2018–19 Tour de Ski explained

Tour de Ski
Series:	2018–19 FIS Cross-Country World Cup
Venue:	Toblach, Italy Val Müstair, Switzerland Oberstdorf, Germany Val di Fiemme, Italy
Date:	–
Stages:	7
Menfirst:	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
Menfirst Nat:	NOR
Menfirst Color:	blue
Mensecond:	Sergey Ustiugov
Mensecond Nat:	RUS
Menthird:	Simen Hegstad Krüger
Menthird Nat:	NOR
Mensprint:	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
Mensprint Nat:	NOR
Mensprint Color:	grey
Womenfirst:	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Womenfirst Nat:	NOR
Womenfirst Color:	blue
Womensecond:	Natalya Nepryayeva
Womensecond Nat:	RUS
Womenthird:	Krista Pärmäkoski
Womenthird Nat:	FIN
Womensprint:	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Womensprint Nat:	NOR
Womensprint Color:	grey
Previous:	2017–18
Next:	2019–20

The 2018–19 Tour de Ski was the 13th edition of the Tour de Ski and part of the 2018–19 FIS Cross-Country World Cup. The World Cup stage event began in Toblach, Italy on 29 December 2018 and concluded with the Final Climb stage in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on 6 January 2019. The tour was the first tour starting in Toblach. The overall tours were won for the first time by Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (Norway) and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway).

The opening stage was won by Stina Nilsson of Sweden and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway. Natalya Nepryayeva won the women's second stage and took over the lead in the overall standings. The men's second stage was won by Sergey Ustiugov, with fellow Russian Alexander Bolshunov taking over the leader's blue bib. The third stage was the second and last sprint race of the tour, again won by Nilsson and Klæbo. Klæbo's second victory of his Tour de Ski debut put him in the blue bib which he held for the rest of the tour. Jessie Diggins of the United States skied the fourth stage in the blue bib, but four consecutive wins on the four last stages for Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Østberg made her the overall winner of the tour, with a record winning margin of 2 minutes 42 seconds. Klæbo won four of the seven stages and won the overall Tour de Ski on his first attempt. 22 years and 76 days old, Klæbo became the youngest ever winner of the overall standings.^[1]

Schedule

Stage	Venue	Date	Event	Technique	Women	Men	Women	Men
Stage	Venue	Date	Event	Technique	Distance		Start time (CET)
		29 December 2018	Sprint	Freestyle	1.3 km	1.3 km	14:30	14:30
	30 December 2018	Distance, interval start	Freestyle	10 km	15 km		12:45	14:45
		1 January 2019	Sprint	Freestyle	1.4 km	1.4 km	12:00	12:00
		2 January 2019	Distance, mass start	Classic	10 km	15 km	12:00	14:00
	3 January 2019	Distance, pursuit	Freestyle	10 km	15 km	15:15	13:05
		5 January 2019	Distance, mass start	Classic	10 km	15 km	14:00	15:10
	6 January 2019	Final Climb, pursuit	Freestyle	9 km	9 km	13:00	14:45

Overall leadership

Bonus seconds for the top 30 positions by type
Type		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13–15	16–20	21–25
In finish	Interval start	15	10	5	none
Mass start
Pursuit
Sprint	60	54	48	46	44	42	32	30	28	26	24	22	10	8	6	4
Intermediate sprint	Mass start	15	12	10	8	6	5	4	3	2	1	none

Two main individual competitions were contested in the 2018–19 Tour de Ski, as well as a team competition. The most important was the overall standings, calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. The skiers collect bonus seconds due to their finishing positions in every stage apart from the Final Climb. In the sprint stages, the winners were awarded 60 bonus seconds, while on distance stages the top three finishers would get 15, 10 and 5 seconds respectively. In mass start races, time bonuses were awarded to the ten first skiers to cross the intermediate sprint points. The skier with the lowest cumulative time would be the overall winner of the Tour de Ski. The skier leading the overall standings would wear a blue bib.

The second competition was the sprint standings. The skiers who received the highest number of bonus seconds during the Tour would win the sprint standings. The bonus seconds available for each stage finish were determined by the stage's type. The leader was identified by a grey bib.

The final competition was a team competition. This was calculated using the finishing times of the best two skiers of both genders per team on each stage; the leading team was the team with the lowest cumulative time.

