivo Niskanen took the well-earned, convincing and much-anticipated victories on their tour of the Tour de Sk.

However, they were fundamentally different in nature. Iivo’s victory was expected, although his early season has been broken since Ruka’s victory.

Instead, Kertu’s full hit can be seen as a blockbuster surprise mirrored to his past performances this season.

However, the best place in the career in free sprint, which came on Tuesday, ie the worst suitable trip, gave a hint of the upswing.

With force majeure Kerttu Niskanen was nominated for a medal on the same trip at the Beijing Olympics starting five weeks from now. The little brother has had that stamp before.

Now Kerttu left behind practically all the best women on normal trips, except for the Norwegian biathlete Therese Johaugia, which does not compete on the Tour.

Skiing in Lenzerheide was at an altitude of about 1,400 meters, and the Olympic trails are still 300 meters higher.

Kerttu Niskanen has achieved a significant part of the best mc results of his career in races held at an altitude of 1,400–1,600 meters, in Italy’s Cogne (victory), Lenzerheide (two victories) and in Davos, Switzerland, where Niskaset and his wife prepared for the Tour before Christmas.

This victory certainly boosted Kertu’s self-confidence for the Olympics in a healthy way. In Iivo, this side has always been okay.

Siblings the double jackpot was also a major merit for both the creditor and the current lubrication manager Mika of Russia to the Finnish ski maintenance group led by

The races were held in an awkward weather, where only the so-called grip bottoms work competitively.

After a third of the 16th Tour, Kerttu Niskanen leads the overall competition and Iivo Niskanen is third. And many times reached the top positions Krista Pärmäkoski is eligible for positions in the fifth.

There has never been a similar situation in the history of the Tour, but much remains to be done.

Winning the first Tour in 2007 Virpi Kuitunen (current Sarasvuo) took the lead in the overall race after the fourth stage (sprint win).

Two years later came the second win, and that’s when he led for the first time after the second leg. At that time, sometimes the leadership also went Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, which finished second in the overall competition.

Now the Tour is left with free and traditional joint departures, where there are hardly any big differences. Much is decided by the traditional sprint, which once again has plenty of bonus seconds. The final ascent of free skiing is always unpredictable.