Kuitunen set for title

In the Ladies 15km mass start in Val Di Fiemme, the 30-year-old moved away from the field in the second half of the race to finish in 42 minutes 02.2 seconds, a full 37 seconds clear of compatriot Aino Kaisa Saarinen in second, while Norway's Marit Bjoergen crossed the line in third place, over a minute off the pace.

Vibeke Skofterud, of Norway, finished fourth, leading home a sextet of athletes that included Slovenian Petra Majdic, who remains fourth in the overall Tour de Ski classification.

Kuitunen and Saarinen set off at a blistering pace, going through the opening 5.7 kilometres in 16:32, with the field languishing 40 seconds behind.

But Saarinen was unable to live with the pace of her team-mate after the half-way point, allowing Kuitunen to stretch her lead in the overall standings to 1:39 with just Sunday's 10km pursuit to come.

In the men's event, Tobias Angerer takes a 15.2 second lead over Simen Oestensen going into Sunday's concluding 15km freestyle after finishing amongst the leaders in the 30km mass start.

The German was fifth as Norwegian Eldar Roenning won the sprint ahead of Russia's Ivan Alypov and Sami Jauhojärvi of Finland.

Oestensen was seventh, 2.9 seconds behind the defending World Cup champion, but gained 15 seconds at the second intermediate sprint after Angerer fell and other Norwegians Frode Estil and Roenning slowed the group down.