SPEED SKATING

Inline instinct inspires Loubineaud (FRA) to first World Cup win

24 Nov 2024

#SpeedSkating

Timothy Loubineaud (FRA) took his maiden ISU World Cup victory on Sunday, leaving the pack behind with a solo breakaway in the Mass Start. Italy had started the final day at the M-Wave with gold and a track record in the Team Pursuit, while Jordan Stolz (USA) picked up his fourth win of the weekend in the second 500m.

Loubineaud follows inline instinct to gold

Everyone seemed excited by the first Mass Start of the ISU World Cup season on Sunday. In the first half of the race, many skaters tried to jump away from the pack, but no one managed to establish a substantial gap.

Finally, with Fridtjof Petzold (GER) and Szymon Palka (POL) up the road, Timothy Loubineaud (FRA) set up an attack in the second part of the race. He passed Palka and Petzold and managed to stay ahead of the sprinting pack in the last two laps.

Timothy Loubineaud (FRA) celebrates his maiden ISU World Cup title after staying ahead of the sprinting pack to claim Mass Start gold © ISU

“I think at some point I found my way to put me in a good situation,” Loubineaud explained.

“Then, I went for the points, and I was like, why not continue?

“I'm not smart enough to think about the tactics. It was just my instinct, and I'm used to it in inline skating, but now there's a lot of inliners in the pack.”

Starting the season on top of the World Cup ranking will not change Loubineaud’s perspective for the rest of the campaign.

“I don't think about it,” he commented. “I just think about skating as good as possible, and then at the end of the season, we count where I am and we’ll see.”

Daniele Di Stefano (ITA) crossed the line second, outsprinting the rest of the pack, with Bart Hoolwerf (NED) coming in third.

Daniele Di Stefano (ITA), left, was pleased to start the season with a silver medal, while Bart Hoolwerf (NED), right, plans to fine-tune Dutch team tactics after taking bronze © ISU

Di Stefano and his teammate Andrea Giovannini (ITA), who finished fourth, are keeping a careful eye on the World Cup rankings.

“We have to stay in the A Division,” Giovannini said. "There’s many good sprinters, so to finish second and fourth today is a good result for us.”

Hoolwerf was content with how the Dutch team’s tactics panned out, despite not having been able to sprint for the win.

“You always aim at victory, but this is alright," he admitted.

“Our plan was that Jorrit [teammate Jorrit Bergsma] would attack and I would cover close behind.

"In the final, Loubineaud attacked just after Jorrit had. If I close the gap, I can forget about my final sprint.

"In hindsight Jorrit said that he should have countered Loubineaud. He did try to chase him two laps from the finish, but then it was too late.

“But these tactics are good. We have to fine-tune a little, but the way we played it today, we made the other countries work.”

Italy's perfect pursuit claims track record

Italy started the men’s competition on Sunday by beating a 16-year-old track record in the Team Pursuit. Giovannini, Davide Ghiotto and Michele Malfatti and (ITA) stopped the clock in 3 minutes and 39.82s, which was 1.87s faster than the previous mark set by Sven Kramer, Wouter Olde Heuvel and Erben Wennemars (NED) at the World Single Distance Championships back in 2008.

Italian endurance specialists Davide Ghiotto, Michele Malfatti and Andrea Giovannini combined to take almost two seconds off the 16-year-old Dutch track record© ISU

“It was really a good race. We knew that we could try to break the track record. We tried it in training, and the pace was good. We had it in our mind,” said Malfatti.

Italy’s line-up comprised only endurance specialists, which helped them in the second part of the race.

Ghiotto said: “We skated a very flat race compared to all the others. We skate together every day and we are all specialists in the 5000m and 10,000m. A 1500m skater can start very fast, but then you have to keep it up in the second part.”

After Jordan Stolz (USA) had skated with Team USA to win last week’s ISU Four Continents title, the Americans switched back to their regular line-up in Nagano. Ethan Cepuran, Emery Lehman and Casey Dawson (USA) finished second in 3:41.83, with Norway’s Sander Eitrem, Peder Kongshaug and Hallgeir Engebråten taking bronze in 3:42.31.

USA Team Pursuit line-up Ethan Cepuran, Emery Lehman and Casey Dawson were reunited at Nagano's stunning M-Wave, taking silver ahead of Norway © ISU

Lehman had enjoyed reverting to their familiar trio.

“I like skating behind Ethan. Not to say that Jordan didn't do a great job last weekend, but it's kind of like what we're comfortable with. It feels good to go back with these guys.”

Dawson added: “We all train together in Salt Lake City. [Jordan] lives in Milwaukee, so we're just all so comfortable skating behind each other.”

The three regulars did not rule out Stolz returning to a future line-up, however.

Lehman said: “We're kind of leaving it open, but I think we'll try and do one more with us and see what happens.”

Four out of four for Stolz

Stolz (USA) was busy adding to his silverware in the individual distances. The American edged out home favorite Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) by 0.08s in the second 500m to maintain his perfect streak over the weekend, after already having won the first 500m, the 1500m and the 1000m.

Jordan Stolz (USA) had to overcome fatigue and the fierce challenge of Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) to win his second 500m race and fourth gold medal of the weekend © ISU

Stolz admitted to feeling a bit tired going into the race because of his busy schedule, but though that somehow that might have played to his advantage too.

“[I felt] probably, the least amount of pressure for this race, because I was already tired. [I thought] if I don't win, it's just fatigue.”

Stolz had to dig deep to keep Shinhama at bay on Sunday. Before the American took the ice in the final pairing, his Japanese rival had set a high bar with 34.49s, just 0.09s off his own track record.

Despite his good race, Shinhama was not surprised to see Stolz pull off another victory.

“I thought I would need to skate a track record to beat Jordan todayn and I didn’t,” said Shinhama.

“In the end, Stolz also missed out on the track record, so I’m happy that my mark still stands.”

Shinhama (JPN), left, was happy to have closed the gap on Stolz and retain his track record. Merijn Scheperkamp (NED), right, returned to the World Cup podium after two years © ISU

Shinhama drew confidence from the fact that the gap between him and Stolz was smaller than it had been on Friday.

“On Friday I started inner lane, and today outer. In the past when I started in the outer lane, I was mostly slower, but now I can do both," he added.

Stopping the clock 0.32 behind Stolz, Merijn Scheperkamp (NED) grabbed bronze in 34.73s. It was his first individual World Cup podium in two years and only his second overall.

“I’m really glad that it finally shows, that I finally managed [a medal]. My season start was a bit scrappy, my races didn’t pan out the way I wanted, so it’s great that I can skate onto the podium at the first World Cup weekend.”

“Of course, [Stolz and Shinhama] skate very fast, but I’ve got room for improvement and I think I can bridge that gap if I skate a very good race.”

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series events 2024/25:

Nov 22 - 24, 2024 Nagano / JPN

Nov 29 - Dec 01, 2024 Beijing / CHN

Jan 24 - 26, 2025 Calgary CAN

Jan 31 - Feb 02, 2025 Milwaukee / USA

Feb 21 - 23, 2025 Tomaszów Mazowiecki / POL

Feb 28 - Mar 02, 2025 Heerenveen / NED

Where to watch

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