OREANDA-NEWS. The 2018 Olympic champion in the team sprint, American skier Kikkan Randall, reacted to the victory of Russian Natalia Nepryaeva at the Tour de Ski.

“Nepryaeva ran the race very cleverly from a tactical point of view. When you hold back, you cannot be overly careful. She got a boost of confidence after the sprint, ”Randall said on the FasterSkier podcast.

Nepryaeva became the first Russian athlete in history to win in the overall standings of the Tour de Ski race. Previously, only Russian men won the tournament, this happened four times in history. The winners were Alexander Legkov, Sergey Ustyugov and Alexander Bolshunov (twice).

The 10 km freestyle mass start in the Italian Val di Fiemme, which ended the Tour de Ski, was won by the Norwegian Heidi Veng. The second was the Swede Ebba Andersson, the third - the Frenchwoman Claudel Dolphin. Nepryaeva took fourth place, which allowed her to maintain leadership in the overall standings of the stage race. Another Russian woman Tatiana Sorina took sixth place in the overall Tour de Ski standings.

Earlier, Nepryaeva, after winning the overall standings of the Tour de Ski, published a post on her social networks.

The skier of the Russian national team Natalya Nepryaeva, after winning the overall standings of the Tour de Ski, published a post on her social networks.

"We did it! Thanks to my team, you are the best, ”she wrote on Instagram.