Not really shocking to see the Norwegians up there, and Bolshunov really the only Russian or even non Norwegian with a realistic shot at the podium. What is a bit surprising is that all of the other Russians looking so lethargic, I mean Cologna raced the TDS as well and he looked decent. The other Russians simply didn’t change skis and poles all that fast, that’s where they lost the Norwegians and Bolshunov. Way too relaxed in the change zone/pit stop. Once you lose contact it’s very difficult to regain contact. Yakimushkin, Melnichenko and Maltsev were way off form today. Perhaps it was better to not race this weekend and just train and continue the recovery and build up process. The French and De Fabiani not being there was a minus. The French could have perhaps animated the race a bit in the skate portion, but who knows. Let’s hope the second half of the season isn’t going to be like this, it could become very boring very fast.