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By Angie Kell
On this fourth day of competition of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, I awoke to 2026 with no specific forethought as to how the day might pan out in the women’s 20-kilometer classic pursuit race. It’s a new year and with it arrive new goals, and so it was anyone’s guess as to whose target it was to win the race occurring in stage four. A case could have been made for several women toeing the start line.
It’s a day that Norway’s Astrid Øyre Slind had been long awaiting, following her win in the 10km classic in Stage 2 a few days earlier. Slind would be a favorite to win the day without too much nerdy nordic analysis required. A previous ski classics racer, 20km is long enough for her to tap into her hard-won endurance system, developed over her nearly 38 years of existence. Being second overall in this edition of the Tour de Ski going into today (50 seconds behind leader Jessie Diggins), Slind no doubt would have the fire and form to put forth an aggressive race.
Except, before the race, the FIS livestream featured two names with “DNS” beside them on the start list, owing to illness: not only Slind, but also Emma Ribom. These were two heavy hitters; Ribom placed second to Diggins in yesterday’s 5km mass start heat, and, with a start time 1:21 back of Diggins, could have been favored for another strong showing today. Womp womp, as the kids say.
Reshuffling my thoughts, I then watched the FIS pre-race interview with Team USA’s head coach Matt Whitcomb, whose comments added to the potential puzzle of the day.
“The conditions are easy for making good skis for training,” he said, of the never-ending push and pull of classic skis: enough grip for climbing the hills of the five-lap course, but enough glide for the famously blazing descents. “When it comes down to making good skis for the actual race, it’s a little more challenging than people think,” Whitcomb coyly stated.
But he knew. The U.S. team’s wax technicians nailed it, and the early evidence was in the men’s race, whereby Gus Schumacher landed another top-ten finish after placing sixth. Schumacher’s skis showcased minimal to no slipping on the kick, but also fast descents — a little back-of-the-envelope math from his Strava suggests top speeds today of around 44 seconds per kilometer, or 53 miles per hour. (He hit 56mph yesterday, again per Strava, so 53mph on classic skis today is plausible. If terrifying.)
All eyes were again on Jessie Diggins, then, as she toed the start line as the first skier of the race to depart. As someone who has experienced success at this venue throughout her career, expectations were high. Immediately upon the start gun, her high tempo and purposeful pace were evident. Diggins instantly put the rest of the field, nervously idling at the start, on notice: she came not for a carefully calculated win, but for a decisive win.
Diggins’s mastery of the classic technique has been an admirable journey late in her career. Her first World Cup classic win came only last year, in the 2024/2025 World Cup season, but Diggins’s diagonal stride appeared efficient, powerful, and fast on this first day of 2026.
Sweden’s Moa Ilar started exactly one minute behind Diggins (start times were based on overall placing in the pursuit format, in sequential order, starting with the race leader). But Ilar immediately lost time to Diggins, as did the rest of the field behind her, even within just lap one. At the 4km mark, Ilar had lost 19 more seconds to Diggins, and despite an aggressive pace set by Austrian Teresa Stadlober (who started 1:14 behind Diggins), she herself fell to 1:31 behind Diggins at the same landmark.
Despite slowing ever so slightly on the second lap, Diggins maintained a lead of 1:35 over Stadlober and 1:36 over Ilar. Laps three through five preserved this status quo, with Diggins ahead of Stadlober and Ilar and a chase pack unable to bridge the gap up to third.
This second pack comprised such notable names as Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, Norway’s Heidi Weng, and Kerttu Niskanen, Johanna Matintalo, and Jasmi Joensuu, all of Finland. Weng, who finished fifth overall in last year’s Tour de Ski, could have been considered a contender in this year’s edition as well, but appeared to lack the snap required at this point in the season to truly be considered as such.
Diggins finished the 20km race in 52:14.8 to decisively claim the top step on the podium, her second win in just two days. Ilar and Stadlober were evenly matched to the end, and the Swede took second by just 0.3s, in a time of 53:50.0. Stadlober rounded out the podium in 53:50.3 to take third.
Diggins spoke to various media outlets about a driving force that led to such a commanding win: “It was a hard race,” she said. “It was a lonely race. I was thinking about someone very special to our team the whole time and trying to push hard for that person and just wanting to really leave it all out there; to fight for every second and ski as efficient and smart as I could.”
She continued, “I feel like every Tour I’ve done there’s always one day where I’m like, this is the day where you have to be so gritty. If you want to win the Tour, you have to make it happen now, today… so I just said to myself, If you want to win the Tour, today is your day to be a gritty motherfucker.”
Acknowledging her coaches and supporting staff as she is wont to do, she added, “I had to solo time trial this thing and I had no help, which is tough on a flat course. But I believed in our team and my skis were perfect. I would change nothing — the skis were perfect. This was a win for the truck and the coaches, and I think the credit goes to them because to have a good race on this course, you have to really good kick and fast glide, you have to have the best of both worlds, and they nailed it.”
Diggins’s lone remaining distaff teammate in the Tour de Ski, Julia Kern, who started in bib 32 and 2:40 behind Diggins, attacked the race and improved her positioning throughout the day to finish in 18th place in a time of 55:48.
“I had a great pack to work with, with different people pushing the pace at various times,” Kern wrote to us.
Kern, who has previously told Nordic Insights that her form tends to improve daily during the Tour de Ski, has found this year’s edition no different.
“Yes, I seem to be following the same trajectory as every year, where mid–Tour de Ski things start to click.” Like Diggins she added, “Today was great, my skis were so amazing so I knew I could stride up the big climb relaxed and fly by people on the downhills — a huge shoutout to our techs today!”
In the spirit of honoring meaningful contributions, the day ended with one additional and poignant tribute: Toblach bestowed a bridge with Jessie’s name to honor her eight total wins at the venue. “Jessie’s Bridge” had its official ribbon cutting following her win today. Diggins held the scissors to do the honors.
“I was so beyond honored that they named the bridge after me in Toblach, to feel like there’s a little piece of me. I feel like I’m leaving a little piece of my heart here in Toblach, to be honest,” Diggins stated. “This venue is so special to me, and it means so much, and it’s a place of so many amazing memories since my first Tour in 2012. It’s really cool and it felt special to be honored in that way.”
The Tour de Ski moves venues, finally, for the next race: A classic sprint race will be held on Saturday, January 3rd, in Val di Fiemme, for the fifth stage. This is a precise preview of the Olympic sprint that will be held on February 10, same venue same format, and is likely the only thing keeping a good portion of the field still in the race. That said, Diggins will have her sights firmly set on maintaining her first-place position in the Tour overall, and the 80,000 euros and 300 World Cup points that come with it. She is quite likely to secure this windfall come Sunday.
Results: stage four | Tour de Ski overall
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