A total of CHF 560,000, both genders included, was awarded in cash prizes in the race. The overall winners of the Tour de Ski received CHF 55,000, with the second and third placed skiers getting CHF 40,000 and CHF 27,500 respectively. All finishers in the top 20 were awarded money. The holders of the overall and sprint standings would benefit on each stage they led; the final winners of the sprint standings would be given CHF 6,000. CHF 3,000 was given to the winners of each stage of the race, with smaller amounts given to places 2 and 3.

Overall leadership by stage
Stage	Men			Women
Stage	Winner	Overall standings	Sprint standings	Winner	Overall standings	Sprint standings
1	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Stina Nilsson	Stina Nilsson	Stina Nilsson
2	Sergey Ustiugov	Alexander Bolshunov	Natalya Nepryayeva	Natalya Nepryayeva
3	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Stina Nilsson	Jessie Diggins
4	Emil Iversen	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
5	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
6	Johannes Høsflot Klæbo	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
7	Sjur Røthe	Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
Final				Final

Men

In stages two and four Richard Jouve, who was second in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Johannes Høsflot Klæbo wore the blue bib as the leader of the overall standings.
In stage five Sindre Bjørnestad Skar, who was third in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Klæbo wore the blue bib as the leader of the overall standings and second placed Emil Iversen withdrew after the fourth stage.
In stage six and seven Alexander Bolshunov, who was second in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Klæbo wore the blue bib as the leader of the overall standings.

Women

In stage two Ida Ingemarsdotter, who was second in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Stina Nilsson wore the blue bib as the leader of the overall standings.
In stage five Jessie Diggins, who was second in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Nilsson withdrew after the fourth stage.
In stages six and seven Diggins, who was second in the sprint standings, wore the grey bib, because first placed Ingvild Flugstad Østberg wore the blue bib as leader of the overall standings.

Final standings

Overall standings

Men

Final overall standings (1–10)^[2]
Rank	Name	Time
1		3:07:59.4
2		+16.7
3		+48.8
4		+1:05.3
5		+1:26.6
6		+1:37.7
7		+2:04.7
8		+2:05.9
9		+2:18.5
10		+2:34.6

Final overall standings (11–43)
Rank	Name	Time
11		+2:39.0
12		+2:47.1
13		+3:37.5
14		+3:43.4
15		+3:58.4
16		+4:07.5
17		+4:23.5
18		+4:29.7
19		+4:59.3
20		+5:01.8
21		+5:07.7
22		+5:22.4
23		+5:39.5
24		+5:42.5
25		+5:57.3
26		+6:09.2
27		+6:30.5
28		+6:52.9
29		+7:09.9
30		+8:11.0
31		+8:21.8
32		+8:25.1
33		+8:58.0
34		+9:05.7
35		+9:06.0
36		+9:45.8
37		+10:37.3
38		+10:50.3
39		+11:33.9
40		+12:22.2
41		+13:50.2
42		+15:54.5
43		+22:40.7

Women

Final overall standings (1–10)^[3]
Rank	Name	Time
1		2:30:31.2
2		+2:42.0
3		+2:55.9
4		+3:53.2
5		+4:47.4
6		+5:13.5
7		+6:49.3
8		+9:16.2
9		+9:30.5
10		+9:45.0

Final overall standings (11–28)
Rank	Name	Time
11		+9:45.1
12		+9:57.2
13		+10:05.6
14		+10:18.0
15		+10:19.1
16		+10:55.3
17		+10:58.4
18		+11:17.6
19		+11:37.7
20		+11:47.0
21		+12:08.1
22		+12:25.9
23		+13:24.7
24		+13:41.4
25		+13:54.9
26		+15:19.8
27		+16:29.0
28		+17:16.2

Sprint standings

Men

Final sprint standings (1–10)^[4]
Rank	Name	Total
1		3:12
2		1:50
3		1:36
4		0:48
5		0:47
6		0:40
7		0:36
8		0:34
9		0:21
10		0:22

Women

Final sprint standings (1–10)^[5]
Rank	Name	Total
1		2:19
2		1:46
3		1:45
4		1:32
5		1:10
6		0:42
7		0:37
8		0:32
9		0:28
10		0:13

Team standings

Final team standings (1–5)^[6]
Rank	Nation	Time
1		11:16:25.6
2		+2:43.1
3		+22:23.5
4		+35:15.9
5		+54:46.4

Stages

Stage 1

29 December 2018, Toblach, Italy

Bonus seconds to the 30 skiers that qualifies for the quarter-finals, distributed as following:^[7]
- Final: 60–54–48–46–44–42
- Semi-final: 32–30–28–26–24–22
- Quarter-final: 10–10–10–8–8–8–8–8–6–6–6–6–6–4–4–4–4–4

