Canadian Alex Harvey 19th at Tour de Ski; Russia’s Ustiugov retains overall lead
TESERO, Italy — Alex Harvey struggled to a 19th-place finish in the 15-kilometre classic ski mass start on Saturday, dropping him to sixth place overall at the Tour de Ski with one race remaining.
Harvey, of Saint Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., squeaked into the top-20 with a time of 41 minutes 18.7 seconds on a demanding courses with steep climbs and difficult flat sections.
“It is a tough course and the guys are pretty tired but they dug deep today,” said Ivan Babikov, coach of the Canadian cross-country ski team at the Tour. “We might have missed it a bit with the skis. We may have gone with something a bit too sticky.
“It was really hard, packed snow and this is a tough course to get the skis right. Ideally you want to have good kick and a fast glide, but it is a gamble on a course this tough. The tracks were firm and icy but there were some sections where there were no tracks and others with powdery snow. We will debrief on it tonight.”