Canadian cross-country skier Antoine Cyr finished a fraction of a second off the podium at a Tour de Ski event in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on Saturday.
Cyr, of Gatineau, Que., finished one-tenth of a second shy of the bronze-medal position in the men’s 15-kilometre classic-ski race, completing six laps on the challenging course in 40 minutes 0.5 seconds.
“It is awesome to get such a good result,” Cyr said in a news release. “All of the guys around me have had podiums on the World Cup. To be so close is such a huge accomplishment and I am just so happy to give a good result like this to the team, the staff and everyone back home supporting us.”
Cyr moved into eighth place in the overall Tour standings with one race remaining
WATCH | Cyr misses podium by fraction of a second:
Cyr grabbed fourth place in the men’s 15km mass start World Cup race in Val di Fiemme and lost out on the podium in a photo finish.
The 24-year-old reached his first career sprint final on Friday, finishing sixth at the Tour de Ski stop.
Cyr won his first-ever World Cup heat on Friday, finishing first in his quarterfinal race on the way to a sixth-place finish in the sprint final.
“I was feeling it from yesterday’s sprint heats,” he said. “My back was sore this morning and I just told myself ‘let’s do one lap at a time and see how it goes, how my body is feeling.’
“I was progressing throughout the race and skiing the smoothest I could.”
Norway’s Johannes Hoeflot Klaebo remained unbeaten in this year’s Tour, taking the sixth stage with a time of 39:59.2, 1.3 seconds ahead of Cyr.
Paal Golberg, also of Norway, was second at 39:59.6, while Italy’s Francesco De Fabiani edged out Cyr at the finish line to take third at 40:00.5.
“It would have been a dream come true to be on the podium, but in the end, it was close but no cigar as they say. I skied a pretty perfect race and did everything I could,” Cyr said. “This is a big confidence boost for the rest of season which is still young.”
Other Canadians in action included Olivier Léveillé (Sherbrooke, Que.), who finished 31st, while Russell Kennedy (Canmore, Alta.) skied to 42nd, Sam Hendry (Canmore) placed 46th, and Remi Drolet (Rossland, B.C.) was 54th.
Stewart-Jones notches personal best
On the women’s side, Canada’s Katherine Stewart-Jones celebrated the first top-10 finish of her career on Saturday in Val di Fiemme.
“I am stoked. I’ve been close a couple of times and I didn’t want to go for anything less than a top-10 today,” Stewart-Jones said.
The 27-year-old from Chelsea, Que., finished 10th overall in a time of 45:02.9.
“I told myself going into the race that I may as well go for it. I wanted to ski well for the first couple of laps. It was a fast course. I played it tactically well. … This feels pretty awesome,” she said.
Germany’s Katharina Hennig won the sixth stage with a time of 44:26.7. Sweden’s Frida Karlsson maintained her overall lead on the Tour de Ski with a second-place finish at 44:27.4. Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen was third (44:27.5).
Fellow Canadian Dahria Beatty (Whitehorse) finished 37th.
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