By Adam Bodensteiner
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The second race weekend of Period 1 wrapped up today with another feature of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games: the 10-kilometer interval-start skate, a mainstay of cross-country skiing.
This is one of Jessie Diggins’s favorite events, but the question was if her legs could match her grit following her winning effort in the skiathlon. The women had skied second on Saturday and then first today, with an early start time leaving only a short recovery window from the day before.
The early start meant that the late, nordic sunrise was just breaking through the clouds, and that the snow had firmed up nicely after the warmer, sugary conditions in the skiathlon.
Five other American women joined the Diggins on the start line. Kendall Kramer had bib four today. Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Diggins, Alayna Sonnesyn (Team Birkie), and Kate Oldham followed.
The Swedish women showed their dominance early with Jonna Sundling and Ebba Andersson setting fast splits at the 2 km mark (5:52.7 for Sundling). Diggins looked strong as she skied through a few minutes later, just 1.3 seconds back in third.
Maria Gismondi (ITA), bib 20 and 21 years old, set an initial benchmark at the 5.9-kilometer checkpoint. It would hold until Sundling, bib 38, came through almost nine minutes later. Sundling was starting to fade, however, and her time would be replaced by Moa Ilar (SWE), then Andersson. Diggins slotted into second with an 8-second difference.
With only 800 meters to go, Gismondi was still skiing well but Sundling set the new benchmark, then Ilar, then Andersson. Diggins entered the frame and it was a sight skiing fans are well acquainted with at this point: ponytail flying, nothing left in the tank but grit and determination. She passed 9.2km in third, 13.3 seconds off of Andersson.
At the finish, Gismondi’s time held for roughly nine minutes, until, in similar fashion to the earlier checkpoints, the Swedes, one by one, replaced each other at the top of the leaderboard. It was Ilar by 17.8 seconds over Sundling, then Andersson in the top spot with two seconds to spare.
Back on the course, Diggins was fighting for everything. Chris Grover, USST program director, shouted encouragement as she skated up the final climb, clearly heard on the TV broadcast: “You’re one second from the podium!”
Diggins told Nordic Insights that she indeed registered this information in the moment, but it didn’t really affect her finishing kick; she was already giving it everything: “I heard Grover shouting,” she recalled. “I’m always just fighting for every single second because you never know what could happen. You never know when you might need that extra 1/100th of a second. So pretty much no matter what I’m hearing out there, I’m just trying to cross that finish line with nothing left. I felt like I did that today and I was really proud of that.”
Into the stadium, Diggins looked absolutely shattered but still dug in to sprint down the home stretch, flying into third place, 3.3 seconds ahead of Sundling. The only challenge to her podium finish came a few minutes later when Astrid Øyre Slind (NOR) entered the stadium. Diggins’s podium position was secure, however, as Slind would cross the line 2.9 seconds out of third. Every second counts out there.
The final podium was Ebba Andersson in first, Moa Ilar in second, and Diggins in third. Diggins is shown below in her natural habitat.
Julia Kern had the second best American time, ending up in 40th, 1:30.2 back. Kendall Kramer ended in 46th, Rosie Brennan in 51st, Alayna Sonnesyn in 55th, and Kate Oldham finished 63rd.
The Americans were feeling the effects of a big weekend of racing and are focused on the long term, taking away positives from the day. Sonnesyn told Nordic Insights, “I skied the terrain really well today. I worked all of the transitions and really focused on carrying momentum into a hill or over the top of hills and around corners. Unfortunately, I was just off the pace and my body was pretty drained from yesterday’s skiathlon race.”
Kern had a similar attitude and shared her strategy for the race: “My plan was to start controlled and build from there, and that’s what I did, but I started off too conservative, I think, in hindsight. I was definitely feeling the skiathlon effort yesterday in my legs today, which made it hard to have the extra pep to push, but stacking race efforts in P1 is how I build my race form for the longer term goals of the season.”
Like Kern, heavy racing is part of the plan for Diggins this early season. “I definitely am feeling the racing in my legs” she said. Adding, “I like to try and work my way into the season, in that I’m not coming over extra early to do early-season FIS races or Scandinavian Cups. I just come into Ruka with those being the first races, so your body has to get used to doing triples and get used to that racing intensity. For me that is part of the plan …and it’s also the normal thing for me after many many years.”
Looking ahead, Kern reflected on the upcoming races, saying, “My confidence is solid, there are some things going well, and some things I’m still piecing together and working through. I’m keeping my head up and plan to continue to build up from here.”
The World Cup is now on its way to Davos, which next weekend will feature team and individual sprints, as well as another 10 km interval-start skate.
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Any news on why Sophia Laukli wasn’t racing in Trondheim?
Great question, and sorry to not have flagged this for folks. Judging from Strava she was at home in Oslo for the whole weekend, and never even made the trip west. I would assume from that she is sick, or at least not 100 percent and so up to racing — but that is definitely just a surmise rather than informed reporting on my part.