By Maximo Steverlynck
The 18th edition of the Tour de Ski kicked off Saturday with a punchy skate sprint in Toblach, Italy, under clear skies and mild temperatures. The racing was exciting by anyone’s count and a day to remember for the U.S. squad, with Ben Ogden scoring his first career World Cup podium in third, and semifinal appearances for the American women spearheaded by Jessie Diggins (9th on the day) and Julia Kern (11th).
Overall podiums were made up of Linn Svahn (SWE), Jonna Sundling (SWE) and Kristine Stavås Skistad (NOR) for the women, and Lucas Chanavat (FRA), Jules Chappaz (FRA), and Ben Ogden (USA) for the men. It was the first men’s World Cup podium with no Norwegians on it since the classic sprint in Beitostølen in December 2022.
Notably, Sweden’s women asserted almost complete domination and placed four women into the final heat, evoking the sprint final at this year’s World Championships in Planica where they did the same (along with Skistad of Norway, as it happened). France, meanwhile, logged its first ever 1–2 podium finish on Saturday with the men.
The women’s fifth quarterfinal in particular was a masterclass in pace control from the U.S., with Diggins and Kern setting a stiff tempo in the top two spots for the majority of the heat. It was incredible to watch, and in Diggins’s words, “Going up and over the building bridge and feeling her to my right I had this moment of, Oh yeah, this is awesome.”
Kern came back flying from a recent bout with the flu, making it all the way to the semifinals despite lingering questions about her health and conditioning. “My only hope was to make it to the start line and only race if I felt healthy enough,” Kern said after the race. “It’s been a tough two weeks, a really tough month, but I was glad I felt good enough to race today.”
Ben Ogden, fresh off his first sprint finals in the Östersund classic sprint earlier this month and with a fresh new mustache to boot, fended off pressure from Erik Valnes into the finishing 100 meters of his race to place third behind a French 1–2 and earn his first career World Cup podium.
“I was feeling good about my finishes today, the finish line is right there, just gotta get to it” was Ogden’s take in post-race comments. Notably absent at the start line was Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, last year’s overall winner on the men’s side, who fell victim to the flu upon arrival in the Dolomites.
Racing continues tomorrow with a 10km interval-start classic race at the same venue. Find times and viewing options here.
Through stage one of racing, Ogden sits third in the overall Tour standings, 15 seconds back of Chanavat in first. (TLDR, for the sprint stages take an athlete’s actual time from qualifying, then subtract some number of bonus seconds for the final finishing place on the day if they make the heats. For athletes who do not make the heats, their raw time from the qual is used as their official time for the stage.) Gus Schumacher, who finished 18th today for a career-best World Cup sprint result, is the next-best American; Schumacher is also 18th overall in the Tour standings.
For the women, Svahn leads the Tour standings going into stage two, followed by Sundling and Skistad. Diggins is currently in 7th, 31 seconds back, with Kern 10th (+:39) and Rosie Brennan 26th (+1:01).
Results: men stage one | men TdS overall | women stage one | women TdS overall
This article has been edited to remove an erroneous reference to this being a first career podium for Chanavat. He has multiple podiums; that line was simply incorrect.
Didn’t Chanavat have two previous career WC
wins?
Oof, he had 17 previous individual WC podiums, including two wins. I did not write that line, but I clearly should have factchecked it. Thank you for the correction; I appreciate it.