09:51. A few minutes after the qualifying round of the women’s classic sprint at the cross-country skiing world cup in Ruka (Finland), in which none of the French athletes made it through to the quarter-finals, their male counterparts almost suffered the same fate. In fact, five of the six Tricolores entered suddenly bowed out in the first heat.
Only Cluse’s Jules Chappaz, who made his first final on this track in November 2022, secured his ticket for the finals by finishing sixteenth. Behind him, Richard Jouve, thirty-sixth, Lucas Chanavat, thirty-eighth, Théo Schely, forty-fifth, Renaud Jay, fifty-fourth, Rémi Bourdin, sixty-fourth, and Hugo Lapalus, seventieth, will not be taking part in the next round.
At the top of the rankings, Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo once again excelled in his favourite exercise. The Norwegian won by more than two seconds over an impressive Benjamin Moser and Finland’s Niilo Moilanen.
The full ranking
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