Men – 1.3 km Sprint Freestyle^[8]
Rank	Time
1	2:17.99	60
2	+0.34	54
3	+0.39	48
4	+0.76	46
5	+1.67	44
6	+3.17	42

Women – 1.3 km Sprint Freestyle^[9]
Rank	Time
1	2:36.26	60
2	+3.00	54
3	+3.07	48
4	+3.16	46
5	+3.26	44
6	+3.40	42

Stage 2

30 December 2018, Toblach, Italy

Bonus seconds in finish: 15–10–5 to the 3 fastest skiers.

Men – 15 km Freestyle (individual)^[10]
Rank	Time
1	30:34.1	15
2	+12.2	10
3	+21.9	5
4	+27.4
5	+28.0
6	+30.1
7	+33.7
8	+43.0
9	+44.9
10	+45.2

Women – 10 km Freestyle (individual)^[11]
Rank	Time
1	23:19.9	15
2	+0.3	10
3	+10.9	5
4	+17.4
5	+21.2
6	+27.2
7	+36.1
8	+44.0
9	+49.0
10	+49.5

Stage 3

1 January 2019, Val Müstair, Switzerland

Bonus seconds to the 30 skiers that qualifies for the quarter-finals, distributed as following:
- Final: 60–54–48–46–44–42
- Semi-final: 32–30–28–26–24–22
- Quarter-final: 10–10–10–8–8–8–8–8–6–6–6–6–6–4–4–4–4–4

Men – 1.4 km Sprint Freestyle^[12]
Rank	Time
1	3:03.78	60
2	+2.35	54
3	+3.07	48
4	+3.08	46
5	+3.61	44
6	+43.00	42

Women – 1.4 km Sprint Freestyle^[13]
Rank	Time
1	3:31.91	60
2	+2.27	54
3	+2.27	48
4	+3.54	46
5	+4.58	44
6	+20.73	42

Stage 4

2 January 2019, Oberstdorf, Germany

Men – 15 km Classic (mass start)^[14]
Rank	Time
1	45:30.3	21
2	+0.9	10
3	+2.0	5
4	+2.1	22
5	+3.2	1
6	+3.6	30
7	+4.4
8	+5.5	3
9	+5.6	12
10	+6.8

Women – 10 km Classic (mass start)^[15]
Rank	Time
1	32:08.9	30
2	+0.1	20
3	+5.3	10
4	+12.9	8
5	+15.9	12
6	+16.2	6
7	+20.6	3
8	+23.6	4
9	+56.5	2
10	+56.6

Stage 4 bonus seconds

Men: 2 intermediate sprints, bonus seconds to the 10 first skiers (15–12–10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1) past the intermediate points.
Ladies: 1 intermediate sprint, bonus seconds to the 10 first skiers (15–12–10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1) past the intermediate point.
Bonus seconds in finish: 15–10–5 to the 3 first skiers crossing the finish line.

Bonus seconds (Stage 4 – Men)
Point 1	Point 2	Finish	Total
15	15	–	30
12	10	–	22
–	6	15	21
6	12	–	18
8	4	–	12
4	8	–	12
10	1	–	11
5	5	–	10
–	–	10	10
–	–	5	5
2	2	–	4
–	3	–	3
3	–	–	3
1	–	–	1

Bonus seconds (Stage 4 – Women)
Point 1	Finish	Total
15	15	30
10	10	20
12	–	12
5	5	10
8	–	8
6	–	6
4	–	4
3	–	3
2	–	2
1	–	1

Stage 5

3 January 2019, Oberstdorf, Germany

Bonus seconds in finish: 15–10–5 to the 3 first skiers crossing the finish line.

