The home skier set the pace from start to finish during the men's opening 10-kilometre freestyle in the Birkebeineren Stadium, finishing 2.8sec ahead of fellow countryman Didrik Tonseth in a time of 21min 12.6sec, with Hans Christer Holund completing the Norwegian clean sweep.

But the men's World Cup leader in the International Ski and Snowboard Federation flagship event is Norway’s Pål Golberg, sixth today, with 367 points and he will race in the yellow bib in tomorrow's sprint.

Britain's Andrew Musgrave was the only non-Norwegian in the top 10, placing fourth just a few seconds behind the bronze medallist.

Earlier in the day the women’s 10km freestyle race produced a very familiar winner as Jessie Diggens from the United States secured victory with a superbly-judged final lap on the 1994 Winter Olympic course.

The 31-year-old from Minnesota - who earned team sprint gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games and took silver and bronze at this year's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in, the 20km freestyle and individual sprint - finished 3.8 clear of early leader Katharina Hennig from Norway in a time of 23:49.5.

With today's victory, Diggins tied with Kikkan Randall's American record of 13 World Cup victories.

The last spot on the podium went to home skier Heidi Weng, who finished 0.1sec ahead of Sweden's Ebba Andersson.