Ida Sargent made herself a favorite in Saturday's classic sprint, her last race of SuperTour Finals, putting it all on the line and giving Kikkan Randall someone to chase. Randall prevailed and extended her lead over Sadie Bjornsen, who was third.
Kikkan Randall dropped the field without even knowing it in Friday's 10 k classic mass start to win the second-straight race of SuperTour Finals. Sadie Bjornsen capitalized on some crashes to seal second, and Liz Stephen hung tough for third.
The two-time World Cup sprint champion at SuperTour Finals surprised no one in clocking the fastest women's 3.3 k prologue time on Thursday through a wet snow squall. In fact, Kikkan Randall's time held up as the second-fastest of the day once the men's field had finished. Jessie Diggins took second, 8.0 seconds back, and Sadie Bjornsen claimed third in the opening event of the series.
At 7,000 feet and with a serious climb smack in the middle, the 3.3 k freestyle prologue will open up SuperTour Finals on Thursday with a bang. The Americans, Canadians, Europeans and biathletes in Truckee will quickly find out what they have left in the tank as the season begins to close.
It's been a week since World Cup Finals wrapped up in Falun, Sweden, and the dust has more than settled on the international season. The American women had their best run yet: World Championships gold, all six athletes in the top ten at some point and another sprint crystal globe in the bag. When asked to recall their personal season highlights, these were among the moments they pointed out.
With the conclusion of Period IV of the 2012-2013 season we tally who's in and who's out of the coveted Red Group in the most recent World Ranking Lists, from the American and Canadian perspectives.
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.
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.
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.
Sadie Bjornsen (USA), fresh off career-best World Cup results in both distance and sprint last weekend continued her hot streak, placing third in the OPA Cup Finals prologue.
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.
The disappointment of World Championships now well behind her, Sadie Bjornsen led the American women in the Lahti, Finland, 10 k classic with another personal best: 18th place, six notches better than her previous high water mark. Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randall tied for 28th to put three American women in the top 30.
Sadie Bjornsen notched a career-best ninth-place finish in the Lahti, Finland, freestyle sprint on the same day her teammate, Kikkan Randall, secured the crystal sprint globe for the U.S. "She almost stole the show, in a way," said USST women's coach Matt Whitcomb. Seven American women in all competed on Saturday; Jessie Diggins followed Bjornsen in 25th.
The classic sprint at the 2013 World Championships was preceded by promise and excitement for the Americans, but when only three out of seven starters advanced to the heats on Thursday and none moved past the quarterfinals the team was left feeling frustrated by slippery skis. Kikkan Randall and Sophie Caldwell each finished fourth in their quarterfinals to place 19th and 20th, respectively, and Andy Newell was 21st after placing fifth in his heat.
WIth a more experienced team than they've had before the Americans are approaching the next six races at World Championships more calmly than they have in recent years. On the eve of the classic sprint Kikkan Randall said she wants to perform well on Thursday, "but there’s not really big expectations on it. I’m feeling excited to race and see what’s in the tank."
Kikkan Randall was eighth to pace three American women to the top 30 in classic sprint in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday. "It’s the kind of day we wanted to have before going to world championships," said USST women's coach Matt Whitcomb.
In a continued demonstration of the depth on the American women's squad, Ida Sargent and Sadie Bjornsen improved upon their team sprint from Liberec with a fifth place showing in Sochi, Russia, on Friday. They were three seconds off the podium and will leave the Olympic venue on a high note.
Liz Stephen was eighth in the 15 k skiathlon in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday. It was the best regular-season result of her life, but she wasn't quite happy with it. She wants a World Cup podium, and at 25 seconds out of third on the grueling Olympic course she's getting oh-so-close.
Seven Americans landed in the heats in the freestyle sprint in Sochi, Russia, on Friday. Kikkan Randall calmly won her third sprint of the season and Ida Sargent was sixth in her first appearance in a World Cup final. La Clusaz is but a distant memory.
Note: This article has been updated. There’s something about La Clusaz. Liz Stephen can’t put her finger on it, but it works for her. A week after her 26th birthday, she notched another career best in the French alpine village -- this time in a classic race.