Yesterday in flurry of excitement, I recapped the men’s 50km and left no room/time to have a little commentary on the women’s race; which was actually run prior to the 50km. br /br /The beginning of the race saw the pack was ripped open rather early cortesy of Petra Majdic, but it was Saarinen who continued to push the pace in the first loop of the 7.5km. There was a chase group of consisted of eight that included the likes of Majdic at around the 11km mark. Saarinen slowed considerably after the 30 minute mark which allowed Kowalczyk and Johaug to reel her in rather comfortably. br /br /The hard start by Saarinen began to backfire just before the third intermediate sprint where she lost contact with Johaug and Kowalczyk. It wasn’t a matter of those two picking up the pace, it was that Saarinen began to slow down. At the 19km mark, Saarinen was caught by a break of the chasing group that included Steira, Longa, and Sachenbacher-Stehle. br /br /Around the same time in the race, Steira began to pick it up and was only 10 seconds behind Johaug and Kowalczyk at 19.8km. These three stuck together for the next 6km while the athletes behind them continued to shuffle amongst themselves.br /br /Petra Majdic was 28 seconds behind after the halfway mark; 26 second after 18.7km; 20 sec after 22.5km; 27 sec at 23.6km; within the lead pack at 26.2km. The pack was 4. Just after going through the stadium for the last half of the last lap, Kowalczyk attacked and grew a gap on the other three racers. At the same time, Ishida who had been in the chase pack quietly came up and tagged onto the lead pack. br /br /At 27.3km, Kowalczyk’s gap was sitting at 10 seconds on the chasing four and she looked to have continued to turn the screw. Johaug was dropped from the chase group shortly after. Unfortunately for everyone not named Petra Majdic, that’s when the downhills started and before you could say
