January 07, 2017 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – The USA’s Jessie Diggins battled to 8th for a strong finish at the penultimate women’s 10km classic mass start on Stage 6 in Val di Fiemme won by Stina Nilsson as the Swede regained the Tour de Ski lead. Diggins, in fifth, is poised to post her best Tour result.

Finland’s Anne Kylloenen followed Nilsson in second place at 3.0 seconds back for her first podium of the season. In third was Charlotte Kalla (SWE) who recovered from an early fall and finished at 3.7 seconds behind her teammate.

“I had good skis and one of my better 10k classics today,” Diggins said. “It was really fun to to so close to the leaders for almost the entire race, and a great confidence booster in my classic skiing. All those drills and technique work in the summer are starting to pay off. We’re all pumped to kick off one last hard race and finish strong in the Tour.”

Her teammate Liz Stephen moved up to make the top 20 finishing 19th and is ready for a strong finish on Alpe Cermis where she has finished second in the past – but she’s aiming for the top spot.

“The race today was fun and went pretty well for me. I love the courses in Val di Fiemme and I am really excited for tomorrow. I look forward to this race all year and so bring it on. My goal is to go out and catch as many people as I can, but also have the winning time of day split. It’s been my goal since the first year I watched the Tour, so I’m hoping to be able to put together a really strong race tomorrow,” said Stephen.

It was a bittersweet day for the USA with Sadie Bjornsen waking up sick and having to withdraw from the Tour. It came just a day after a brilliant career-first individual podium alongside race winner Diggins in the Toblach 5k freestyle.

Diggins maintained contact within the lead group the entire race protecting her fifth place overall. Finland’s Krista Parmakoski, in fourth, made a big move up to third while Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Westberg fell back into fourth only 23 seconds ahead of  Diggins, who has more than a minute over sixth place. With Nilsson’s victory she now has a 19.2-second lead over Heidi Weng.

As planned prior to the start, Kikkan Randall departed from the Tour after Friday’s 5km race to rest in preparation for the upcoming weekend’s freestyle Sprint in Toblach, Italy.

Results here.
Overall here.