With fewer than two weeks remaining until the Ski Tour Canada visits Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec City, and Canmore from March 1-12, we spent some time breaking down the provisional North American picks and estimated costs for Canadian nation's group skiers at the season-ending World Cups.
In the first freestyle mass start of the season, Jessie Diggins gave the Norwegians a run, ultimately finishing 15 seconds off the podium in fourth. Therese Johaug dropped teammate Heidi Weng in the final kilometers to secure her second win of the weekend and record-tying 14th World Cup victory overall.
In the men's 15 k freestyle mass start at the World Cup in Falun, Sweden, Russian Sergey Ustiugov bested Italy's Francesco de Fabiani and Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby for his first distance win. "It is obvious that in the end of the season Russian team is getting better and better," Ustiugov said.
Returning to Falun, Sweden, was exciting for some members of the U.S. Ski Team -- like World Championships silver medalist Jessie Diggins. For Sadie Bjornsen, the memories weren’t as happy, and she tried to forget them before Saturday’s 5 k classic individual start, the first World Cup back at the venue since the championships.
There were no Norwegians on the podium Saturday in Falun, Sweden. Russia secured the top two with Maxim Vylegzhanin in first and Alexander Bessmertnykh in second, and France’s Maurice Manificat finished third. American Erik Bjornsen to a second-best 21st, a minute out of first.
With her 13th win of the season and two more distance races before the Ski Tour Canada already begins, Therese Johaug of Norway might beat her predecessor Bente Skari's record of 17 wins in a single season. In Falun, she bested Heidi Weng by almost 20 seconds in the 5 k classic.
It's been a few years, but Nikita Kriukov wants you to know he's back. On Thursday, the Russian notched his first individual World Cup podium (and win) since December 2013 on a city sprint course in Stockholm. Canada's Alex Harvey narrowly missed the final and placed seventh for his best sprint result this season.
In soft conditions, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla busted apart the final of the women's classic sprint in Stockholm, Sweden. She saved her powerful stride and double pole for the last half kilometer, where she appeared to engage the afterburners, winning the day by 3.3 seconds.
Three American women cracked the top 25 in Sunday's 30 k classic at the world-famous Holmenkollen, finishing within 1.6 seconds of one another. Sadie Bjornsen led them in 22nd, closely followed by Liz Stephen in 23rd and Jessie Diggins in 25th. Rosie Brennan and Caitlin Patterson raced to 33rd and 36th, respectively, and Canada's Emily Nishikawa was 39th.
At Sunday's Holmenkollen 30 k classic mass start, Norway's Therese Johaug dominated. She won by a margin of 3:46.5 over teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. FIS reports Johaug's margin of victory was the largest ever for a women's cross-country World Cup.
Fifty kilometers might seem like plenty of time to ease into a race, but especially in a World Cup race like Holmenkollen, those days are over. “It’s a battle from the start now," Canada's Devon Kershaw explained. His teammate Alex Harvey led the North Americans in 20th, Kershaw placed 23rd, Noah Hoffman of the U.S. was 24th, Graeme Killick of Canada 30th, and U.S. skier Scott Patterson 32nd.
Picture little Martin Johnsrud Sundby, "nine years old and tenting in the forest." That's when he knew he wanted to win in Holmenkollen. After four podiums in the world-famous 50 k mass start, he won the classic race outside his hometown on Saturday and set a record in the process.
Norway's Petter Northug showed his versatility as an all-rounder, winning Wednesday's classic sprint in Drammen, Norway. His quick double pole and quicksilver skate skis won out the day. The U.S. Ski Team's Simi Hamilton placed 11th overall while Canada's Alex Harvey posted his second-best sprint result of the season in 20th.
Sweden's Stina Nilsson retained her Sprint Cup lead despite getting reprimanded for obstruction in the final. And although none of the three American women advanced out of their quarterfinals, the U.S. team declared the day a success with all three skiing blazing qualifier times.
"It was a tough decision," TD John Aalberg told FasterSkier. "But we wanted to prove a point or put it on the agenda: if everybody starts to double pole, and if you loosen up the rules at the same time, that’s the end of classic skiing." The race jury released video of the infractions to the public.
During three days of competition at the Seefeld Triple, Germany's Eric Frenzel proved he's Mr. Consistency, winning all three days for his third-straight Triple crown. In seventh overall, Bryan Fletcher led the U.S. for the third year in a row landing in the top 10 in Seefeld.
It's been a steady climb of success for the U.S. women's cross-country team. On Sunday in Nove Mesto, they took a collective step higher in the 4 x 5 k relay, placing second to a hard-charging Norway, while besting Finland by nearly 14 seconds.
The Norwegians built up what turned out to be an insurmountable lead, despite Russia coming within 6 seconds of them at the finish, to win the men's Nove Mesto World Cup relay on Sunday. The U.S. and Canada skied together throughout the race to place eighth and ninth, respectively.
In just over two weeks time since she won her first individual World Cup, American Jessie Diggins proves she deserves a place on the podium once again, racing to a third place finish overall in the women's 10 k freestyle individual start race on Saturday in Nove Mesto. “It’s been so fun to have all that hard work and all the hours of training pay off in such a big way,” Diggins said.
Maurice Manificat has been waiting for this win all season despite being on the podium twice in the last two months. On Saturday, he beat Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby for his first World Cup victory since 2013. For Sundby, it was a small speed bump on his way to seize control of the 2015/2016 World Cup overall.