Sundby wins. Krueger second. Niskanen third. Ustiugov fourth.
An interesting race. It was 'neutral' start, ala cycling. The first few minutes were easy, and then they got going. The first 'preem' sprint for 15000 kr (if I remember correctly) was between Ustiugov, Panzhinskiy and a random Norwegian dude that actually won the preem. Later on a group of 7 or so emerged and that was the break. Oestensen, Aukland (45 years old), Sundby, Niskanen, Krueger and Roethe. They worked really well for a while, gaining time quickly, then slowly, then quickly again. Then one by one they were shelled off the back until it was three: Sundby, Krueger, Niskanen. Niskanen lost the front two on the final major climb and did well not to blow up. Sundby went on the short but steep bridge in the final little circuit in Sandnes and got the necessary gap over Krueger, with Niskanen a bit over 30 seconds back. Ustiugov won the sprint for 4th, a little over 2 minutes behind Sundby. That chasing group (4th through 14th) finished together. Northug sandbagged the last portion of the race, finishing 19 minutes behind Sundby. He always looks 'fat' compared to the other guys.
Apparently Niskanen has had interruptions in his spring and summer training. He fell sick after the final wc races in Canada, missed a month, then slowly got back into it, then got a flu and now he is into it.
Northug was his usual self in the interview. It was a 'training run.' He said he'll race tomorrow.
There was only a handful of women that raced. None of the big names, a couple German national team members, but the rest were long distance specialists.