In the sixth stage of the prestigious eight stage event, the 24 year old Norwegian Petter Northug started with a 0.4 second lead and was able to finish the day with a 20.1 second lead over Sweden’s Marcus Hellner. Sweden’s Daniel Rickardsson surprisingly won the stage, which was a 10km classic, in 23:14.5 minutes. Olympic silver medalist Lukas Bauer finished second in the stage, 1.7 seconds behind Rickardsson, and Northug finished in third position, 4.5 seconds behind the Swede.

Northug was once again aided by a strong sprint to the finish, as he was able to gain 4 seconds on the lead in the final 2km of the race.

There remaining stages in the race are a 20km classic mass start race and a 10km freestyle pursuit.