Russia's Ustiugov still perfect on Tour de Ski
24-year-old has won all 3 stages so far
Sergey Ustiugov produced a big finish to win the 20-kilometer skiathlon and his third stage of three in the Tour de Ski on Tuesday in Oberstdorf, Germany.
The 24-year-old Russian, who already won the opening two stages, overtook former tour winner Martin Johnsrud Sundby in a final sprint to win the 10K classical-style and 10K freestyle cross-country race in 48 minutes, 40.4 seconds, leaving the Norwegian trailing by 0.6 seconds.
Dario Cologna of Switzerland was third, a further 1 second behind.
Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-neiges, Quebec finished fourth, missing the podium by less than two seconds, while Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont. finished 10th.
Heading into the race in third place in the Overall Tour de Ski standings, the 28-year-old Harvey was rock solid with a fourth-place time of 48 minutes, 43.1 seconds.
"It was my best result of the season so I'm really happy," said Harvey, who has been edging closer to his first podium of the year while consistently placing in the top-10 over the last month.
"Things played out exactly according to plan. I had really good skis again and the body felt good. After watching the girls, I knew it would be a tight race. I really thought I was going to be on the podium today, but in the end I came up a little short."
At 34-years of age, three-time Olympian Kershaw demonstrated he still has some gas in the tank after finishing in 10th spot with a time of 48:47.8 for his first top-10 since 2014.
"It was just an excellent day for me," said Kershaw. "I felt amazing in the warm up and all of my classic skis I tested felt really good. I took a lot of confidence in that while climbing the steep hill, and it just continued throughout the race. It feels that extra little bit special since it has been a while for me."
Ustiugov increased his tour lead, but Sundby still leads the overall World Cup standings.
Earlier, Stina Nilsson of Sweden edged Jessica Diggins by two tenths of a second in the women's 10-kilometer skiathlon.
Nilsson, the world championship silver medalist, finished strongly to win the 5-kilometer classic and 5-kilometer freestyle race in 27:23.8, just ahead of Diggins. World Cup leader Heidi Weng was third.
Weng was 1.5 seconds behind Diggins but ahead of Norwegian teammate Maiken Caspersen Falla and American rival Sadie Bjornsen, who beat Nicole Fessel of Germany in a photo finish.
After three stages, Nilsson leads the Tour de Ski by 4.0 seconds over Weng, who stretched her lead in the overall standings to 786 points after 12 events. Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, another Norwegian, is second with 723 points.