“Unknown” Gunnulfsen crushed everyone – irrelevant to the opening of the World Cup – VG

– I can’t bear to think about the outlet and all that garbage there. I have won, Gunnulfsen tells VG.

The team for the opening of the World Cup has been eliminated, but two places remain. For which the runners of the national team will fight.

– So if I had won by 45 seconds it wouldn’t have lasted, says Gunnulfsen.

For runners with Olympic and World Cup gold, such as Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund, all the extras against telemarking Gunnulfsen at 15 kilometers became classics in Beitostølen. It is almost completely unknown to the Norwegian people. But with the victory at Beitostølen, Gunnulfsen made his final breakthrough.

Klæbo knows how it feels.

– I’ve been in Gunnulfsen’s shoes and they haven’t taken me off, so I know what it’s like. It might be a bit awkward. But at the same time, I fully understand it. I wasn’t too disappointed either, but I was lucky because there was a disease there, says Klæbo, who was therefore able to travel to Ruka in 2016.

Holund was third 34 seconds behind. Gunnulfsen later criticized how unimportant national team running backs think Beito’s runs are.

At the same time, the coach of the national team, Eirik Myhr Nossum, makes it clear that the races at Ruka are reserved for the runners of the national team. Thus, a retreat to Finland is twisted for Gunnulfsen.

-I have said there before also that those races are reserved for the elite team if everyone is fresh and healthy, Nossum tells VG.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo believes, however, that Gunnulfsen is a good candidate now.

– You have submitted a very good application. It’s exciting to see when Nossum will eliminate the team. But it’s definitely a good app, says Klæbo.

Hans Christer Holund was third. 34 seconds behind Gunnulfsen of Team Telemark. Holund recommends that the 27-year-old go ahead and walk fast, then the World Cup opportunity will come.

– There is no doubt that it is quite good, see Holund to VG.

To Saturday’s surprise and the winner does not like that the national team is talking on the floor in Beitostølen.

– This is a dream. I know that people talk bad about Beito and that the national team is on shitty skis, but it matters so little to me. Father, if I win this, Beito can be as small as you want. For me, this is huge, Gunnulfsen tells NRK after the ending.

– Lots of adrenaline

He tells VG this half an hour later:

– I had a lot of adrenaline after the end. Not much shit skiing here. It has snowed so it is very close to the rocks. But we are a small team. Unlike the national team, which has 40 boats to choose from, we have four, says Gunnulfsen, who is betting on Team Telemark.

One of those who calmly passed the goal and disappeared from the stadium was Emil Iversen, who entered an unusually weak 51st place. Gunnulfsen believes that both the seventh and eighth pair of boys on the national team are better than their best.

– We are on an equal footing. I’m sure they have skis that are more than enough to win here, says Gunnulfsen.

Gunnulfsen won a race that was characterized by highly variable conditions with heavy gusts and snow on the tracks. And the wind picked up during the men’s race and made it sour for the jersey-clad runners on the ski destination’s slopes to the mountains.

Gunnulfsen, however, has shown that he is fighting for an eighth place in the Kollen five-mile in 2019. But he has been a “near runner” who has not made the final advance.

Among those disappointed is Martin Johnsrud Sundby. The runner from Oslo is no longer part of the national team and is due to perform this weekend. But it didn’t work out for Sundby, who finished far behind the finish line in 40th place, more than two minutes behind Gunnulfsen.