March 23, 2013 (Falun, Sweden) – Marit Bjoergen lead another Norwegian podium sweep in the women’s 10km CL at Falun but Kikkan Randall’s strong 19th place today solidifies the American’s 3rd place in the overall WCup standings for what might be another historic finish. But with 200 points up for grabs on Sunday the pressure is on.

“Today was a decent race for me but I’m not quite back to the form I had at the beginning of the season. The conditions were really nice and my skis were awesome today. The pace was quite high from the start. I was planning to try and hang near the top 10 but I didn’t do a good job of covering the surges at the end of the 1st lap and found myself back in the 30’s instead,” Randall told Trax post-race.

“It was really helpful for me to ski with Liz during the 2nd and 3rd laps. I had really good kick on the uphills, which really came in handy towards the end of the race – I still had good power in the movements and skiers were starting to come back to us.”

The US star’s performance today strengthened her grip on her 3rd place in the overall standings as she bested her closest rival today, Kristin Stoermer Steira (NOR). But she’s not out of the woods yet and with double points on tap tomorrow – the win is worth 200 – she has to be wary of Bjoergen and Heidi Weng as well, who were both on the podium today and not far behind her in the overall standings.

Bjoergen is feeling great and wants to win on Sunday, and with 948 points to Randall’s 1,118 points the American needs over 30 points to land on the final podium and would need to finish 15th or higher to keep third overall. If there’s a tie, the individual with most World Cup wins will prevail, meaning Bjoergen.

“It was kind of nice to be racing alongside Steira today, knowing that she wasn’t scoring a bunch of more points over me.  It’s going to be a real battle tomorrow for me to score enough points to stay ahead of both Bjoergen and Weng.  I would love to hang on for third place overall.  I must fight for every place tomorrow,” added Randall.

Randall’s teammate Liz Stephen just behind her in 21st and the two skied together most of the race. Stephen is 20th overall compared to 42nd last year and sits 15th overall in the Distance rankings compared to 28th last year, a big upswing for the from East Montpelier, VT skier. Randall is 10th overall in the Distance series.

“The race went out hard, as par for a women’s world cup race, so I wasn’t in a great position in the first lap. However, each lap I moved up a bit more and it was really fun getting to ski with Kikkan for the last 2 laps of the race,” said Stephen in a post-race interview.

“We would have both been psyched for one more lap, though, I think, as we were really catching people that last lap. I am happy with today’s result and I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s pursuit start race, as I think they are my favorite kind. Tag. I’m feeling physically good going into tomorrow, so we shall see how it goes! Last World Cup race of the season!

Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) has already won the overall Distance and WCup series titles and apparently is not racing on Sunday deciding to head home early.

Ida Sargent finished in the points in 29th, Jessie Diggins was 38th, Holly Brooks finished 39th while Continental Cup leader Rosie Brennan was 43rd. Emily Nishikawa led the Canadians in 46th with Daria Gaiazova in 50th.

Women’s results HERE.
Mini Tour standings HERE.
World Cup Distance Overall HERE.
World Cup Overall HERE.