January 01, 2011   (Oberhof, Germany) – Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) powered away in the fog at Oberhof for a decisive win in the women’s 10km classic handicap start today, strengthening her overall lead at the Tour de Ski as the chasing group behind battled for second. With challenging conditions for waxing, rising Finish star skier, Krista Lahteenmaki, had a strong race landing on the podium in second moving up from 10th at the start – the best result ever for the 2010 Junior Worlds 5km classic champ.

Italy’s Marianna Longa also made strong gains during the race to surge from 24th position claiming the 3rd spot on the podium. The USA’s Kikkan Randall finished in 22nd losing a bit of ground from her 16th place start.

Kowalczyk took off at the start first with a 6.5s lead over Charlotte Kalle (SWE) based on her win in Prologue and never looked back. Kalle was soon caught as Finland’s Aino Kaisa Saarinen, last year’s winner of this stage, mounted the attack to reel Kowalczyk in but instead the Polish star extended her lead to 12s by the 1.4km mark and to 22s by the 4.4km. Lahteenmaki joined Saarinen along with Petra Majdic (SLO) but only Lahteenmaki could keep up the pace.

Longa and team mate Arianna Follis also joined the chasers but Kowalczyk was skiing like a champion and entered the final stretch to the finish alone for the win, establishing a firm grip on the black leader’s jersey. Longa still had some gas to follow in behind Lahteenmaki for third with Saarinen took 4th and Majdic was 5th.

“My tactic was to go very fast at the start and to finish first,” Kowalczyk told FIS XC. “The tracks were really good as well as the snow – it’s all I need to ski well. My service team did a good job and my skis were great both uphill and downhill.”

For the USA’s Randall it was tougher day but she persevered and was happy overall. “Today was decent,” Randall said by email. “The new snow made for tricky waxing conditions. I felt a little flat on the first lap but felt better towards the end of the second lap.

“I had good energy on the climbs but ended up getting stuck in traffic. My skis were a little slower than the pack I was in so I kept getting dropped after the downhills and then would get trapped behind a wall of girls on the next climb. But my finish was strong and I just missed catching three more racers at the line.”

The TdS caravan now moves five hours south to Obertsdorf for Stage 3, the 1.2km Classic Sprints on Jan. 2, followed by Stage 4, a men’s 20km Pursuit (10km Classic + 10 km Free) and a women’s 10km Pursuit (5km Classic + 5km Free) on Jan. 3.

For Kowalczyk the Tour is far from over and it’s game on as usual in Obertsdorf. “My goal for tomorrow is to have a good race,” she continued. “I remember Oberstdorf has really good tracks and I look forward to continuing the Tour. Toblach (Italy) will be my hardest race. Charlotte Kalla is right when she says that she has the best possibility there to beat me. It’s important for me to stay concentrated and healthy in order to win the overall – so the Tour is not over yet.”

Randall was stoked to see another North American podium as Devon Kershaw took the silver in the men’s 15km and is also looking forward to the Obertsdorf sprints. “It was great to see Devon take 2nd and almost the win. I’m looking forward to the classic sprints as the weather forecast sounds a little nicer for tomorrow.”

Results HERE.
Resuls detail HERE.