Norway Wins Gold Medal for Cross-Country Olympics 2018 4x10 Km Relay

Norway added yet another gold medal to their 2018 Winter Olympics tally on Sunday, beating the Olympic Athletes of Russia and France to the top spot in the Men's Cross-Country 4x10km relay race.

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo took care of the final leg for the favourites and was clearly stronger than his rivals, riding a perfect tactical leg and winning with a late attack.

Here's a look at the final results, via Cross Country Canada:

Recap

With Didrik Toenseth leading out, Norway was part of the early leading group, while OAR made a surge from the background and finished the first leg near the lead, before going in front through Alexander Bolshunov.

The lead group consisted of the expected nations, with OAR, Norway, France, Finland, Sweden and Germany all riding along. Italy and Kazakhstan also stuck around.

Sweden's Jens Burman lost ground earlier than he would have liked, and with Bolshunov keeping the pace very high, the group splintered in the second part of the relay.

FasterSkier kept track of the time splits, which showed the pace of Bolshunov and the OAR team:

The Swedes and Finns quickly fell over a minute behind the leader, with France moving ahead of the chasing pack. Italy's Francesco de Fabiani also pitched in, and he and Maurice Manificat limited the damage ahead of the third section of the relay.

Norway, France and Italy continued the chase in the third leg, with Simen Hegstad Krueger putting in a huge shift. Kruger and Clement Parisse would eventually bridge the gap before dropping their Russian and Italian rivals.

Klaebo and Adrien Backscheider started the final leg in the lead, but from the background, OAR's Denis Spitsov made a huge comeback, quickly catching sight of the two.

Klaebo urged Backscheider to do his part on the flats and was clearly the stronger man uphill, but he waited until Spitsov bridged the gap before making his move. The Frenchman was the first to go, and Spitsov had no answers when Klaebo caught a second wind on a steep climb, immediately falling behind by seconds.

The race winner even had time to grab a flag from the crowd before crossing the finish line:

Spitsov lost nearly 10 seconds between the climb and finish line, while Backscheider lost over half a minute.

Klaebo already bagged the gold medal in the classical sprint, as Norway have dominated the cross-country skiing so far.

The team failed to win any medal in the 4x10km race four years ago in Sochi, but they more than made up for it on Sunday.