China’s Tang Jinle won an exciting sprint finish in the men’s Vasaloppet China classic style ski marathon, the third stage of the 2018 China Tour de Ski. Best woman was Russia’s Marina Chernousova.
Fine weather conditions again at Jingyuetan Park for the 16th edition of Vasaloppet China held over a distance of 50 km. The men’s race developed into a very tight contest with several skiers eyeing glory at the finish. Eventually, three skiers finished within two seconds of each other, but it was Tang Jinle who could raise his arms as the winner of the race. Another Chinese skier, En Temake came second in what is definitely an unusual result of this race in which Chinese male skiers tend to underperform vis-a-vis their international guest skiers. Czech Fabian Stocek was third and that means a great points haul for the overall ranking of China Tour de Ski for him. Stocek was already one of the top sprinters in the past two stages this season. Mikail Sosnin and Alexey Chernousov were fourth and fifth from Russia , just 8 and 11 seconds down on the winner. Norwegian Fredrik Schwencke completed the top six, barely half a minute behind Tang Jinle!
The women’s race was in that respect a little more traditional: Marina Chernousova had an advantage of more than two minutes over her closest rivals by the names of Li Lei (China) and the surprising Noora Kivikko (Finland). Kivikko was already twice on the podium in the sprint stages and just like Stocek in the men’s did a great job for the overall ranking. Chen Shuang was fourth ahead of Signe Rosenberg and her Swedish compatriot and double China Tour de Ski winner Lisa Svensson, who made up points on Jacqueline Lockner with her sixth place.
Full results coming later
