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Lucas Bauer and Charlotte Kalla lead Tour de Ski

Local hero Lucas Bauer and Sweden's Charlotte Kalla took over the lead in the Tour de Ski after winning Tuesday's events in Nove Mesto.

Local hero Bauer thrilled his fans with victory in the men's 15km free style event, while Kalla proved too strong for the rest of the field in the women's 10km event.

Kalla won in a time of 26 minutes 21.9 seconds, beating Italian Arianna Follis by 8.5 seconds. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk was third a further 1.6 seconds behind.

The victory was enough to see Kalla take over the overall lead from Follis and Kowalczyk. Norwegian star Marit Bjoergen, who went into Tuesday's race leading the standings, failed to impress and fell back to ninth place.

In the earlier race Bauer, who won two of the previous three Tour de Ski events this season, finished in a time of 36 minutes 34.9 seconds, beating compatriot Martin Koukal into second place by 3.2 seconds.

Third place went to Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer, who was a further 0.2 seconds behind.

Bauer's victory in the pursuit sees him regain the lead from Norwegian Simen Oestensen. Koukal is second in the overall standings.

The Tour de Ski consists of eight races in all aspects of the sport -- classic style and freestyle, sprints and distance races -- with the men skiing an overall distance of 102km and the women 60km.
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