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.
The second day of the Ski Tour Canada got underway in Montreal, Quebec, with the women's 10.5 k classic mass start on Wednesday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The women’s overall podium at the 2016 Tour de Ski on Sunday was all red. Norway swept the top three, with Therese Johaug taking the overall title from Ingvild Flustad Østberg on the final climb, and Heidi Weng retained third. For the U.S., Jessie Diggins locked up 10th, Sadie Bjornsen was 14th and Liz Stephen posted the third-fastest time of day.
Jessie Diggins fended off all challengers for her first individual World Cup victory -- that's right -- another one for the U.S. in the last three stages of the Tour de Ski. Diggins did so in the 5 k freestyle in Toblach, Italy, besting four Norwegians in the top five.
Jessie Diggins captured the second win of the Tour de Ski for the U.S. Ski Team on Friday at Stage 6 of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy. She fended off four Norwegians in the top five, and improved to 10th in the Tour.
Photos from Wednesday's 10/15 k classic mass starts at Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski, including those who landed on the podium and several American and Canadians in action. Courtesy of Marcel Hilger.
Therese Johaug's 9.9-second win over Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg on Wednesday at Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski wasn't enough to take the overall Tour leader's bib from Østberg. Meanwhile, Heidi Weng stuck in third overall, and the U.S. women, led by Diggins and Bjornsen, continue to have two in the overall top 15 after both placed in the top 30 on Wednesday.
Sophie Caldwell mainly had one tactic on Tuesday, and it put her in prime position for the best race of her career: “Push it over the tops, stick on Ingvild on the ups, and have a strong finish," she explained. The American ended up beating Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and another Norwegian, Heidi Weng, to achieve her first World Cup victory.
Ingvild Flugstad Østberg of Norway picked up her first World Cup distance victory by doing the unthinkable: dropping seemingly unbeatable teammate Therese Johaug on an uphill. "It was a great victory for me, in many ways," said Østberg, who now leads the Tour de Ski by 14.3 seconds.
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.
Your guide to the 2016 Tour de Ski, which kicks off Friday with skate sprinting in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, and spans three nations with eight races (World Cup stages) in 10 days.
Therese Johaug once again dusted the women's field, this time in the 10 k classic individual start at the World Cup in Toblach, Italy. There, two U.S. women finished in the top 20, about two minutes behind her.
The 16th starter, Jessie Diggins landed in the leader's chair for a few minutes before Germany's Nicole Fessel and Norway's Therese Johaug finished on Saturday in the 15 k freestyle at the Davos World Cup. Diggins ended up 11th and the U.S. had two in the top 20 with Caitlin Gregg in 20th.