Toenseth's revenge ensures Lillehammer Triple triumph

Roethe had pipped his fellow Norwegian to record a first World Cup win in 1,358 days in the 15km freestyle race on Saturday but, 24 hours later, Toenseth won a dramatic sprint between the two in the 15km pursuit to finish top of the standings in the three-day mini-tour.

With the advantage built up from Saturday, the duo pulled well clear of the rest of the field and Toenseth was ultimately quicker over the final few metres to cross the line in 44:13.8, just 1.6 seconds ahead of Roethe.

A big group more than a minute behind were left to fight it out for third and Emil Iversen completed a Norwegian clean sweep of the podium by narrowly edging ahead of Calle Halfvarsson of Sweden.

According to FIS regulations, the fastest time on the final stage of the multi-day race is an official World Cup winner, which gave 21-year-old German Janosch Brugger his maiden World Cup title as he stormed from 45th place to 17th by the finish – in a time that was 1:21 quicker than Toenseth recorded.