The Men's 30 kilometre pursuit

Pursuit

Pursuit may refer to:In aircraft:*Rans S-11 Pursuit, lifting body style light aircraft designIn cars:*Pontiac G5, formerly called Pontiac PursuitIn film and television:*Pursuit , a 1950s anthology...

 cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics

2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...

in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, was held on 12 February at Pragelato

Pragelato

Pragelato is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km west of Turin, in the upper Val Chisone. The name Pragelato, meaning ‘icy meadow’, has been derived from the harsh climate and the fact that the ground is covered with ice for long periods...

.

The pursuit in this format had been skied three times at the Nordic skiing World Championships, and Frenchman Vincent Vittoz

Vincent Vittoz

Vincent Vittoz is a French cross-country skier. He grew up in the town of La Clusaz in the Northern French Alps and has been competing since 1982...

 was the reigning World Champion. A pursuit event similar to this was skied at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where the gold was shared between Thomas Alsgaard

Thomas Alsgaard

Thomas Alsgaard is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier. Alsgaard is regarded by many as the best performer of the skate-style in cross-country skiing and many of today's best skiers have studied his technique...

 (now retired) and Frode Estil

Frode Estil

Frode Estil is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier. He currently lives in Meråker with his wife Grete whom he married in the summer of 2001. They have two sons, Bernhard, born in August 2002, and Konrad. Estil was classical specialist and also a specialist at succeeding in World Championships...

, but the distance was 20 kilometres, not 30.

The event opened dramatically as Estil fell at the start, causing a mass collision. Then the pack kept together almost until the end, with skiers continually trailing off as they could not keep up with the pace. Eventually, five men came in to the finishing straight together, after Anders Södergren

Anders Södergren

Hans Anders Södergren is a Swedish cross-country skier who has competed since 1999. He earned a bronze medal in the 4x10 km relay at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and also finished 5th in the 15 km + 15 km double pursuit event at those same Olympics...

 of Sweden had tried to pull away on the final lap. However, Södergren could not keep up with the pace, and Russian Yevgeny Dementyev pulled away to defeat the defending Olympic champion Estil and win Russia's first gold medal of the Games.

Results

The pursuit consisted of a 15 kilometre section raced in the classical style, followed by a 15 kilomtre portion raced freestyle. In between, the sections, each skier took time (approximately 30 seconds) to 'pit', changing their skis. Martin Tauber, an Austrian skier, originally placed 17th, but was disqualified after the IOC

International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

declared him permanently ineligible for doping-related violations.

Rank	Name	Country	Time
			1:17:00.8
			1:17:01.4
			1:17:01.7
4			1:17:03.2
5	align="left"|		1:17:04.3
6			1:17:07.5
7			1:17:08.5
8	align="left"|		1:17:08.7
9			1:17:09.6
10	align="left"|		1:17:10.1
11			1:17:10.9
12			1:17:12.5
13			1:17:17.2
14	align="left"|		1:17:21.7
15			1:17:23.1
16			1:17:25.5
17			1:17:36.2
18			1:17:37.8
19			1:17:50.8
20	align="left"|		1:17:58.1
21			1:18:09.6
22			1:18:38.2
23			1:18:47.9
24	align="left"|		1:18:58.2
25			1:19:08.9
26			1:19:17.0
27			1:19:29.8
28			1:19:30.6
29			1:19:34.3
30	align="left"|		1:19:35.3
31			1:19:39.8
32			1:19:51.4
33	align="left"|		1:20:04.5
34			1:20:12.0
35	align="left"|		1:20:16.7
36			1:20:19.7
37			1:20:28.2
38			1:20:53.3
39			1:21:08.0
40			1:21:08.2
41			1:21:16.2
42			1:21:16.8
43			1:22:05.8
44			1:22:09.9
45			1:22:23.9
46			1:22:24.6
47			1:22:29.8
48			1:22:31.2
49			1:22:31.5
50	align="left"|		1:22:31.7
51			1:22:36.2
52			1:22:37.6
53			1:23:39.9
54			1:24:05.5
55			1:24:13.6
56			1:24:14.3
57			1:24:35.9
58			1:25:21.3
59			1:25:49.9
60			1:25:51.4
61			1:26:17.0
62	align="left"|		1:26:26.4
63			1:26:31.8
64			1:27:16.4
65	align="left"|		1:28:03.8
	align="left"|		DNF
			DNF
			DNF
	align="left"|		DNF
	align="left"|		DNF
	align="left"|		DNF
	align="left"|		DNF
	align="left"|		DNF
			DNF
			DNF
			DNS
DQ			1:17:28.6