Cross‑country: Moa Ilar third ahead of the climb: "The last bit of strength"

Moa Ilar is third ahead of the final stage of the Tour de Ski — the feared climb up Alpe Cermis.

“I just have to gather the last forces I have,” she says. Ilar has impressed all season and sits second in the overall World Cup after 13 of 27 events. In the Tour de Ski she has kept her form and is third going into the final stage: about one and a half minutes behind the dominant American Jessie Diggins and only 19 seconds behind Finnish sprint specialist Jasmi Joensuu.

“It's about collecting the last forces you have and doing the best you can up the hill,” Ilar says; she has several times this week talked about being a weak climber.

Last season Ilar finished 21st of 31 in the final climb, more than three minutes behind winner Therese Johaug. Her best placing came the year before, when she was 20th of 30.

Diggins goes into the final climb with a commanding lead — 1 minute 19 seconds ahead of yesterday's sprint winner Jasmi Joensuu — and she is conscious of her strong starting position.

“I just hope there are no accidents,” she says, adding shortly after: “I hope it will be a fair and honest race where you take it one pole‑plant at a time.”

Among the Swedes, Frida Karlsson — the last Swedish Tour winner two years ago — says her confidence is low after a tough Tour.

“It is not the greatest confidence I’m bringing into the last race,” she admits.

Johanna Hagström, yesterday's third‑place finisher, is also not overly confident about the climb: “If you see me high on the results list here it will be quite far down tomorrow,” she jokes before saying what she most looks forward to about tomorrow.

On the men's side Edvin Anger is the top Swede ahead of the finish, in sixth place. He trails leader Johannes Høsflot Klæbo by 1:55 and is just under half a minute behind Mattis Stenshagen in third.