Men – 15 km Freestyle (pursuit)^[16]
Rank	Time
1	35:07.5	15
2	+0.4	10
3	+1:08.2	5
4	+1:41.5
5	+1:42.4
6	+1:56.9
7	+1:57.4
8	+1:58.3
9	+1.59.2
10	+2:00.2

Women – 10 km Freestyle (pursuit)^[17]
Rank	Time
1	26:48.1	15
2	+30.4	10
3	+1:12.6	5
4	+1:12.7
5	+1:23.6
6	+2:18.8
7	+3:00.7
8	+3:36.1
9	+3:36.6
10	+3:49.7

Stage 6

5 January 2019, Val di Fiemme, Italy

Men – 15 km Classic (mass start)^[18]
Rank	Time
1	40:52.6	45
2	+0.6	17
3	+2.6	22
4	+3.4	4
5	+4.6	1
6	+6.3	8
7	+13.0
8	+27.1
9	+29.0
10	+29.9	4

Women – 10 km Classic (mass start)^[19]
Rank	Time
1	29:34.4	30
2	+10.0	22
3	+10.8	11
4	+12.5	8
5	+39.7	10
6	+1:10.0	5
7	+1:19.3	6
8	+1.36.8	1
9	+1:36.9
10	+1:36.9

Stage 6 bonus seconds

Men: 2 intermediate sprints, bonus seconds to the 10 first skiers (15–12–10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1) past the intermediate points.
Ladies: 1 intermediate sprint, bonus seconds to the 10 first skiers (15–12–10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1) past the intermediate point.
Bonus seconds in finish: 15–10–5 to the 3 first skiers crossing the finish line.

Bonus seconds (Stage 6 – Men)
Point 1	Point 2	Finish	Total
15	15	15	45
5	12	5	22
1	6	10	17
12	–	–	12
10	2	–	12
2	10	–	12
8	–	–	8
3	5	–	8
–	8	–	8
6	–	–	6
4	–	–	4
–	4	–	4
–	3	–	3
–	1	–	1

Bonus seconds (Stage 6 – Women)
Point 1	Finish	Total
15	15	30
12	10	22
6	5	11
8	–	8
5	–	5
4	–	4
3	–	3
2	–	2
1	–	1

Stage 7

6 January 2019, Val di Fiemme, Italy

The race for "Fastest of the Day" counts for 2018–19 FIS Cross-Country World Cup points. No bonus seconds were awarded on this stage.

Men – 9 km Final Climb Freestyle (pursuit)^[20]
Rank	Name	Time
1		30:32.0
2		+1.3
3		+28.6
4		+29.8
5		+45.8
6		+51.4
7		+53.6
8		+56.3
9		+56.6
10		+1:09.9

Women – 9 km Final Climb Freestyle (pursuit)^[21]
Rank	Name	Time
1		35:15.0
2		+42.8
3		+49.6
4		+57.2
5		+1:10.9
6		+1:29.7
7		+1:38.3
8		+1:38.7
9		+1:46.3
10		+1:48.6

Sources

Book: Rules for the FIS Cross-Country World Cup. International Ski Federation. International Ski Federation (FIS). 8 January 2019. 2018. .

Notes and References

Web site: Klæbo hadde vonde drømmer om Tour-avslutningen i natt: -Var sikkert opp monsterbakken ti ganger . www.vg.no. . Norwegian. 8 January 2019.
Web site: Final overall standings (1-10) . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 6 January 2019.
Web site: Final overall standings (1-10) . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 6 January 2019.
Web site: Tour de ski sprint standings (Men) . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 5 January 2019.
Web site: Tour de ski sprint standings (Ladies) . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 5 January 2019.
Web site: Team standing . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 6 January 2019.
Web site: RULES FOR THE FIS CROSS-COUNTRY WORLD CUP . International Ski Federation (FIS) . 26 November 2018.
Web site: Men 1.5 km Sprint Free Finals . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 18 December 2018.
Web site: Ladies 1.3 km Sprint Free Finals . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 30 December 2018.
Web site: Men 15 km Interval Start Freestyle . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 30 December 2018.
Web site: Ladies 10 km Interval Start Freestyle . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 30 December 2018.
Web site: Men 1.4 km Sprint Free Finals . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 1 January 2019.
Web site: Ladies 1.4 km Sprint Free Finals . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 1 January 2019.
Web site: Men 15 km Mass Start Classic . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 2 January 2019.
Web site: Ladies 10 km Mass Start Classic . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 2 January 2019.
Web site: Men 15 km Pursuit Free . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 3 January 2019.
Web site: Ladies 10 km Pursuit Free . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 3 January 2019.
Web site: Men 15 km Mass Start Classic. www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 5 January 2019.
Web site: Ladies 10 km Mass Start Classic. www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 18 December 2018.
Web site: Men 9 km Pursuit Free - Final Climb Winner of the Day . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 6 January 2019.
Web site: Ladies 9 km Pursuit Free - Final Climb Winner of the Day . www.fis-ski.com. International Ski Federation (FIS) . 18 December 2018.