By Devin L. Ward, Ph.D.
Stade Nordique des Tuffes à Prémanon, Les Rousses, France — The last day of World Cup racing here saw the women contest a 20-kilometer mass start classic. Due to the race starting a bit earlier than the past two days, there was a bit of sun on the course itself, and even a lone chainsaw motor. (Free for the taking? We resisted because it would surely be a nightmare to get through UK customs.)
Turning to the motors on the race course: The lead pack was whittled down to ten after five kilometers, with big names such as Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, Astrid Øyre Slind, Katharina Hennig, Teresa Stadlober, Kerttu Niskanen, and Victoria Carl all contending.
As they approached the halfway mark Karlsson and Andersson broke away, with the former pulling the latter. While the two have previously demonstrated teamwork on par with the Slind–Johaug Tour de Ski double-team, unfortunately for Andersson, Karlsson took the first half of the race “easy” before turning on the gas at 11km.
Karlsson at this point simply walked away from the field, putting 52 seconds into Andersson by the 15km mark and even more into every trailing athlete.
Perhaps wanting to make a statement after her seventh-place finish in Friday’s 10km skate, a result that she had termed “a crap race,” Karlsson continued to drill the pace over the race’s latter half. She ultimately won by nearly 90 seconds ahead of Andersson (+1:29.9) in second and Stadlober (+1:41.3) in third, a staggering margin for a 20km. It was the all-time greatest margin of victory for a World Cup race shorter than 30km, FIS would later report. A thousand miles to the north, Therese Johaug, who yesterday won the 20km skiathlon at Norwegian Nationals by 1:16 over Heidi Weng, may have taken notice.
Slow-motion GIF of Frida Karlsson striding? Slow-motion GIF. This is what you get when your editor is an elder millennial. (photo (?) credit: Rui Xu for Nordic Insights)
Alayna Sonnesyn, of Team Birkie but not the U.S. Ski Team, avoided being lapped by Karlsson on the relatively small 3.3km loop to finish 36th (+8:56.3).
I caught Sonnesyn after the race and asked for her thoughts generally, to which she said, “It was tough. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was bummed. It was a beautiful day, the French fans were amazing as always, so I was just trying to embrace that [and] take away whatever I could.”
But what about the chainsaws? “The first lap, [the chainsaw noise] was almost so abrupt and so jarring that I couldn’t even hear myself think. It reminded me a lot of the Minneapolis crowd in the best way possible. It was great and also took me a second to comprehend what was going on.”
You may recall that on Friday, Sophia Laukli indicated that she could have used a few extra laps of the course. She got them in today’s race, which was six full laps of the 3.3km distance course after a brief warmup on a skate/distance course hybrid.
Laukli finished 16th today (+4:03.6), losing a lunge for 15th to Karoline Simpson-Larsen of Norway by 0.1 seconds (on the results sheet; it appeared tighter than that on the ground, but official results in distance races are rounded to the tenth of a second).
Laukli told Nordic Insights of her day, “It’s definitely a different story when it comes to classic because if it’s long and I’m not feeling good then the longer, the worse. It was okay today. I definitely noticed that I’m tired and that I need to train, but I was happy. It’s almost like it takes me 10km to get into it, so I was grateful for the extra 10km, but it definitely felt like forever when the body was maybe a little fatigued.”
Classic is not Laukli’s stronger discipline, but she has consistently improved her technique over the past few seasons. I asked her about these efforts.
“[I’ve been] really focusing on [classic] during my training, which I’ve never done” before, Laukli said. “I definitely put a lot more intention into all of my training sessions. I think especially in individual starts and even in mass starts, dialing in technique actually makes it a lot easier. Making that realization makes the racing feel less painful. That makes it a lot easier.”
Discussing the particulars of working on classic technique, Laukli, who is based in Oslo and trains with Team Aker Dæhlie, added, “A huge factor is rollerskiing on the treadmill this summer. I’ve always seen that and I didn’t really do it until I moved to Norway and I actually understand why that makes such a difference. You’re skiing in front of a mirror, so it’s super easy to dial in what you need to fix [and] that’s been crazy helpful. Always skiing with other Norwegians who ski pretty perfect helps a lot.” It will be good to see how she progresses through the remainder of the season.
Laukli skied nearly all of the second half of the race with Simpson-Larsen of Norway and Katherine Stewart-Jones of Canada. Stewart-Jones had a rocky start to the year but has posted some solid finishes in more recent races, notably fourth in stage 3 of the Tour de Ski, the 20km skate in Toblach.
Discussing this progress, Stewart-Jones said, “I think that Period 1 was just rough. I was having a hard time having everything come together. I had some good feeling races, but just some equipment stuff that didn’t come together. I think taking a bit of a break and training a bit over Christmas in Davos definitely helped, but I have the confidence that my shape was coming together.”
When asked how she felt about today’s race in particular, she responded, “It was good. It’s definitely a hard course and it started off really, really fast so it hurt pretty early on. I think I held on pretty well and I had a good last lap. [I was] just trying to hold on as long as possible. I would say that I maybe blew up a bit in the middle, but that’s always the strategy for these mass start races, is just to try to stay with the front group as long as possible.” Stewart-Jones was in 11th place and 3.4 seconds behind the leading group at 5km. She would ultimately finish 14th, roughly six seconds ahead of Simpson-Larsen and Laukli.
Sonnesyn was one of just two American women who started today. (Rosie Brennan has unfortunately withdrawn from World Cup racing due to her health; see below.)
I discussed funding and qualification for World Cup starts with Sonnesyn, inquiring if any of her recent performances would change the status of either. She added that those results have helped her continue to get starts, even if those starts are discretionary and not achieved through objective qualification.
Sonnesyn said, “It’s very complicated and I feel fortunate for the starts I have. That being said, I’m not on the national team so I get no funding from the national team. NNF (National Nordic Foundation) is a huge supporter of non-funded athletes, so a massive shoutout to [them]. Team Birkie has also been a huge supporter this season, and everyone who has donated to my Team Birkie fundraiser. It does take a village every single year. It’s not easy and expenses add up. I appreciate all of the support that I do get.”
It’s worth the reminder that a good proportion of athletes are on precarious footing in spite of their supporters’ efforts, an additional challenge in the pursuit of optimal training and racing. Sonnesyn’s performance this season is all the more impressive with this caveat in mind. For whatever reason — funding, environment, coaching, mental outlook, some combination of all of the above — she has definitely thrived this season with the move from SMS T2 back to Team Birkie in her native Midwest.
And finally, a heavy update from Rosie Brennan. In the above Instagram post, shared earlier today, Brennan wrote, “I’ve struggled with my health and really hoped with 2 weeks away from racing, I could learn more and do some healing but that is unfortunately not the case. It’s been very challenging to get the medical care I need overseas and without friends, family, and my coach so I’ve made the decision to return to the U.S. to try to move forward more effectively.”
In an Instagram story, Brennan added, “I’ll be channeling all the strength of the snow leopard that I can in the next few weeks and hope you will too 🐆.” And, yes, you can buy her gloves online here, or at local outdoor stores in both Anchorage and Park City.
The World Cup moves next to Engadin, Switzerland, for three days of skate-heavy racing including a mixed relay on Friday, a skate sprint on Saturday, and a 20-kilometer mass-start skate race on Sunday. With Jessie Diggins not starting today Slind takes over the red distance bib, but the other bibs remain the same. Look for Diggins to presumptively start both scored skate races in Engadin, with team rosters TBD for the relay that does not provide any individual World Cup points.
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 toAmerican 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.
