– I don’t really know what happened on the last hill. Suddenly I had a gap, says Max who parked overall leader Johan Hoel at the start of the dreaded hill up towards Magdaskaret, which was passed 5 km before the finish.
But the hill is more than 4 km long and without a retaining wall it was tough against Nyenget, who rode with a retaining wall.
– I saw him behind me and thought I could hold off. A little disappointed that it didn’t work, but at the same time happy with a podium place, says Novak, who got to see the Norwegian pass a few hundred meters before the top.
Going into the final tough downhill, Nyenget had a 12 second lead, a lead he never let go of.
– I was extremely tired all day and struggled to follow in the first part of the competition. But into the last tough hill it went better, says the winner who was second in Saturday’s Reistadløpet over 50 km.
Team Eksjöhus has taken Nyenget to itself and the team also got third through Eirik Sverdrup Augdal, who was the second of the tight skaters who rode with a fästvalla. However, he could not follow Nyenget uphill.
Johan Hoel, Team Ragde Charge was fourth and looks to take home the overall victory in Ski Classics as he once again beat teammate Kasper Stadaas.
In the women’s class there was a duel between Emilie Fleten, Team Ramudden and Astrid Øyre Slind, Team Aker Dæhlie.
Everyone believed.
But suddenly Magni Smedås, Team Eksjöhus appeared after being a minute and a half behind. Miraculously, she caught the two up front and when she got a gap uphill towards Magdaskaret, she increased all the way downhill to the finish and was able to follow up the victory from the Birkebeinerrennet with another full hit.
Astrid Øyre Slind finished second just ahead of Emilie Fleten and could not repeat last year’s victory in Summit2Senja. The first three had a substantial lead over the rest of the field, where Finnish Kati Roivas from Team Eksjöhus was fourth at the finish line.
