Jessie Diggins dominant in Tour de Ski; Johanna Matintalo best Finn in sixth

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Karoline Simpson-Larsen won the final climb — Jessie Diggins produced a superb finishing push.

The final stage of the Tour de Ski finished with the climb up Alpe Cermis in Val di Fiemme. Yle followed the competition in this live article.

Authors: Anu Karttunen, Topias Peltonen

4 Jan, 12:08 • Updated 4 Jan, 23:59

Tour de Ski, Val di Fiemme (ITA)

Sunday 4 Jan. 12:30 Men 10 km (F) mass start — final climb

Sunday 4 Jan. 16:30 Women 10 km (F) mass start — final climb

• On the Central European ski jumping week Antti Aalto was 22nd in the Innsbruck event. The tight victory went to Ren Nikaido.
• In the Alpine World Cup Camille Rast celebrated a slalom win in Kranjska Gora. Rosa Pohjolainen did not finish the first run.

Nikaido edges Prevc, Aalto 22nd

Japan's Ren Nikaido ended Domen Prevc's streak in the Central European ski week. The Innsbruck competition produced a very close fight: Nikaido beat Prevc by just 0.5 points. Austria's Stephan Embacher, who shared the lead after the first round, was third at 0.7 points behind Nikaido.

Antti Aalto was the only Finn to reach the second round. He jumped 121.0 m in the first round but only 119.5 m in the second, which left him 22nd.

Prevc still leads the ski‑week standings with 895.8 points; Jan Hörl is second with 854.4 and Embacher third with 854.1.

Innsbruck (AUT) Men HS124 — Final results 1. Ren Nikaido JPN 276.5 2. Domen Prevc SLO 276.0 3. Stephan Embacher AUT 275.8 4. Jan Hörl AUT 269.6 5. Felix Hoffmann GER 267.2 6. Daniel Tschofenig AUT 255.3 7. Anže Lanišek SLO 253.6 8. Kacper Tomasiak POL 252.0 9. Jason Colby USA 250.9 10. Ryoyu Kobayashi JPN 250.7

1. Antti Aalto FIN 231.3
2. Eetu Nousiainen FIN 110.4
3. Vilho Palosaari FIN 99.8

Kläbo and Diggins cashed hefty sums

On the Tour de Ski's final day many skiers also collected sizeable prize money — the Tour pays much more than a standard World Cup race.

Overall winners Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Jessie Diggins each received €80,000. Klæbo also earned €6,000 for winning the Tour sprint standings, plus three €3,000 stage wins and €2,000 for one second place — a total of €97,000.

Diggins added €3,000 for second in the sprint and for fourth in the hill sprint standings. She also won two stages (€3,000 each), had one second (€2,000) and one third (€1,000). Diggins’ total Tour payout was €95,000.

Jasmi Joensuu picked up €15,000 from the Tour, Johanna Matintalo €18,000. Vilma Ryytty’s 20th place overall earned her €1,500; the same amount went to Perttu Hyvärinen for 20th.

Joensuu fifth in sprint, Matintalo ninth in hill sprint

Jasmi Joensuu finished fifth in the Tour sprint event and Vilma Ryytty 19th. The sprint title went to Maja Dahlqvist with 53 points; Nadine Fähndrich had 47 and Johanna Hagström 45.

The hill‑sprint (milli‑hill) competition was won by Teresa Stadlober (45 points). Jessie Diggins was second with 39 and Karoline Simpson‑Larsen third with 35. Johanna Matintalo was ninth in the hill sprint; Vilma Ryytty 15th and Jasmi Joensuu 16th.

Nations comparison: Finland third

In the inter‑country competition Finland finished third behind Norway and Sweden. The nations classification added the times of the two best male and two best female skiers from each stage. Norway's combined time was 8:14:39.4; Sweden trailed by 9:01.1 and Finland by 12:04.6. The USA was fourth, 13:06.5 behind Norway.

