January 9, 2010 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Petra Majdic (SLO) is mighty happy to have taken over the TdS leader’s bib winning the Stage 7 women’s 10km classic mass start event by 1/10th of a second over Elene Kolomina (KAZ) and local favorite, Marianna Longa (ITA) at +1.0. Canada’s Sara Renner continues to up her performance claiming 15th on the stage only 7.6s off the winner, and is now 17th overall.

Wet and difficult conditions made it difficult for anyone to launch an attack leading to some extremely close finishes and surprising situations as Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) fell in the final descent. Top Finnish skier Aino-Kaissa Saarinen had a fall earlier in the race but couldn’t recover, finishing at +29seconds with no sprint bonus points. Majdic, Kristin Steira (NOR) and Kowalczyk were the winners of the three intermediate sprints that awarded 15sec, 10sec and 5sec to the top three.

Also surprising was that Eurosport did not broadcast the event on either of its two channels. We’re hoping that Tour de Ski directors, Jurg Capol and Vegard Ulvang, are able to correct that for next year.

Women’s 10km Press Conference Val di Fiemme

Women’s Full Results here.
Women’s Sprint Overall here.
Women’s Overall here.

Results (brief)

1. Petra Majdic (SLO) 34:06.4
2. Elena Kolomina (KAZ) +0.1
3. Marianna Longa (ITA) +1.0
4. Riikka Sarasoja (FN) +1.3
5. Arianna Follis (ITA) +2.4
15. Sara Renner (CAN) +7.6