Italy – Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) won the women's 10km classic mass start race at the World Cup Finals in Bormio, Italy. Kuitunen out-sprinted Justyn Kowalczyw of Poland for the win. Marit Bjoergen (NOR) showed good form, finishing third, 3 seconds out of the win.
Thanks to her 30 bonus seconds, Kuitunen is now leading the World Cup Final standings after yesterday's prologue and the today's 10 km with a total time of 38:21.8 minutes, Kowlaczyk is only 2.5 seconds behind with Claudia Nystad (GER) in third, 27.6 seconds back.
“I'm really happy about my today's performance,” Kuitunen said. “It was a tough race and a tight fight with Justyna, but at the end, I made it. I tried not to loose too much energy and didn't fight for the intermediate bonus seconds. My tactic for tomorrow is to finish in the top 15, than I am for sure the overall World Cup winner.
Astrid Jacobsen (NOR), second in the overall World CUp, finished 13th and will need a small miracle to overtake Kuitunen.