Final women’s Tour de Ski standings 1. Jessie Diggins USA 2:11:26.1 2. Teresa Stadlober AUT +2:17.7 3. Heidi Weng NOR +2:31.6 4. Ebba Andersson SWE +2:41.1 5. Julie Bjervig Drivenes NOR +3:30.0 6. Johanna Matintalo FIN +3:32.3 7. Karoline Simpson‑Larsen NOR +4:02.2 8. Moa Ilar SWE +4:21.0 9. Jasmi Joensuu FIN +4:36.1 10. Daria Nepryajeva AIN +4:55.5

1. Vilma Ryytty FIN +6:35.8
2. Vilma Nissinen FIN +7:11.8

Jasmin Kähärä, Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski did not finish the Tour.

Women’s coach Reijo Jylhä: “No flops among them”

Women’s coach Reijo Jylhä was able to pull out one of his secret skills — hard massage — when he had to rub Jasmi Joensuu's cramped calves. Jylhä praised Joensuu as one of Finland’s successful performers on the Tour.

“These athletes who finished skied at a good level for the whole Tour. There were no flops,” Jylhä said.

He called Johanna Matintalo’s sixth place in the overall standings a good performance: she skied two very good races and was consistently solid.

“Jasmi won, but couldn’t ski at her best today because of cramps. Vilma Ryytty showed that her skating is really at a good level. Vilma Nissinen, meanwhile, has become a steady performer in the national team,” he added.

According to Jylhä, no one outside the national team will challenge for Olympic selection at the moment. The biggest task is to get Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski back to competitive shape.

“Now the important thing is recovery. They have trained well — there’s no need to tinker. Trust that with good recovery and a few targeted workouts and races, form will return,” Jylhä said.

Interview by Laura Arffman.

Vilma Nissinen wants to train: “All training blocks remain undone”

Vilma Nissinen finished the Tour de Ski for the second time in her career, placing 24th this time.

“I produced better individual efforts than last time. Back then I had no big pulls. Now it was more consistent, but not the level I wanted,” Nissinen said.

“The climb was as brutal as last time. I don’t miss it.”

Nissinen says she is in the best condition of her career, but her priority right now is to stay healthy and get training time.

“This season I have missed all my planned training blocks because I was ill before the Tour,” she said.

Interview by Laura Arffman.

Matintalo nearly vomited on the final stage

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Johanna Matintalo was pleased with her final stage performance.

Matintalo had a few goals for today; one was to push so hard she would vomit at the finish as punishment for yesterday’s fifth‑place sprint. “I wanted to punish myself a bit; I wanted to go so hard today that I’d throw up. I felt it rise, but my stomach was so empty nothing came up. I hit the limits and got the best out of myself,” she laughed.

Matintalo skied the climb well and was 15th on the stage. That secured her sixth overall in the Tour and €17,000 in prize money.

“If we speculate, fifth place in the sprint was probably two seconds away. It’s nothing.”

She was consistent in the Tour’s classic races with 5th, 6th and 7th placings; she considered her skating results reasonable.

“Nothing spectacular. My baseline is quite nice right now.”

Matintalo said she must now protect her health ahead of the Olympics. She plans to race a World Cup in January and then taper.

“Over Christmas I had a good training block and I was ‘iffy’ whether I was too tired to start the Tour. But I was able to perform well. Now we’ll taper for the Olympics, so things shouldn’t get worse,” she said.

Interview by Laura Arffman.

Top‑10 pack escaped Ryytty: “This warms me up a bit”

Vilma Ryytty was the best Finnish woman on the final stage, finishing 12th. Ryytty had hoped to make the top ten but was satisfied with her result — the 10th position was about 16 seconds away.

“This warms me up a bit. It was a clean effort and the whole climb went well,” Ryytty said.

She admitted the stadium lap went poorly, and she had to ski with a pack.

“As soon as the climb started I made a lot of overtakes. It would be nice to start the climb up there with the leaders. Hopefully I’ll get a better start position next year. You can of course influence that yourself as well.”

Ryytty moved up to 20th overall, but she was not fully satisfied with the whole Tour.

“There isn’t much to tell the grandchildren about from this Tour,” she said.

Interview by Laura Arffman.