Eiduca’s prestigious “Tour de Ski” ends with a high tenth place

Eiduka is the first Latvian cross-country skier in history to win a prestigious tour in women’s competition. She is also the first to hide in the top ten in one of the stages of the “Tour de Ski” series, in addition to doing so in the difficult last stage, as well as the first to enter the top 30 in the overall standings.

Eiduka was among the top 30 in all nine stages of the Tour de Ski.

The tour ended on Sunday, with the athletes competing with a joint start in ten kilometers in freestyle and driving a lot of distance to the mountain. In the last stage, the difference in height between the start and finish was 420 meters, but on the steepest hill you had to ski on a hill with a 30% slope.

Eiduka was in the third tenth in the first kilometers, but as the ascent began, he gradually improved his position. Two and a half kilometers before the finish she was in the 14th place, but 800 meters before the end of the tour she was already in the 11th position.

The Latvian reached the finish line in the high tenth place, one minute and 29.2 seconds behind the winner Eba Andesson from Sweden, who finished after 36 minutes and 45.6 seconds. For her performance, Eiduka earned 56.62 International Ski Federation (FIS) test points, which is her eighth best career result.

Before the last stage, the leader was Digins, who was 54 seconds ahead of the Russian Julia Stupak, but almost a minute later was the Finnish Krista Permekoski. Digins finished second only 9.2 seconds after the winner, thus protecting the first place in the tour, while the third with a deficit of 32.6 seconds was the Frenchman Clodel Dolphin.

Stupaka finished fourth, losing one minute and 24.8 seconds to Diginsai’s overall standings, and Andesson won third place, which was two minutes and 0.8 seconds slower.

Eiduka lost ten minutes and 7.0 seconds to the winner, which gave her the 24th place in the competition of 41 finishing skiers.

Digins, the leader with 932 points in the overall World Cup, Stupaka is in second place with 802 points, and Rouzija Brenana from America is in third place with 794 points. Eiduka is in the 28th position with 144 points, but the Latvian is fifth in the U-23 test.

For the third year in a row, Latvia was represented in the men’s and women’s competition. If the 20-year-old Eiduka has started the tour three times, then for the 21-year-old Raimo Vīgants, who did not continue participating in the competition after the first weekend, it was his debut.

On the previous two occasions, Eiducas took part in the first three stages of the “Tour de Ski”, making only about half of the tour.

It has already been reported that this year Indulis Bikše, who started the “Tour de Ski” for the previous four years, did not participate in the prestigious tour.

This year, the titled Norwegian team did not participate in the “Tour de Ski”, but two other national ski team teams – Finland and Sweden – have returned to the World Cup.

The “Tour de Ski” series is based on the example and principles of the legendary multi-day cycling tour “Tour de France”, entering the cross-country skiing circle at the turn of 2006/2007. It is part of the World Cup stages.

Last year, Indulis Bikše finished the tour in 49th place in the men’s competition, while the laurels of victory were won by the Russian Aleksandrs Bolshunovs and the Norwegian Terēze Juheuga.