By Adele Haeg
It’s Period 3, we’re in Les Rousses, France, and today in the 10-kilometer interval-start skate race BEN OGDEN PODIUMED!!! Ogden has never podiumed in a distance race before, and this his second World Cup podium ever. What a way to ring in the new period!
Ogden, wearing bib 19, set the pace at the first three checkpoints on the course. Iver Tildheim Andersen of Norway, bib 26, supplanted Ogden as leader when he went through the 4-kilometer checkpoint, and finished ten seconds ahead of him in 19:50.6 (yes, winning times were under 20 minutes for 10km. Every second counts out there.). Pål Golberg of Norway took second (+5.2) and Ogden was 9.1 seconds back from Andersen.
On the broadcast, Ryan Sederquist noted that the 3.3-kilometer Les Rousses loop is hilly — it starts with one of the steepest hills on the World Cup, other than Alpe Cermis, within the first 500 meters — but that what it tests is skiers’ agility on tight corners off of fast downhills (everybody’s favorite!). It has been warm in France lately and they have not had a lot of natural snow; Johan Olsson, retired Swedish ski racer turned analyst, called conditions “sunny, hard, and fast.” Sederquist thinks these course conditions suit Vermonter Ogden. Apparently so.
Ogden was accompanied in the top 30 by Kevin Bolger, who finished 28th in a rare distance start for the not-just-a-spruinter. Bolger, who wore bib 2 today (and his Team Birkie hat), told FIS reporters on site, “The plan is to get to the leader’s chair as quick as I can. It’s a rare thing for me to be starting so high up in a distance race, so it’s exciting, it’s new. I’m excited.”
As for the other American men in the field, JC Schoonmaker was 31st, Luke Jager 45th, and Hunter Wonders 48th. Wonders was just over two minutes back of Andersen — the Americans all finished within two minutes of each other and of first place, which is a small margin.
Bolger commented on the course: “It’s pretty tough, but I mean every race is tough, especially when it comes to distance skiing. But some big climbs, some fun working downhills, I mean, it’s the same for everybody, so it’s gonna be a ripper.” That two-minute difference between first and 48th proves that Bolger was right. It was a ripper, no doubt about it.
After the race, Bolger told Nordic Insights, “JC and I were talking this morning about how to pace it He was like, Well, I think I’m gonna get out to the top of this first climb really fast, and I was like, I think I’m gonna try to do the opposite. And it still hurt really, really bad going what I thought was controlled.”
Luke Jager told Nordic Insights post-race, “I didn’t have that much of a plan; I was trying to just not blow up on that big hill. Shit, my legs were so freaking heavy after that first lap. It felt like I’d been bludgeoned in my legs after that first lap. But, you live and you learn, you know?”
Jager added, “I got to the finish and Ben was on the podium! That was so sick.” It was.
JC Schoonmaker told Nordic Insights, “[The course] was good; it was a pretty good course for me. I mean, the hill is definitely huge, and that part was really hard, but the second half rewarded people who could ski smooth and big and that was really good for me.”
You might notice if you peruse the results that there were a few big names missing today. There’s a careful calculus to the cross-country ski racing calendar. This sport is demanding; not even Klæbo can compete in every race or have every prize. Under scarcity of time, treasure, and even talent, athletes have to analyze the costs and benefits of racing when and where (if you can’t tell, I just started taking microeconomics — good stuff).
That said, the Italian team will be absent from Les Rousses, because they want to sneak in an extended training block now, before World Champs. That’s unfortunate for Federico Pellegrino, who before today’s race was in 3rd in the overall standings (he is now fifth). Gus Schumacher similarly did not start today; he returned to Anchorage after he withdrew from the Tour de Ski due to illness, and is still training at home for now. Schumacher won this event in Minneapolis last February; American skiers enjoy a 10km skate, clearly.
Much to the chagrin of his countrymen, Klæbo will not be competing in the Norwegian Championships, because he just won the Tour de Ski, and he wants to do the same at World Champs. He also did not compete in today’s race here. Such is ski racing, and such is the first weekend of ski racing after the Tour de Ski.
Ogden said to reporters on site, “There were a lot of Norwegians missing, and you know, they probably would have been in front of me. But you gotta make hay while the sun shines!” He’s right.
For most athletes, especially the Norwegians, this season is about one event: world champs in Trondheim. Any medal there is the prize: the benefits of achieving one medal there will for any athlete outweigh the costs of missing a World Cup race, even a fun one like the 10km skate before a boisterous crowd. The benefit of this situation is that you can bet that those World Championships will be exciting.
A happy Iver Tildheim Andersen told reporters on site, “I’m very satisfied. At least now I have a chance to go [to World Champs], maybe, so we’ll see.” On tactics today he commented “Going out the start, [I was] trying not to go too fast up the first hill, and I instantly thought, Okay, I managed that, and now it’s just full gas to the finish.” This is Andersen’s second World Cup win. His first was in 2022, in the Lillehammer 10-kilometer skate.
There’s the careful calculus of the calendar and then there’s skiing fast on the day; expectations and pressure and tactics are part of the equation but luck, fast skis, and, for Ben Ogden, just the joy of being there, tipped the scales in his favor today. He looked positively chummy stepping onto the podium today. Ogden has not had a podium since he finished third in a Tour de Ski skate sprint in December 2023. This is an exciting result for him.
Ogden told Nordic Insights, “My plan was really to try to start chill, but it’s so hard when you go straight uphill. It’s like impossible not to start really hard, but, it worked out, sort of, for me. It was a bit of a nail-biter at the end, but pretty awesome.”
He mentioned how this race fits into his season overall: “What this means for me is just like I had a good Tour recovery. I mean, the Tour is a pretty heavy load on the body, so it’s nice to feel like you recovered properly, without overdoing it. It’s a good sign. I mean obviously, I have bigger goals later in the season, but Americans can’t turn our nose up at a podium at any point.” Ogden was recently 15th overall in the Tour de Ski.
More tomorrow in Les Rousses: a classic sprint. Luke Jager, Murphy Kimball, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, and Jack Young are slated to start for the Americans. Our Devin Ward will be on site all weekend; stay tuned.
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.
