By Devin L. Ward
The penultimate stage of the Tour de Ski was today’s 20-kilometre skiathlon, the second skiathlon of the 2024/2025 World Cup season. Like yesterday’s sprint, this was also a trial of the potential tracks for the Milano–Cortina Olympics next February. The 3.3-kilometre loops for each half of the race had hard, steep climbs and fast corners, excellent for athletes to demonstrate the quality of their wax and technique.
The classic half of the race began with Nadine Fähndrich and Jasmi Joensuu grabbing the most available sprint points. This leaves Fähndrich leading in the sprint bib standings (80 points) and Joensuu in second (62 points), with Jessie Diggins in third (43 points).
In a repeat of Thursday’s 15-kilometer classic pursuit, we saw Astrid Øyre Slind and Therese Johaug leading, though the Norwegian teammates weren’t explicitly working together. They were quickly joined by Ebba Andersson and Teresa Stadlober, whose skis looked particularly fast on the downhills.
Krista Pärmäkoski, Kerttu Niskanen, and Jessie Diggins trailed this leading pack. Diggins, who recently disclosed a plantar fasciitis flare-up and who has been seen limping in the mixed zone, fell back away from the lead pack. She looked tough but tired, and was 34.3 seconds adrift at the transition.
Diggins appeared noticeably more comfortable on her skate skis. When asked about this in the mixed zone, Diggins confirmed: “You know I was just looking forward to changing to skate. I was like, Thank God now I’m just in a normal amount of pain. Honestly, that was a cool perspective to have because I just had to survive the classic half because that’s what’s hard on my foot and skating [is] just the normal kind of hurting and I know how to handle that.”
Diggins skied through Niskanen and Pärmäkoski over the skate leg to move into fifth, skiing the remainder of the race alone. Mouth agape and hoovering in all available oxygen, Diggins slowly closed towards Slind, Anderson, and Stadlober, who had been dropped by Johaug. It looked tough.
Speaking about this portion of the race in the mixed zone, Diggins said, “I just put my head down and just fought for every second. [I] was just trying to see my own race out there and I’m really, really proud.”
“Honestly with all these downhills, I kind of preferred [being on my own] because you never know what can happen and … the last thing I need on top of this foot injury is to crash so I’m just gonna try to be careful [and] try to be smart. … I actually appreciated having my own space.”
The turns looked challenging on the broadcast, but it was interesting to hear Diggins, known for her downhill ability, describe her cautious approach. Similarly, Kern, an athlete who has spent the season posting “guess my top speed” reels to Instagram and who does not shy from descents, stated, “I was definitely a bit nervous going in, just seeing the guys sliding in snow plowing so much. It was definitely really icy and technical around all of the corners. You had to pay attention the whole time so I was a bit nervous about that, but once I got into the race and found my line it was a little bit easier. … [I] just tried to really relax on the downhills and ski it safe so I could stay in the race.”
The two Americans had company with this approach: Johaug, also skiing alone, also had to reduce her speed to negotiate the turns at the bottom of hills. I wonder if we may see adjustments for Milano–Cortina 2026 to provide athletes with more space on the course. The athletes certainly seem to hope so, telling Expressen after the race, “The organizers have a lot of work to do to make this happen. Otherwise, it can get really messy.” (Edvin Anger) and “It’s a bit too narrow and a bit wrongly dosed. Nah, they’re not Olympic-class yet — some adjustments are needed for it to be really good.” (Jens Burman).
Johaug, meanwhile, though currently not planning to race next season also had thoughts on this: “They have to do something about it; you go with your heart in your throat. I would say that it is even dangerous,” she told the Swedish newspaper.
Speaking of Johaug, at the front of the race, any team tactics between her and Slind had very clearly ended by the halfway mark. In skate, Johaug performed in the style of pre-retirement Johaug: furious and relentless uphill pace, unmatchable by her remaining competitors. While she appeared to crack just a bit at the top of the final climb, it remained a dominant performance.
Johaug won, clearly happy as she crossed the line, with Stadlober just snagging second (+30.4), Slind in third (+30.6), and Andersson in a close fourth (+30.7). Diggins finished 5th (+55), having gained time on the chase pack despite losing time to Johaug in the last few kilometers.
Julia Kern had the best distance result of her World Cup career, finishing seventh (+2:10.8).
“I feel like I’m just getting in better form now,” Kern said afterwards. “I’m not sure I knew I could get a 7th place in the skiathlon but I did believe that my form is coming on. I feel like I’ve had a lot of bad luck so far this season [with] just not all the pieces coming together on the right day. I knew there is a lot more potential in there and I hadn’t really shown my best yet in distance racing or in Sprint. I really believe that there’s a lot more to give and to show.”
“Today I had incredible skis that helped me do that and my body was responding well to my surprise. A few days ago on stage 4 of the tour I felt pretty tired and bad so I was really pleasantly surprised to have just bounced back today. […] I keep believing there’s so much more potential and I’m really excited that this is showing that potential and just has me really excited for more to come.”
Sophia Laukli finished 20th (+4:01), fighting through a broken pole. “Sometimes I’d like to punch skiing in the face, hard,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Broke ass broke dreams,” she added in an Instagram story mentioning the broken pole. A USSS press officer wrote to Nordic Insights, “Sophia will not be taking media tonight,” but the above should give you a flavor of her day. We look forward to her race tomorrow; Laukli won the final climb here last year, famously dropping the mic as she crossed the line.
To summarize, going into tomorrow’s seventh and final stage, Johaug is in the lead for the overall (3:11:00), Slind is in second (+:22), and Diggins is in third (+1:47).
The last stage of the Tour de Ski, according to Diggins is, “Just a normal race … shouldn’t be too painful and shouldn’t be too hard, totally kidding!”
Given her foot injury, Diggins added, “It feels like a bonus just to be here. Maybe sometimes that’s the attitude. I have got nothing to lose, I’m just going to go out there and go as hard as I can and be grateful that it’s normal ski racing pain. I’m excited to go and just see how I can do.”
Kern’s goal for tomorrow is, “To take some chances and go for it. I have been feeling good on the uphills and on V1 recently. You never know what the hill climb [if] either you have it or you don’t. … I think trying to get in a good position early and then you kind of stay where you’re at for a lot of it. I think just sending it and soaking up the atmosphere in the craziness of stage seven and being ready to surprise myself”.
Catch Diggins, Laukli, and Kern racing the Alpe Cermis mass start 10-kilometre skate race tomorrow at 3:30pm CET (9:30EST, 5:30am in Anchorage).
Results: skiathlon | Tour de Ski overall
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