Today’s gold medal was Cologna’s 23^rd overall World Cup victory, but his first-ever in his native Switerzland.

The three-time Olympic champion finished with a time of 35 mins 29.5 seconds, just 0.6 secs ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin, to claim his first World Cup title since winning in Rybinsk, Russia, in January 2015.

Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby, a four-time Olympic medallist, claimed the last place on the podium with a time of 35:42.6.

Despite failing to finish in the top three Russian Sergey Ustiugov still leads the overall table after winning stage one yesterday.

This means the 25-year-old, who won five medals at the 2017 International Ski Federation Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland, will start 1.6 seconds ahead of Cologna in tomorrow’s 15 km free technique pursuit event.

After his win, Cologna said: “It has been a long time since I won the race last time and it is great to finally win in Switzerland.

“I thought I could do it in Davos but my first victory came in Lenzerheide.

“The fans were amazing.

“I showed already yesterday that I am in good shape.

“I did not want to start too fast but I was never too far away from the lead as I was able to pace it well and also had amazing skis.”

Although he was satisfied with his performance, 2013 World Championship bronze medallist Poltoranin said it was tough to lose such a close race.

“I am very happy for the second place,” he said.

“It’s my second podium in two weeks, which is good for my confidence.

“Of course, I wanted to win, and it was a close battle between me and Dario, but to lose a victory by so close is hard.”

The women’s 10 km classic event saw Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg of Norway take gold in a time of 26:59.4, 25.7 seconds ahead of compatriot Heidi Weng, who took silver.

Lenzerheide had been the venue when Sochi 2014 gold medallist Oestberg won her first ever World Cup distance race two seasons ago, also during the Tour de Ski.

Today’s result means Oestberg tops the leaderboard going into tomorrow's race, 32.8 seconds ahead of Weng, a bronze medallist at Sochi 2014

After her win, Oestberg said: “I knew it was going to be a tough race in these conditions.

“My goal this season has been to get better each weekend.

“My shape is very good right now.

“Tomorrow I will be chased and it is going to be a tough race.

Sadie Bjornsen of the United States claimed her second bronze medal of the World Cup season with a time of 27:41.6.

The 28-year-old expressed her delight at today’s result.

“It’s has been a huge goal of mine to be on the distance podium,” she said.

“It felt really crazy out there today.

“At the 6.0 km [mark], I got the information I was in second place.

“I had to ski a lot out of the track.

“I had to give everything I had in the last 2.5 km.

“I was a little bit disappointed yesterday, I was hoping for more so today feels really great.”

Tomorrow sees the action at Lenzerheide conclude with the women's 10km F Pursuit and the men's 15km F Pursuit.

The women's race will start at 11am local time with the men's event taking place two hours later at 1pm.