A late charge took Klæbo past his two main Russian rivals Sergey Ustiugov and Alexander Bolshunov, and allowed him to replace the latter at the top of the standings by a margin of one second.

Ustiugov is 15 seconds behind Klæbo.

The trio finished in the same order in yesterday’s 15 kilometres classic mass start event. 

"My plan was to try to go second before the last downhill," Klæbo said.

"I tried that yesterday and it worked quite good then so I was the same today and yeah, it worked twice so it was really good.

"It was a really hard race in the last uphill but I managed to give it all out and be in a good position before the last downhill."

Victory in the women’s sprint event at the Tour de Ski final, part of the International Ski Federation Cross-Country World Cup series, went to Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampič.

Lampič beat the Norwegian winner of the previous day’s 10km classic mass start, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, with Jessica Diggins of the United States finishing third on a testing track.

"It feels amazing,” Lampic said. 

"It is the first time I have competed here on a classic track and it was awesome. 

"I stayed behind to the last little uphill, and then I went for the finish fully.”

The grand final concludes tomorrow with the men's and women's 10km freestyle mass start events at the Alpe Cermis.