After recently returning from a training camp with the Norwegian women's team, Jessie Diggins describes how the opportunity came about and one of her favorite workouts from her week in Norway. "I’m always looking for ways to make summer training exciting, new and adventurous," Diggins said.
Stage 6 of the Ski Tour Canada featured a brutal course for both the women's 15-kilometer and the men's 30 k skiathlons. It was simply survival of the fittest as the classic loop featured a grueling 1.2 k climb while the skate leg was punctuated by dicey soft-snow corners navigated at high speed.
After besting Norwegian teammate Therese Johaug in last week's Quebec pursuit, Norway's Heidi Weng repeated the feat to win in the women's 15 k skiathlon on Wednesday in Canmore. “It was very good to go with Therese and give her a little bit of a fight," Weng said. She is currently 2.9 seconds ahead in the overall tour standings with two more distance races to go.
American Jessie Diggins posted her best World Cup classic sprint result to date, striding to a sixth in the Ski Tour Canada's Stage 5 in Canmore, Alberta. Diggins also sits in sixth overall heading into Stage 6 on Wednesday. Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla remained undefeated in every classic sprint she competed in this season, winning the final by a whopping 7 seconds.
After Heidi Weng nabbed the Ski Tour Canada leader's bib from her Norwegian teammate Therese Johaug, Weng intended to keep it after the women's 10 k pursuit on Saturday. “[Therese] is very strong in the distance and she has won so many times now, so it was very good to take her,” Weng said.
Sweden's 22-year-old Stina Nilsson bested four Norwegians to top Stage 3 of the Ski Tour Canada, the women's freestyle sprint in Quebec City. Maiken Caspersen Falla missed out on her fifth-straight skate sprint win, but locked up the overall Sprint World Cup title, and four Americans finished in the top 20, led by Sadie Bjornsen in eighth.
Therese Johaug overcame an unusual starting position in the fourth row to win the women's 10.5 k classic mass start by a minute over her Norwegian teammate Heidi Weng. With the win, Johaug claimed the Ski Tour Canada lead, while American Jessie Diggins raced to eighth to put herself in fifth overall.
Therese Johaug racked up her 15th World Cup win of the season, putting her on track to break Norwegian teammate Marit Bjørgen's record with three more wins in eight remaining races. Norway swept the top four, and Sadie Bjornsen led the U.S. women in 15th.
Jessie Diggins rocketed to her second-best result of the season and first individual World Cup sprint podium on Saturday at the Lahti World Cup. She broke up a Norwegian sweep, placing second behind Maiken Caspersen Falla and ahead of Heidi Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen.
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.
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.
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.
Groundhog Day. That was the feel of Sunday’s 6 x 1.2-kilometer freestyle team sprints at the World Cup in Planica, Slovenia, a day after Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino won the individual freestyle sprints on the same one-lap 1.2 k course.
Italy's Federico Pellegrino rolled to his fourth-straight skate sprint victory on Saturday, and Stina Nilsson of Sweden won her second World Cup race as the regular season resumed in Slovenia following the 10-day Tour de Ski.
Therese Johaug attacked from the gun and began to run away with the lead just 800 meters into Saturday's 15 k classic mass start in Lenzerheide. The Norwegian World Cup leader won Stage 2 of the Tour de Ski to take the lead in the Tour by 4.5 seconds over teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. Another Norwegian Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen had a scary episode at the finish.
Sweden's Stina Nilsson pulled off a last-minute move from third to first in the women's freestyle sprint in Davos to win her first World Cup, and Sophie Caldwell advanced as a two-time lucky loser to ultimately place sixth in the final. Her U.S. teammate, Jessie Diggins placed ninth overall, and two other U.S. women made the heats.
Therese Johaug raced to a 1-minute-and-10-second victory in the women's World Cup 15 k freestyle in Davos, Switzerland, and her teammate is calling the deficit scary. “She is completely a machine," third-place finisher Heidi Weng said. "What is it exactly you're made of?”
A Norwegian development-pipeline skier, Kari Øyre Slind spent this summer largely training alone, but it's worked for her. “I choose to think of the Beitostølen weekend as a performance out of the ordinary,” she told FasterSkier about her recent double podium. “But now I know that I can perform with the best on a good day.”
For the second time this weekend, a Norwegian was disqualified during a race in Beitostølen, Norway, and missed out on a victory because of it. Maiken Caspersen Falla was first across the line in the women's classic sprint final, but subsequently relegated, leaving Russia's Natalia Matveeva with the win.
Therese Johaug proved that no amount of hand injuries (two to be precise) can derail the start to her season as she won her second-straight race in Beitostølen, Norway. "I had to dig deep the whole way, but these conditions are my advantage," she said of the heavy snowfall.