Kowalczyk Defends Tour de Ski Crown

Coming into the final stage, Kowalczyk had a massive 2:08 lead over second place Marianna Longa. It was her race to lose and in typical Kowalczyk fashion she hammered out the fifth fastest time of the day to defend her Tour de Ski title. Even though Kowalczyk won the competition, the big news today was Therese Johaug who had a phenomenal race and was a minute faster than anyone else in the field.

THE RACE

Kowalczyk started the race with a 2:08 and as she left the starting gate, it was the last time the field saw the Pol. The true race was for the positions behind Kowalczyk as the gap between Longa, Follis and Johaug was only 1:20. It was apparent early on that Johaug was going to have a special day as she took 13 seconds out of the lead in the first 1.7km and had surpassed Majdic.

The relentless pace continued from Johaug as she closed in on the Italians and at 2.7km, the Norwegian had taken an additional nine seconds out.

At this point, Kowalczyk and Longa were traveling at identical speeds and the gap between first and second remained 2:08. Follis was gaining on the front two and only had 22 seconds between her and her teammate.

At the base of the hill, it’s where Johaug really shined and started to eat up the snow between her and podium spots. At the 19 minute mark of the race, Johaug had caught Follis for third, but wasn’t done yet and continued on her quest to catch Longa. It was only a couple of minutes later when the Norwegian caught Longa and moved into second.

Ahead of Johaug, Kowalczyk was losing time, but the massive gap she earned in the first seven stages ensured that she would not be overtaken today.

At the finish line, the Pol collapsed in a puddle of exhaustion and tear of joy as she retain her title as Tour de Ski champion. Next across was Johaug who followed suit and crumpled into a pile of exhaustion. Rounding out the podium was Marianna Longa who came across the line in third place.

RESULTS
1. Justyna Kowalczyk
2. Therese Johaug
3. Marianna Longa

FASTEST TIME OF THE DAY
1. Therese Johaug
2. Marte Elden
3. Marte Kristoffersen

Today’s limelight will be shared by Johaug and Kowalczyk. Kowalczyk became the first athlete to retain their Tour de Ski title while Johaug absolutely destroyed everyone in the field today as she was one minute faster than her closest competition and teammate Marte Elden.

I was quite impressed by Norwegians who proved their depth today. Even with no Bjørgen, they still put four athletes inside the top 10; Johaug (2nd), Kristoffersen (7th), Elden (9th), Jacobsen (10th). The biggest surprise for me in this competition was Marte Elden who had break-out performance after break-out performance and has surely stamped her ticket for a spot on the Norwegian World Champs team. Her ninth place in the competition is even more impressive considering she earned only one bonus second in the eight stages.

The Italians were also good and Longa and Follis have become a twosome to be reckoned with. Longa’s performance today was a surprise as I always thought of her as a classic specialist but she showed that she can get it done in the skate technique too.

Lordy, Lordy, Look At Who Has 40!

With the absentees of Kowalczyk and Bjørgen last weekend in Düsseldorf, it gave other athletes time to shine. However, today it was business as usual as the two took the top two spots with Johaug earning a well deserved third place. With the addition of the atitude to the difficult course profile, it made for very slow times with Bjørgen winning the race in a time of 29:31.

THE RACE

With heavy snowfall over the past 24 hours, the jury opted to put the red group in the middle of the start list instead of at the end.

The start of the race was rather calm and the first serious contender was young Norwegian Marte Elden wore bid number 12 and held the fastest time over the first intermediate time check. Saarinen was making a strong point for herself, and was only half a second behind Elden. However, when the big guns, and the eventual podiums finishers came through the time check, only then was Elden ousted from best time but still was fourth fastest time after all athletes had gone through 1.6km. Bjørgen was the fastest and was eight seconds ahead of Johaug and Kowalczyk.

At the halfway point, Saarinen has just edged ahead of Elden and slightly further back Ishida who were five and 13 seconds back respectively. Veteran Italian Marianna Longa was making a good push after a conservative start and was nine seconds faster than Saarinen in between the first and second time check to sit fourth.

By the half way point of the race, it was obvious that there were two races today. A race between Bjørgen, Kowalczyk and Johaug for the podium; and a race between the other athletes.

In the second half of the race, it was Kowalczyk getting the best of Johaug as it was a battle between engine and tempo for the silver as Bjørgen knew she had the race wrapped up with a couple of kilometers to go.

Further behind, the battle for the remaining top 10 positions was very tight with only 15 seconds between fourth and tenth. The battle between Longa and Saarinen was changing every kilometer with Ishida having a perfectly paced race as she was eating away seconds in the second lap.

At the finish, Bjørgen stepped off the gas and followed Kowalczyk across the line as she cruised to her 40th victory in her illustrious career. Kowalczyk had to swallow her pride for another second while Johaug had an impressive ski and rounded out the podium.

Off the podium, it was Saarinen who won the duel with Longa for fourth place while Ishida was sixth, Elden seventh, Lahteenmaki eighth, Zeller ninth and Tchekaleva fell off the pace in the second lap to finish tenth.

RESULTS
1. Marit Bjørgen
2. Justyna Kowalczyk
3. Therese Johaug

I mentioned on Twitter after the race, but how else can you describe Bjørgen right now other than Holy Crap! Another dominating performance from her as she picked up a monumental 40th World Cup victory. After all the trash talk before the snow fell, Kowalczyk must feel like she is in between a rock and a hard place right now. For anyone else on the circuit, constantly earning seconds would be awesome, but for her, it must feel like a slap in the face; especially since she is losing to her arc-rival.

For me, the most exciting part of the race came in behind the podium place. The fourth from Saarinen in her World Cup debut must be a great feeling and she surely is proud of the result. The battle between her and Longa; and in the latter stages of the race Ishida, definitely had me on the edge of my seat. The slow starts from Longa and Ishida (relatively) made for a great final two kilometers for the fourth, fifth, and sixth places.

Also, a great race from Marte Elden. She’s not the youngest Norwegian at 24-years-old, but she’s in the best for of her life. Today was her personal best result on the World Cup and before today, two weeks ago was her best result with the 15th in the 15km pursuit.

North Americans didn’t do so well as Randall was the top athlete with a disappointing 47th over four minutes behind. The top Canadian was Gaiazova in 61st 5:42 behind.

Back in a bit.