By Noah Eckstein
No one can accuse Jessie Diggins of being boring. The glitter, the dancing, the sparkle chipmunk of it all; it collectively injects intrigue into an otherwise pretty staid sport. Over the past handful of years, though, Diggins has won a lot of ski races. Between her first individual World Cup win (at this very venue, in fact) in 2016 and yesterday, she stood alone atop the podium 21 times. Winning became normal, if perhaps not boring.
Today, Jessie Diggins won another ski race. But this race, unlike all the others, was a World Cup classic race.
Although she will never grace the iPad screens of coaches trying to teach good classic technique, Diggins, through years and years of determined work — and a sprinkling of excellent skis and good form, as she made clear today — managed to be the best classic skier in the world on this particular day.
Joining her on the podium of stage two of the Tour de Ski, a 15-kilometer mass start in Toblach, Italy, were Kerttu Niskanen of Finland and Astrid Øyre Slind of Norway. Therese Johaug, finally mortal, finished sixth, 4.6 seconds back.
A field of 63 took to the start of the four-lap race, with Johanna Hagström and Sofie Krehl the first marks on the Tour’s wall of attrition. The first three or so kilometers of the race presented a welcome and slightly bizarre sight: not a single Norwegian or Swedish suit anywhere near the front of the pack. With Tour de Ski start orders based on the overall Tour leaderboard and both teams putting out lackluster sprint performances yesterday, most of the Scandinavians started well back in the field.
Filling this vacuum were Jasmi Joensuu of Finland and Nadine Fähndrich of Switzerland, second and third in Saturday’s sprint, who traded pulls for the first three kilometers in anticipation of the sprint prime at the 3.3km mark. Joensuu picked up the maximum 15 points and Fähndrich took 12, vaulting them to the front of the Tour sprint standing ahead of Diggins, who was well back in 10th.
Rather than indicating a fade, this simply previewed that Diggins felt she had bigger fish to fry today. Half a lap later, she latched onto Johaug’s tails as the Norwegian, wearing bib 39, made her way forward from mid-pack. From that point on, Johaug, Diggins, Niskanen and Slind took over as pacemakers.
Around the 9km mark, a group of nine women broke clear at the front, with Johaug, Diggins, Niskanen, and Slind joined by Heidi Weng, Silje Theodorsen, Ebba Anderson, Teresa Stadlober, and Linn Svahn. Into the stadium for the penultimate time, 11km into the race, Svahn was the first to begin to lose contact. A brief respite in pace at the beginning of the final lap allowed the Swede to nearly regain contact, but the last time up the course’s first climbing section saw the elastic eventually snap.
Up this climb the American and Norwegian skis looked notably slick, with Diggins slipping a number of times and all the Norwegians transitioning to herringbone. Ebba Anderson, on the other hand, showed that the “thick to kick, thin to win” philosophy, no matter how comforting, is usually the wrong choice if you would like to, well, win, as her clean striding turned into noticeably slow skis on the following descent.
Stadlober then dropped off the back up the final climbing section, leaving seven women to contest the finish. As the distance course rejoined yesterday’s sprint course, Diggins surged hard, taking a gap of a few ski lengths over the first of two rollers. The draft and some characteristically quick Norwegian skis brought her back in contact, but Diggins’s lead around the final corner into the finishing straight remained decisive. Behind, Niskanen pulled around Slind but neither even came close to challenging Diggins across the line.
Despite all her recent winning, this particular win clearly meant something special to Diggins. “Honestly it’s really emotional because I’m looking at my coach right now,” she told multiple outlets in the mixed zone.
In the background of this audio file, the voice belonging to that coach, Jason Cork, then shouted, “I thought you said you were gonna ski smart… oh wait, you did!”
Diggins laughed heartily before continuing, “It’s actually really cool because I feel like my whole life I was always working on classic skiing, and I still am working on it, but it’s really cool because we finally fucking did it. This summer I put in so much work on my doublepole, and so much work trying to improve my power and my strength. I feel like being able to sprint like that yesterday and being able to finish like that today, I didn’t know that I had that in me, and I had to work really, really hard to get there. I got a lot of help from a lot of people. It’s honestly super emotional. It’s really cool.”
Diggins is never one to hog all the glory for herself, and today was no exception. “I’m thankful because I had the perfect skis,” she said, “and that takes a whole team to deliver. So I feel like this victory is just as much for the wax techs as it is for me. And we’re really gonna celebrate when I get back to that truck!”
Hopefully those celebrations can raise the spirits of Rosie Brennan, who sounded frustrated with her 14th-place finish. “Yeah, I definitely missed the break,” she told Nordic Insight in an audio message, referring to the decisive split at the beginning of the third lap. “I just wasn’t in a good position, partly because I don’t have the top end I’d hoped to and partly because I’d crashed and was on a long climb from the back to the front throughout the race. But yeah, that was a crucial place that I definitely missed.”
Thankfully, things should be looking up for Brennan. “These first two stages were the ones I was most worried about,” she said, “so I’m actually looking forward to the rest of the stages — they’re all races I really enjoy.”
Julia Kern, who finished 31st, was positive about her classic skiing and her form coming into the Tour de Ski. “I’m proud of having the confidence in classic distance to try go for it and ski well,” she wrote to Nordic Insights. “I spent most of the fall only classic skiing due to my back injury, so I worked a lot on my double pole and stride this fall. I feel like my classic distance form has taken a step up this year.”
As for the other American starters, Sophia Laukli finished 46th and Alayna Sonnesyn (Team Birkie) 50th.
By winning the first two stages, Diggins carries a hefty lead in the Tour de Ski overall into the first rest day, with Niskanen trailing by 38 seconds and Slind by 1:09. Other notable contenders for the overall win include Weng, 1:09 back, and Johaug, 1:14 back. Joensuu now takes over the silver sprint leader’s bib, and Johaug the purple climber’s bib.
Racing continues in Toblach on Tuesday with a 20-kilometer interval start skate. Barring illness or fatigue, the same five American women should take the start.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in years one and two of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year three of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
