By Máximo Steverlynck
The World Cup weekend in Oberhof kicked off the start of Period 3 with classic sprints earlier Friday. The American squad had a fantastic day, with almost every U.S. athlete qualifying for the heats. It was also a great day for the Scandinavians, with the Norwegians locking out the men’s podium (even with an all too human Klæbo finishing in seventh), led by Erik Valnes, and the Swedes locking out the women’s podium, led by Linn Svahn.
Zak Ketterson’s 16th was not the best American result today — that would be Ben Ogden, introducing his mustache to yet another sprint final, finishing sixth — but it was by any standard the most notable, given the sickness and rough start to his season that the Minnesotan has had to overcome. Ketterson showed that he is back with a vengeance when he placed 16th today, his best individual World Cup result in nearly two years and the second-best individual result of his career.
In comments to Nordic Insights, Zak lent some great insight into his season so far, and also had some great advice: “Today was a really rewarding experience after a really tough winter so far,” he wrote. “Period one was just bad race after bad race, and then got Covid and missed the last two weekends. I think taking a hard reset over Christmas and in the weeks after really brought back the energy I was missing. I’m so thankful for my fiancée Julie and her family for letting me stay with them in Norway. I got to relax, recover, and find the joy in skiing in the beautiful trails at Julie’s cabin. A month of that and my energy really came back.”
“Today is just the start, hopefully, of what could still be a good rest of the season” continued Ketterson, who presumptively qualified for a start in his hometown races at Wirth Park with today’s top-30 result.
“The big lesson is if you’re super tired, or have been sick, your races aren’t representative of your level. In that way it’s really easy to improve a ton by just resting and getting energy back. The answer is almost never to train more. What we often confuse for being out of shape is actually just fatigue!”
Masters racers will no doubt benefit from the last part.
Jessie Diggins placed 9th overall coming off of her Tour de Ski win a few weeks ago and is excited going into Period 3 of the ski season.
In media comments shared from USSS, Diggins said, “It’s really nice to be racing again. I had a really nice break in Livigno. That was really, really important to feel like I had a midseason chance to reset and recover and just embrace a week of sunshine and beautiful skiing in Italy. I think that helped me feel really ready to get back into race mode. So I think it was a really good balance, and I’m excited to be back with the team here and back racing. It was so cool to have eight of us into the heats. That was really, really awesome. I feel like that was some fun momentum to carry into the start of Period 3.”
Erin Bianco enjoyed her maiden World Cup start and just barely missed out on qualifying for heats, placing 35th overall with a great ski. She was well less than a second back of moving on.
In comments to Nordic Insights regarding her experience, Bianco wrote, “The thing that I’ll most remember about today was the support I felt from the U.S. team but also my family, friends and teammates back home. It gave me the confidence to ski like myself and not try to do anything special with it being my first World Cup race. I will also remember hearing my mom cheer me up that final hill along with Matt Whitcomb giving me a final split before the finish. A European World Cup is quite the scene and I was happy and grateful to be a part of it today.”
Kevin Bolger had a great day, qualifying for his first classic heats in slightly over a year and registering a career-best classic sprint result by a huge margin when he reached the semifinals en route to finishing 12th overall on the day.
When asked whether the classic sprinting breakthrough was a result of any drastic changes or just the accretion of small improvements over time, Bolger reflected to Nordic Insights, “It’s been awhile since I’ve been in any classic heat let alone a semi-final! So today was pretty f*cking awesome.
“I think some small changes in technique with my new coach Einar Moxnes [have] really helped, but also just a new steady training plan, with good progression and focus. It’s always been frustrating not making classic heats, the speed and fitness are clearly there, so making some technique changes I think really helped, but now just having the confidence moving forward will be huge!”
Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to the mass start 20km classic on Oberhof’s rolling and punchy hills. So is Brennan. “Tomorrow’s a 20km, which is a lot more time to think and figure things out,” she said in audio provided by USSS. “I’m optimistic that I have the fitness and shape that I need to do well tomorrow and I think I definitely feel like I’m on the upswing from the Tour. And so I’m excited to just get in there and see what happens.”
Scott Patterson, Gus Schumacher, Ben Ogden, Peter Wolter, Zak Ketterson, and JC Schoonmaker are slated to start tomorrow for the American men. For the women, it will be Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Sophia Laukli, and Julia Kern. Saturday will be Wolter’s third career World Cup start; the Sun Valley athlete contested two distance races in Les Rousses, France, in Period 3 of the 2022/2023 season.
