Mathieu WARNIER, Media365, published on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 3:57 p.m.
While Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo proved untouchable during the sprint disputed in Lenzerheide to start the Tour de Ski, Richard Jouve and Lucas Chanavat took second and third place respectively in the final.
French skiing is celebrating this Tuesday! While Tessa Worley has occasionally won in alpine skiing during the giant slalom organized in Lienz, it is a double podium that the tricolor sprinters offered themselves in Lenzerheide. On the occasion of the sprint organized in the Swiss resort, the first of the six stages of the 2021-2022 edition of the Tour de Ski, Richard Jouve and Lucas Chanavat both slipped into the Top 3 of the final behind the untouchable Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. A day that had started perfectly for the Habs with the second fastest time from Richard Jouve, immediately followed by Lucas Chanavat during qualifying. A duo which was accompanied in the knockout phase by Renaud Jay while Martin Collet, Jules Lapierre, Adrien Backscheider, Clément Parisse and Hugo Lapalus could not slip into the Top 30 of this timed passage on the course. From there, the hardest part began for the French sprinters with the knockout races. Placed in the first quarter-final, Lucas Chanavat was unable to follow Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo but kept the Swede Oskar Svensson at a safe distance to secure second place, directly qualifying for the semi-finals.
Jouve and Chanavat together on the podium for the second time
Richard Jouve, engaged in the second race, did better. In the sprint against the Italian Federico Pellegrino, the Frenchman managed to keep two hundredths of a second in advance to win. Renaud Jay, for his part, also qualified with second place in his race behind the Norwegian Erik Valnes. Semi-finals for which Richard Jouve and Lucas Chanavat faced each other. If Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo was once again untouchable, Richard Jouve immediately secured his place in the final with second position just ahead of Lucas Chanavat, who had to wait for the times achieved in the other race to make sure he was in. the Top 6 of this Lenzerheide sprint. Fortunately for the native of Grand-Bornand, the Norwegian Paal Golberg was slower during his victory. Third, Renaud Jay saw his hopes of the final soar before being downgraded for an obstruction. In the final, it was a bit all against Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo but the Norwegian was once again intractable to get his fourth victory of the season, the third in the sprint. But, just behind, Richard Jouve and Lucas Chanavat managed their race perfectly to take, respectively, second and third place one second behind the Norwegian, thus climbing to a third podium for one, the second for the other. They find themselves on the same podium for the second time after the sprint organized in Drammen in December 2018 with, again, a victory for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo.
––
