Maxim Vylegzhanin conquered first World Cup victory in his career. fiscrosscountry.com media partner from Russia, www.skirun.ru had the winner in an interview.
Q: Congratulations Maxim to your first World Cup victory. Tell us about your tactics.
Maxim Vylegzhanin: Thank you. Of course, my tactic was to fight for victory, how could I think about anything else? Every skier on the start grid dreams of victory
Q: You think so? Even though there are so big names of skiing such as Hellner, Northug, Cologna or Bauer?
Maxim Vylegzhanin: Of course I cannot speak for everybody. I have always set myself two objectives - to win and run at my maximum. Today my goal was to have a good pace and to keep it up until the finish. Therefore I did not increase the pace and did want to be involved in the fight for bonus points. I didn’t feel very good in the uphills. Do you remember Davos? I was flooded, with lactic acid in the last uphill and lost 17 seconds at the finish. So yesterday I was very cautious.
Q: When the race came to the finish straight did you realize you have Petter Northug beside?
Maxim Vylegzhanin: When we came onto the bridge before the stadium, I saw on my right a red racing suit. And soon I realized that it was Northug. And I thought - surely he will win again. I put all I had in the last meters and realized that I won. I’m very glad about this victory.
Q: Some Norwegians were a bit upset that Northug lost in the finish and explain it by slower corridor Northug was in.
Maxim Vylegzhanin: Well, if he had come first in the finish straight he could have chosen the corridor, which he wanted.
Q: What about today’s relay? Which leg will you run?
Maxim Vylegzhanin: We agreed I would go the last leg and Alexander Legkov will do the second classic one.
Contributed by Basil Parnakov, skirun.ru
