
Norwegian cross-country ski star Johannes Høsflot Klæbo wrapped up a fourth Tour de Ski title on Sunday after doing enough in the seventh and final stage in Italy’s Val di Fiemme.
Simen Hegstad Krüger won the 10 kilometre freestyle mass start, which featured a brutal final climb up the alpine skiing course in Cavalese. Klæbo was in the leading pack for the first half of the stage before slipping back to finish 18th.
The overall World Cup leader joins Swiss Dario Cologna as the only man to win the prestigious Tour de France-like event four times. He won by 1 minutes 23.1 seconds from Austria’s Mike Vermeulen, with Frenchmen Hugo Lapalus third.
The 28-year-old added to success in 2019, 2022 and 2023 having won four stages this time through the Italian Dolomites.
Defending champion Harald Østberg Amundsen, also from Norway, pulled out of the Tour during the week despite two wins due to a sore throat. Krüger’s success on Sunday, winning by 7.8 seconds from Vermeulen with Germany’s Friedrich Moch third, followed a fall which ruined his skiathlon on Saturday.
The Tour de Ski is one of the highlights of the cross-country skiing season, with the Nordic skiing world championships in Trondheim, Norway another standout February 26-March 9.
The women’s event concludes later on Sunday with Norwegian Therese Johaug hoping to match Klæbo and become only the second woman to win the Tour four times.