The season XII of Visma Ski Classics, had its first race today, the Orsa Grönklitt Pro Team Tempo, offering emotions and strong performances by the 35 Pro teams present at the event.
 
The 9km Pro Team Tempo race in Sweden took on a new format, being organized as an interval start competition with block starts. With Pro Teams starting once at a time in reversed order according to the Pro Team ranking of last season. 
 
The gap between the blocks was 4 minutes and the women athletes started 30 seconds after the male Pro Team athletes. The finishing time of the 2nd ranked man and the 2nd ranked woman of the Pro Team counted for the overall classification. This means it was crucial for the athletes to work together and help each other to reach the best overall time.
 
The Pro Teams Lager 157 Ski Team, Team Ragde Charge and Team Ramudden showed their early season form throughout the entire race.
 
In the men’s field, with the best time, Karstein Johaug and Johan Hoel, from Team Ragde Charge, were the fastest with a time of 19:09.3, followed by the Lager 157 Ski Team, with Pro athletes Emil Persson and Runar Skaug Mathisen, on 19:19.0, and in third position, 13 seconds from the leaders, the Team Ramudden, with Max Novak and Johannes Eklöf.
 
In the women’s side, Lager 157 Team with Britta Johansson Norgren and Thea Krokan Murud crushed the competition and finished with a time of 21:21.0, 35.6 seconds ahead of Lina Korsgren and Ida Dahl, from Team Ramudden and in third position, Marit Bjørgen and Anniken Gjerde Alnæs finished 46.9 seconds behind the leaders, with a total time of 22:07.9.
 
In the end, the Lager 157 Ski Team finished in first position with a total time of 40:40.9. In second place, in a fierce dispute, came the Team Ragde Charge, with a time of 41:17.12, just 2 seconds ahead of the third place, Team Ramudden, who completed the race in 41:19.1
 
On Sunday, the Orsa Grönklitt Individual Prologue 33km individual mass start race starts at 9:10 am CET with the women’s race, followed by the men’s race at 11:05 am CET.
 
The first three Pro Teams in the Orsa Grönklitt Pro Team Tempo:
 
Lager 157 Ski Team 40:40.9
(Emil Persson, Marcus Johansson, Runar Skaug Mathisen, Eddie Edström, Britta Johansson Norgren and Thea Krokan Murud)
 
Team Ragde Charge 41:17.2 
(Oskar Kardin, Andreas Nygaard, Joar Thele, Anders Aukland, Karstein Johaug, Johan Hoel, Kasper Stadaas, Anikken Gjerde Alnes and Marit Bjørgen)
 
Team Ramudden  41:19.1
(Max Novak, Johannes Eklöf, Herman Paus, Lina Korsgren, Ida Dahl and Ida Palmberg)
 

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