15 years after Axel Teichmann, another German cross-country skier has climbed the podium of the prestigious ski tour. Friedrich Moch managed second place on the last of the seven stages on Alpe Cermis and thus came second overall.
The last time current coach Teichmann achieved this was in 2009 with third place. The overall winner of the tour was the Norwegian Harald Oestberg Amundsen. Lukas Bögl took 17th place.
Moch set a hell of a pace in the mountain and broke through the leading group in the first few meters of the mountain, which had an incline of up to 28 percent. Only the eventual winner of the day, Jules Lapierre from France, who crossed the finish line 2.4 seconds ahead of the 23-year-old German from Isny, was able to follow. Moch caught up with tour winner Amundsen by almost 28 seconds, but the gap of over 1:30 minutes could no longer be made up.
Final weekend without team boss Schlickenrieder
Moch earned second place in the Tour de Ski with a very strong, especially balanced performance on the distance stages in both styles. It was only in the sprint that Germany’s greatest male cross-country skiing hope lost what was ultimately the crucial time.
Germany’s starters had to compete in the final weekend without team boss Peter Schlickenrieder. The former top athlete had his accreditation revoked because he placed his skis across the track during the pursuit race in difficult conditions in order to free the German athletes’ equipment from the snow load. On Friday, Schlickenrieder announced via Instagram that he was handing over his team to the sporting director Andreas Schlütter.
