By Angie Kell
In today’s Cross-Country Skiing Confessional, I fully profess that sprint days aren’t always my favorite viewing activity within the sport. However, on Stage 5 of Tour de Ski racing, now in Val di Fiemme, Italy, I was eagerly anticipating the sprint races.
Let me justify my rationale. We are at a point in the Tour when athletes are tired, vulnerability to injury is ripe, and illness is rampant. As such, athletes have disappeared from start lists each day. Add to that a new, challenging sprint course (which will be repeated next year at the 2026 Winter Olympics), and an interesting course at that. Putting this all together into a single equation, it was anticipated that athletes who haven’t yet seen the podium in the 2024/2025 World Cup season might do so today.
This year’s course was a 1.2km loop featuring two steep climbs, several bends and turns (including one hairpin turn), and requiring perfectly prepared skis, brilliant tactics, and an extra dose of good luck. Several skiers commented that the course was reminiscent of Ruka’s course, raced back in late November, though this is likely a nod more to its hilliness than to the elevation profile of the closing stretch.
[Read more: Hard against “catastrophic” Olympic track – Absolutely sick (NRK)]
Before the race, retired Slovenian racer and Olympian Petra Majdič described the course on the live feed. Speaking to its difficulty, Majdič said, “I think that the athletes who are total sprinters will have some challenges for sure. More chances or possibility to win the race is on those who are quite good in long distance.”
“Why? Because,” she continued, “there are two quite steep and long uphills. The second one will be who will decide who can win the race and it will be a lot of work. There will be no mistakes allowed in kick or in sprint.”
American Julia Kern described the course to Nordic Insights more specifically: “The course is challenging on all fronts — physically, tactically, and technically on the skis. You need to be in good form to climb the big hills, good on your feet to navigate the corners, tactically sound with the slingshot effect with a downhill finish, and of course great kick and glide for the big climbs and downhill finish. Everything has to be dialed on all fronts to have success here and possibly have a pinch of good luck too.”
In the women’s qualification round, where overall bonus time was awarded to the top thirty who advanced, it was Finnish racer Jasmi Joensuu who led the way with the fastest time. Joensuu’s 2:59.11 made her the only woman to go under three minutes on the 1.2km course. Italian skier Nicole Monsorno, competing on her home turf, finished second, 2.1 seconds slower. Joenssu’s teammate Johanna Matintalo rounded out the top three of this round, finishing in a time of 3:01.59.
Jessie Diggins qualified for the heats in 19th position, just ahead of Norwegian rival and Tour de Ski overall contender Therese Johaug in 21st. Closely behind Johaug, qualifying 22nd, was Kern. The third and final American still in the race, Sophia “distance specialist” Laukli, did not advance beyond the qualification round, placing 42nd.
Teammates Rosie Brennan and Alayna Sonnesyn did not start. Sonnesyn had withdrawn a few days earlier. Brennan was initially listed on the start list for today (which is officially released 24 hours in advance), and so was a relatively late scratch. In an Instagram post (below), Brennan, who has not looked like herself for much of the season, wrote simply, “✌🏼Tour de Ski 😤. Time to get healthy.”
When asked about the day and any perceived disappointments, Laukli provided Nordic Insights with the plain, pragmatic, and direct language that one must appreciate from her. “Today was very much a to-do list race so the result is not something I really focus on,” Laukli wrote. “The second sprint of the tour for me is all about minimizing energy/effort so I can be more prepped for the next day, so I got that done today.”
She added, “The tour is about knowing your strengths and capitalizing on those. That means I’m not focusing on each individual race but the ones that I have a chance of performing well in and get excited about, so that’s what I use my energy and focus on.”
In the quarterfinals, Diggins and Johaug shared the first heat with Joensuu and Monsorno, who finished one–two, once again. Diggins, on the heels of Monsorno in the final sprint, finished third in 3:02.45, 1.03 seconds behind Joensuu, and hoped for a lucky loser position.
But a blazing second heat in the quarterfinals squarely eliminated Diggins from advancing to the semifinals; she finished 14th on the day. Swedish skier Linn Svahn, whose form appeared to be coming together for the first time of the season, won the second heat in a time of 2:58.51. Italian skier Caterina Ganz secured the first of two lucky loser spots in this heat, with a time of 2.59.64.
Norwegian Heidi Weng would later claim the second lucky loser spot in heat four thanks to pace setting duties by Swiss skier Nadine Fähndrich, who began to demonstrate some form.
Diggins shared some surprising information after her heat today. Speaking to the media in the mixed zone, without a hint of despair in her voice, she noted that something is wrong.
