By Merridy Littell
Today’s 20-kilometer skiathlon started on a picture-perfect day in Lillehammer, Norway. Golden sunlight filtered through the newly snow-covered trees. The temperature was just barely above freezing, well within the comfortable range for racing. A person in a blow-up gingerbread man costume could be seen on the sidelines of the course waving a Norwegian flag.
The skiathlon course featured four laps of a 2.5-kilometer course for the classic half, then three laps of a 3.3-kilometer course for the skate portion. The skate laps today included the full classic course plus two add-ons that brought it up to the 3.3km distance. In between these two portions of the race, skiers would have to exchange their classic gear for a skate setup in a designated transition zone.
The course was challenging, even by World Cup standards, with over 40 meters of climb per kilometer for both classic and skate. Johaug, who gold in 50km skate at World Champs has made no secret of gold in 50km skate at World Champs her ambitions for this season, told Expressen, “They are optimal. They are capacity courses with a lot of ups and downs. It’s very tough and Trondheim is one of them. So it was good training.”
Right out of the gate, Jessie Diggins charged hard, meeting Therese Johaug stride for stride. At the 1.3-kilometer mark, Johaug, Diggins, Astrid Øyre Slind, and Heidi Weng were all within a second of each other, with the rest of the front pack not far behind. Already, the race had strung out a little, with a few gaps forming between different groups of racers.
As they came into the sweeping left-hand corner a few minutes after the 1.3km time checkpoint, snow flew as the front pack scrubbed speed. This was probably due to the changing conditions of the course following the men’s race.
Pre-race previews of the course can only help so much, as Julia Kern told Nordic Insights: “I like to scope out the course during the week if we are able to, playing around with how to ski the corners differently and taking speed into them during training so the race doesn’t feel too much faster. That being said, things always change on race day, like today where we went after the men’s race and the corners were all huge patches of ice with a deep berm.” That said, very few crashes occurred on the course today, a testament to the skill of these skiers.
Halfway through the classic portion, a distinct lead pack of eight skiers had formed, with Ebba Andersson leading and Jessie Diggins sitting comfortably in fifth. Diggins looked very smooth throughout the classic portion, with a powerful doublepole and graceful striding. Sophia Laukli and Julia Kern sat in 17th and 18th, respectively, apparently working together to move up through the pack.
The first of two opportunities for bonus points came at 7.1 kilometers, with Jessie Diggins surging back into the lead to take the coveted 15 points, with Andersson receiving 12 and Therese Johaug 10. These unique time checks are opportunities for racers to receive points toward the overall and distance rankings, and for Diggins to add to her overall World Cup lead. Diggins was wearing the yellow bib, which denotes the skier who has accumulated the most points across both sprint and distance races. Johaug wore the red bib; this bib indicates the leader of either the sprint or distance rankings, depending on the format of the race. Today, it showed that Johaug led the distance points rankings.
A bit after the bonus points lap, Johaug threw in a surge that resulted in a bit of a gap; at 8.8km Johaug had opened up a 3-second lead on Ebba Andersson, and Jessie Diggins briefly saw a little daylight between her and the skier in front of her, Weng.
Spoiler alert: Johaug’s lead would continue to grow throughout the race.
Coming into the stadium after their fourth classic lap, the racers switched their classic gear for a skate setup. After a smooth transition, the racers moved to the skate portion of this skiathlon.
Having raced a skiathlon myself, I can say that a viewer of this race should not be deceived by the speed and apparent ease with which these athletes transition from classic to skate gear. Any number of things can go wrong at this point of the race: skis can slide away from you, potentially gaining some distance in a cavernous stadium, bindings can become frozen, and pole straps can prove uncooperative. Moreover, you have to stop moving, bend down, and then resume going L4 again even as all the blood rushes to your head. This is clearly a practiced skill, once again reinforcing why these skiers are the best in the world.
(above: Johaug in the transition zone, switching from classic to skate skis and making it look easy (photo: screenshot))
The gear change is not the only difficult part of this transition; having to quickly move from classic to skate technique is also difficult. “Your muscles need to switch over,” as Diggins put it to Nordic Insights. “I feel like it took me a whole lap of the skate course to feel like my muscles were ready to really go for it in skating. So that definitely was really interesting, and I was kind of trying to be in the moment and adjust based on how my body was responding to the course.”
As stated earlier, Johaug’s lead would grow in the second half of the race. What was not mentioned was that Johaug’s lead would grow by nearly 22 seconds in the first lap (3.3km) of the skate portion alone. Johaug’s remarkably efficient transitions through the rollers had her skiing into the stadium with no one else in sight. In the stadium, coaches and support staff were waiting with feeds for the athletes, presumably drinks containing a sugar and electrolyte combo. Jessie Diggins smoothly took her feed, maintaining her lead over what was now the first chase group.
At 16.3 km, Diggins once again threw in a surge to take an additional 10 bonus points. Johaug had come through earlier and received 15 bonus points. Johaug has said previously that she does not intend to race all the World Cup races this year, meaning that the bonus points she takes in these early distance races may have an impact on the results of the globes awarded to the leaders of these rankings at the end of the season
Laukli came through the time check just under a minute later in 11th place, having gained back nine spaces since the transition to skate, much of that solo.
When asked by USSS what she was most proud of in regards to today’s race, Laukli answered that “I wasn’t anticipating to be solo for the skate part, but I was really happy that I still just went for it and probably dug as deep as I ever had. I had no idea if I would blow up because I was going so hard and just trying to catch those in front, but I think that’s what I feel proud about, that I just committed and hoped going all out would pay off, which it did.”
As previously covered in these pages, Laukli cut her trail running season short to focus on training for nordic skiing. When asked by Nordic Insights whether she thinks this decision helped with today’s result, Laukli said, “The first few races of the year have definitely shown me that I made the right decision in shifting focus to skiing earlier this year. I felt much more prepared for racing, and put a lot more time on snow before the season, so my confidence is definitely at a higher starting point for races than in past years where I transitioned a bit later.”
The race for the final podium spots was hard-fought to the end. Diggins ultimately lost a little speed on a final downhill corner and Heidi Weng moved past her into second, holding that position to the line. Diggins’s third, 0.5 seconds back of Weng and 43.1 seconds back of Johaug, was her 73rd career World Cup podium finish.
Laukli finished in 11th and Julia Kern followed in 20th, a career-best skiathlon result for both women. Alayna Sonnesyn rounded out the U.S. women’s results in 43rd. Sydney Palmer-Leger started the race, but unfortunately DNF’d somewhere around the 8km mark.
Rosie Brennan, who is battling an undisclosed injury, did not start today. In a statement, she told Nordic Insights, “I’m dealing with an unknown injury that significantly impacted my race on Saturday. It’s stressful … at the moment and right now, I don’t have any other information to share. I will be working with our medical staff to figure out a plan moving forward.”
This was a very good day for the United States, with a podium from Diggins, a fifth place from Gus Schumacher, and a total of four career-best skiathlon finishes between the men and women.
Next week, the World Cup moves to Davos with the team sprint on December 13th. Starters to be decided, but with no points toward the World Cup overall on offer, look for some load management from the American camp.
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