Kikkan Randall led three American women into the top-30 in the third stage of World Cup Finals on Saturday, a 10 k mass start classic. With 19th place on the day she moved into 15th in the mini-tour, and if she maintains that position in Sunday's pursuit she'll be able to hold off Marit Bjørgen in the overall World Cup standings.
Noah Hoffman moved up from second-to-last at the start of the 15 k mass start classic on Saturday to finish 25th in the third stage of World Cup finals, leading the American men. Andy Newell skied just ahead of Torin Koos in a sprint finish and the two ended up 38th and 39th, respectively.
Andy Newell and Torin Koos each skied top-30 finishes for the U.S. on Friday in the second stage of World Cup Finals, a 2.5 k freestyle prologue. Newell moved into eighth overall in the mini-tour with his 16th place and Koos scored the first distance points of his life in 25th. Noah Hoffman was 51st.
The American women were back on form on Friday for the 2.5 k prologue at World Cup Finals. Kikkan Randall led the way with a third-place finish, and behind her in seventh and eighth, respectively, Holly Brooks and Jessie Diggins were ecstatic to have confidence-building races towards the end of the season. Liz Stephen was 20th for a total of four women in the top-20.
Despite an uncertain start to the morning of the second stage of World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden, on Friday, the day ended with a very familiar name at the top of the results. Marit Bjørgen resumed her usual position on the podium and won the 2.5 k freestyle prologue by 4.4 seconds over Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla. Kikkan Randall, who spend the better part of the last 24 hours engaged in debate with FIS over the safety of the race course, finished a comfortable third in the individual start race.
Only days remain in the 2013 World Cup and there’s less than a month to go before SuperTour Finals and Canadian Nationals wrap up the competitive season for North Americans. For this edition in our workout series we asked Alex Harvey, Sadie Bjornsen and Lenny Valjas how they orchestrate an end-of-year taper and how their peaking plan for World Championships affected the racing that followed and is still to come.
Athletes concerned with new changes to the Falun World Cup Finals course threatened to boycott the prologue on Friday if changes weren't made, citing safety concerns. Athlete representative Kikkan Randall submitted a formal complaint to FIS on behalf of athletes and the mass start course was readjusted, though not to everyone's satisfaction. Justyna Kowalcyzk has said she won't race, and there will be more meetings between FIS and athlete representatives before the start on Friday morning.
So much has happened since November that it’s easy to forget that, prior the first World Cup of the season, Kikkan Randall didn’t know whether she’d even come close to matching her performances from the season before. Well, she did: after finishing the last sprint of the season on Wednesday in Stockholm, she was awarded the second sprint globe of her career.
Before Andy Newell got a medal for finishing fifth in the overall sprint rankings this season, the race that took place in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm was not quite what the U.S. was looking for from the final sprint of the year. Newell led the way for the men 11th but was aiming for the finals. Ida Sargent posted the top women's finish in 20th and Kikkan Randall was 22nd.
Sometimes Justyna Kowalczyk has to fight for her wins, and for others it looks almost looks easy for her. "It was a relatively easy victory today," she said in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden, where she won her fourth World Cup classic race in a row by 2.2 seconds on the 1.1 k city sprint course. Kowalczyk leads World Cup Finals by 7.1 seconds after the first stage.
To finish off six races in three countries over nine days, Sadie Bjornsen capped off her European race season with a second place finish at OPA Cup Finals in a close race with Germany's Sandra Ringwald. Sam Tarling led the U.S. with a 23rd in the men's race and Paddy Caldwell skied the sixth-fastest course time to finish 12th in the junior race.
Liz Stephen's ninth-place finish highlighted the U.S. team’s day at Holmenkollen on Sunday, but right along with her Jessie Diggins and Holly Brooks toughed out their own races to finish the 30 k feeling relatively good about the effort. Diggins was 30th and Brooks finished 35th.
After making no ski changes and competing with the first chase group for most of the women's 30 k freestyle at Holmenkollen, American Liz Stephen notched another career-high on Sunday in Oslo, Norway, with a ninth-place finish. Though happy with the result, Stephen was a bit frustrated with how the ski change tactics played out.
After taking third in the prologue at OPA Cup Finals in Toblach, Italy, Sadie Bjornsen followed up on Saturday with an outright win in the second stage of the mini-tour, a 5 k individual classic. Sam Tarling led the U.S. in the men's 10 k and Paddy Caldwell had his best classic race of the year in the junior division.
Noah Hoffman led the U.S. in the Holmenkollen 50 k on Saturday with a 24th-place finish. It was good enough to qualify him for World Cup Finals next week, but he wasn't entirely satisfied with the result. "I need to be able to have the confidence to relax early on in the race," he said.
When Taylor Fletcher jumps just a bit farther on the hill it will be a frightening day for nordic combined world. In the penultimate World Cup of the season on Friday in Oslo, Norway, the 22-year-old skied the fastest 10 k time of the day by 17 seconds to move from 23rd after the jumping competition to fifth at the end of the cross-country race. Fletcher led three Americans in the top 15.
Coming off the high of a top-five in Sochi, Russia, last weekend, U.S. Biathlon’s Tim Burke continued the momentum on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk with a ninth-place finish in the 10 k sprint, the third-to-last race of the World Cup season. Lowell Bailey also had a strong finish in 11th place, two seconds behind Burke with perfect shooting.
France's Martin Fourcade was once again nearly 40 seconds ahead of everyone in the World Cup field on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. With his 17th podium of the season now in the bag he stands poised to take the overall title with the conclusion of the season on Sunday.
In his first World Cup quarterfinal appearance in three years, Torin Koos finally found a result he was happy with in Drammen, Norway, on Wednesday with an 18th-place finish in the classic city sprint. Andy Newell, meanwhile, fell victim to bad luck and finished 27th after a crash.
With the season winding down, Kikkan Randall produced her best classic result of the year on Wednesday with a fifth-place finish in the Drammen, Norway, city sprints. She led the American women; Sadie Bjornsen also qualified for the heats and finished 30th.