This Sarner is South Tyrol's new cross-country skiing hope

"I'm so happy. Finally, a lot of things came together. But not all. I saw that I can run at the front,” said Michael Hellweger happily after the Toblach weekend, which ended earlier than planned for him.

When the races were still taking place in Dobbiaco on New Year's Day, Hellweger was already on his way home to the Sarntal. The 27-year-old skipped the pursuit race and dropped out of the Tour de Ski on Saturday after the 10-kilometer competition. Actually, the plan in advance was to hold out until the freestyle sprint on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland. “In consultation with the coaching team, we have now decided against it. We believe it is the best thing for the rest of my season,” explained Hellweger.

First top 10 result of his career He had already more than achieved his goals on this tour. For the first time, he made it into a World Cup semi-final in the freestyle sprint on Saturday and achieved his best result to date with 9th place. “And in Dobbiaco, of all places. “That’s fantastic,” said the 27-year-old Sarner. He was also the best “Azzurro”, ahead of fellow favorite and top star Federico Pellegrino. He met this in the semi-finals. However, that was where the end came for both of them. Hellweger ended up in 5th place, 1,78 seconds behind the fastest, Frenchman Jules Chappaz, with Pellegrino in 6th and last place (+7,40). “The tank was empty, the legs didn’t want to go anymore,” analyzed Hellweger.

In the quarterfinals, where he had dictated the pace from the start, he finished in the finish sprint 3 hundredths behind the Norwegian Erik Valnes at the same time as the Finnish Lauri Vuorinen in third place, but that was enough for him to reach the semifinals as a “lucky loser”. “Tactically, things could have gone better. Maybe I shouldn't have gone full throttle from the start in the quarterfinals. But I really wanted to get to the semi-finals,” said the Sarner. Sooner or later we should make it to the final: “Ideally this year.” On New Year's Eve, Hellweger ended the tour in Toblach with the 3-kilometer race in classic style, where he finished in 10th place. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be anything more than a casual exit; the decision to end the tour had already been made beforehand.

He wants to take part in the World Cup again on January 19th in Oberhof. Then a classic sprint is on the program. For Hellweger it is the debut in this World Cup discipline. “The goal is to be in the top 30,” he explains the route.

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This Sarner is South Tyrol's new cross-country skiing hope

The Tour de Ski in Dobbiaco ended on New Year's Day. From a South Tyrolean perspective, there was a big winner: Michael Hellweger from Sarnen.

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