Today's 2 x 7.5km pursuit took place in Pregelato, Italy, on the trails that will be used for next year's Torino Olympics. The champion of last weekend's 15km, Katerina Neumannova, led during the classic portion of the race with Claudia Kuenzel (Germany) and Kristin Stoermer Steira (Norway) hanging tough. Heading into the steep climbs on the skate leg, the light-weight Steira took over the lead, and fought hard to the finish to take her first-ever World Cup victory. Neumannova finished second, 1.3 seconds back, and 6.6 ahead of Kuenzel in third.
The fastest skate time of the day came from Russian Julija Tchepalova, who made up a lot of ground to finish fifth after struggling in the classic phase. Overall World Cup leader Marit Bjorgen, as well as Estonian runner-up Kristina Smigun, did not race.
