After the Tour de Ski, the World Cup makes a stop in Otepaa (EST) for a week-end of classic technique races. The first one took place today, with a 10 km for ladies and a 15 km for men.

In both categories it was possible to find some people returning and some people missing, changing in this way the names of the candidates for a place on the podium.

Among ladies, the race was characterized by the return of big names of cross-country, like Charlotte Kalla, Marit Bjoergen and Kristina Smigun. Nevertheless, none of them was able to put a poke in Kowalczyk's wheel, and in the end the Polish skier was able to win the race, beating Marit Bjoergen (NOR) for 4'' on the finish line, despite the fact that the Norwegian made an incredible comeback right on the last kilometers. Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) closed in third position, at 30'' from Kowalczyk, followed at 2.5'' by Charlotte Kalla (SWE). Taking a look to the final raking, it is possible to mention also the 5th place of Petra Majdic (SLO), the 6th of Virpi Kuitunen (FIN), the 7th of Anna Haag (SWE) and the 9th place of Kristina Smigun (EST), who suffered a food poisoning right on the eve of the race that caused her many troubles during the night, leaving her without much energy at the start of today's race.

Among men, despite the absence of many protagonists of the Tour de Ski, it was possible to see once again on the track many famous "classic" skiers, like Odd Bjoern Hjelmeset (NOR), Jens Arne Svartedal (NOR) and the home-heroes Jaak Mae (EST) and Andrus Veerpalu (EST), who were looking for a result that could warm up the audience watching the race on the sides of the track. Veerpalu came very near to achieving such a result, but also today Lukas Bauer (CZE) was unbeatable and with an incredible ease the Czech skier took home the victory, leaving to Veerpalu the second place and to Novikov (RUS) the third step of the podium. The race of Bauer was made even easier by the fact that he had the possibility to start last, controlling the times marked by the others at each intermediate time and managing very well his energies. The result was that on the final hundred meters, Bauer could take it with much ease, cheering for the victory and showing the number three with his fingers, underlying the hat-trick made in the last three World Cup races, with three victories in a row (Lago di Tesero, Cermis and now Otepaa).

After the race, Bauer explained that now his main goal will be the Olympics in Vancouver: "I won't take part to any race until the 15 km of the Olympics. We will leave for Canada on the 20th of January and we will try to train over there for the Olympics. I will skip the races in Canmore, because I don't want to run the risk of getting sick while traveling, ruining in this way all my preparation. For me a medal at the Olympics would really mean a lot and I will do my best to try to conquer one".