By Devin L. Ward, Ph.D.
This morning’s women’s 15-kilometer classic pursuit, in, yes, Toblach, formed the fourth stage of the Tour de Ski. The course was three laps of 5km, each including a loop of the stadium, through mixed sun and shade.
Astrid Øyre Slind went off first in the pursuit start, having won yesterday, and soon let Norwegian teammate Therese Johaug catch her, in the process losing what could have been a precious four-second gap. Interviewed after the race, Slind said that this was an intentional move.
It was definitely an effective one. Slind won by a slim margin over Johaug (+.2), with Kerttu Niskanen in third (+57.4). Their teamwork allowed them to substantially grow their gap over the Finn, who had started the race 17 seconds back of Johaug and 21 seconds back of Slind. After Johaug crossed the line she immediately skied to embrace Slind.
“The race was actually perfect. We had really good skis and Therese and I worked really well together today,” Slind told FIS after the race.
Slind and Johaug worked together seamlessly at the front throughout the race, drilling the pace, regularly swapping the lead position, and consistently pulling away. They were followed, though not closely, by Niskanen, who was largely on her own for the entire 15km.
Niskanen never caught the leading dynamic duo, and also was not caught by the train of athletes behind her. The order of this strung-out group varied somewhat, but included newly minted classic star Jessie Diggins, Victoria Carl of Germany, Heidi Weng of Norway, and Katherine Stewart-Jones of Canada (this marks the second consecutive great performance for Stewart-Jones, building off of her career-best tie for fourth yesterday). While Stewart-Jones tucked in behind Weng, Diggins spent a lot of time skiing beside the two before shifting to ski in-line with them towards the end of the race. Diggins finished sixth, 2:08.5 behind Slind.
In a Tour de Ski that has been largely missing the Swedish women, Ebba Anderson posted the fifth-fastest time of the day.
Speaking to her race tactics, Diggins told Nordic Insights, “I am really proud of my effort today. I went really, really hard. I left it all out there and I did everything I could with what I had today. … That’s all you can do and so really proud of that. [I worked] together with Heidi [Weng] really, really well. We were trading leads and helping each other and I told her to get out of the tracks, [it’s] faster and she did and we were helping pull each other along, so yeah, working with Heidi was really awesome.” In spite of the Tour being (obviously) an individual effort, it’s very cool to see athletes racing collaboratively, and faster as a result.
summon @digginscollapseindex (photo: screenshot from broadcast)
A second pack of 10 athletes formed another minute or so further behind Slind and Johuag, including Sophia Laukli. Laukli finished 17th overall today (+3:06.9).
When Nordic Insights asked Laukli how her focus on classic technique in training was reflected in this race (and other classic races so far), she responded, “[I] could definitely notice it was easier to ski out there today. Not every classic race this year, but I’ve definitely had a few where I’ve finished and [thought], Okay, that was a little bit more enjoyable than normal just because I feel like I could technically … use my full fitness, which I feel like I’ve never been able to do before. [So] definitely like climbing and in that regard it felt very good.”
After Laukli, Julia Kern finished 25th (+4:40.6), and Rosie Brennan 31st (+5:23.2). Alayna Sonnesyn did not start, posting on Instagram after the race, “Heart wanted more but the body was saying no to anymore Tour de Ski.”
Kern told Nordic Insights, “I am happy with how I skied. I think pursuits are always really hard because they start out really fast and everyone’s trying to hunt down everyone. I tried to ski with the pack, but that only lasted about half way through the race. … You know the races are accumulating so I got pretty tired, but I kept on trying to fight to the finish and every second counts in the Tour.”
The key take-home from today’s racing is the impact on the overall standings. With time gained from collaboration, Slind takes the overall lead, six seconds ahead of Johaug and 28 seconds ahead of Niskanen. This pushes Diggins off the overall podium to fourth, just over a minute back, but with the potential to gain back time in stage five’s classic sprint.
So, after a rest day tomorrow, tune in on Friday to catch Diggins, Brennan, Laukli, and Kern *still* in the Italian Alps for a classic sprint in Val di Fiemme (12:15pm CET, 6:15am EST, and 2:15am in Anchorage).
While at face value the lack of meaningful travel should improve recovery potential, physiologically speaking, Brennan points out that psychologically sometimes it’s best to just move on, saying, “It’s been great to be in the same hotel for a while, although sometimes after you have a bad race it’s nice to just actually move spots. So now I’m thinking it would have been nice to move halfway through, but, you know, here we are.”
Results: classic pursuit | Tour de Ski overall
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