“Right now I’m being treated for plantar fasciitis,” she said, “which is intense pain in the heel. But at the same time, it is okay for me to be racing, but classic really hurts it. The nice thing is, skating is okay, so now I only have half of a classic race left. We are taking it by day. The goal is to finish the Tour. The rest of my body feels great, and I’m really lucky and grateful for that. Sometimes things hurt and there’s just not a lot you can do about it.”
The third heat was the first heat in which the tactical toying began at the summit of the second climb, as was seen in the men’s quarterfinal races. The ensuing descent, with drafting and slingshotting for the final flat sprint to the finish, meant that no one wanted to be the first on the descent.
Kern, who was in this heat, demonstrated great kick throughout the lap and particularly so on the second climb. But Kern’s brief pause at the aforementioned summit emboldened French skier Melissa Gal to make a move ahead of Kern. This late positioning attempt tripped up Kern’s skis; Kern subsequently lost positioning and was eliminated from contention (she would finish fourth in the heat). Ganz was later sanctioned for obstruction and relegated to last place. Kern would finish 18th overall for the day.
Kern spoke in the mixed zone about the heat. “I was feeling really good on the hill,” she said. “I was in my lane and felt obstructed. It’s frustrating because you don’t get that back at the end of the day. But I’m proud of how I raced and it will just make me hungry for next year here.”
After the experience had time to percolate a bit more, Kern returned to Nordic Insights with some final thoughts. “I feel bittersweet about the day. I had incredible skis today thanks to our extremely hard-working techs — they crushed it. I was in a tactical heat and tried to ski smart and in control, getting myself into the right position.”
Then her frustration rightfully surfaced: “Unfortunately, you can’t control what other skiers do and only predict and prevent so much. Another skier blatantly obstructed me and there was nothing I could do. It’s shitty when your day gets impacted by something out of your control, a relegation and yellow card don’t take back your race, but at the least the jury did their job and there is nothing more I can do than learn from it and look ahead.”
The Finals, as anticipated, featured the faces of racers who have not yet emerged as podium contenders this season: Svahn, Fähndrich, Finnish racer Jasmin Kähärä, Heidi Weng, her cousin Lotta Udnes Weng, and German Laura Gimmler.
Clean starts were seen by Fähndrich, Svahn, and Gimmler at the front. Svahn led on the first hill and Heidi Weng was seen at this point trailing at the back of the pack. The final climb featured the Weng cousins climbing on the outskirts of either ends of the tracks with the clean snow. But Fähndrich’s kick was undoubtedly superior up the climb and she moved into the lead, with Svahn closely behind.
Fähndrich’s skis reigned superior throughout, though, as her final descent was fast enough that Svahn could not capitalize on the draft, and the pair finished first and second, respectively. Fähndrich’s winning time was 2:57.63 and Svahn was just 0.04 seconds behind. Notably, Fähndrich’s last sprint win was on New Year’s Eve 2022, in Val Mustair, her home turf.
Heidi Weng was able to slingshot ahead of Kähärä on the descent. On the strength of a furious doublepole finish she narrowly rounded out the podium, 0.53 seconds behind Fähndrich. It was Weng’s first sprint podium since 2020, where she finished behind Johaug in a sprint straight up the base of an alpine run in Åre, Sweden, and her first podium in a “real” sprint since Otepää in February 2017, nearly five years ago. You can see Weng celebrating in bib no. 11 at the far left of the above screenshot.
The finishes shifted both the overall Tour de Ski standings and the Sprinter’s Jersey point standings. Heidi Weng, with the time bonus, improved to fifth overall at 1:27 behind leader Astrid Øyre Slind, who was 16th for the day.
Fähndrich now leads the Sprint standings, ahead of former leader Joensuu by 15 points. Joensuu finished the day in 7th place overall.
In the overall standings, Slind retains the yellow leader’s bib for the second race in a row; Diggins had held it for stages one through three. Slind currently leads Johaug by eight seconds and Kerttu Niskanen by 29 seconds. Diggins remains in fourth in the overall, 29 seconds back. Kern and Diggins are 28th and 30th in the overall, roughly 7 minutes back of Slind on cumulative time.
Racing resumes tomorrow in Val di Fiemme with the 20km Skiathlon. Here is the start list. Diggins will go out in bib 5, Kern in bib 28, and Laukli in bib 30. Pending more withdrawals tomorrow morning, there are 36 women remaining in this year’s Tour de Ski.
Results: classic sprint | overall Tour standings
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.
