March 19, 2011 (Falun, Sweden) – Marit Bjoergen (NOR) sprang into the lead at the start of the 5km CL + 5km FR women’s Pursuit at the Viessmann WCup in Falun on Saturday taking Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk with her.

The strong start was a good move, as the duo stayed clear of an early crash when Therese Johaug (NOR) went down soon after the race got underway in close quarters, taking down at least half a dozen skiers with her. Caught in the melee was the USA’s Kikkan Randall.

“Man the skier gods have not been smiling for me lately,” said Randall in a post-race interview with SkiTrax. “We waxed for the later sections higher up and counted on strong double poling to stay with the group at the start. But I guess I have to consider myself lucky as one of my poles nearly got broken in crash.”

The unfortunate tumble had many skiers scrambling to regain their composure as Bjoergen set a fast pace that only Kowalczyk could respond to. At 2.5km the Norwegian claimed the 15 bonus seconds, Kowalczyk 10 and Kristen Stoermer Steira 5s. Charlotte Kalla was also in the mix at the front for Sweden as Johaug hovered around 10th.

As the 5km exchange approached Kowalczyk showed some muscle and perhaps a psychological card passing her Norwegian rival and reached the exchange first. But Bjoergen was not deterred and stayed right on Kowalczyk tails, immediately taking over the lead as the skate leg got underway.

Behind the chasers were not able to match the pace as Sweden’s Anna Haag followed the leaders into the exchange 24 seconds later with Steira next and Arianna Follis (ITA) in fifth. Johaug was still around 10th but Randall, who had fallen back into 30th, regained some spots moving up to 26th as she began her skate leg.

“It’s a really tough course with steep climbs and the conditions were very tricky for waxing today as different sections of the course had varying conditions,” Randall continued. “I hoped to pick off more people through the skate section.”

Up ahead Bjoergen kept the pace up gapping her Polish shadow with an unforgiving pace as the big Morderbackken climb approached. Meantime adding pressure from behind Johaug was skating with a furious tempo and had moved into third place and began closing in on Kowalczyk.

On Morderbackken Bjoergen was unstoppable as Kowalczyk dug in to make her claim on second knowing the threat from behind was not going to abate. Meanwhile Randall kept her steady pace up but knew it was not going to be a great day.

“I could see the group I wanted to be in about 20s ahead of me but could not bridge to them. Had the crash not occurred I’m confident I’d have been up there and much closer to a top-10 finish which was my goal,” confided Randall who had the 18th best skate leg.

Her teammate Holly Brooks who finished in 37th also had a tough second day in Falun while Canada’s Perianne Jones (CAN) was further back in 43rd.

“It was a really tough day out there – especially for waxing on the classic leg,” Brooks said in a email to SkiTrax. “The snow was incredibly variable – cold and powdery in places and slow and slushy in others. The start was pretty messy and I was affected by all the crashes. After a slow start I picked girls off one at a time and skied the 30th fastest skate leg which I was pleased with. I’m looking forward to the skate-only race tomorrow and will do my best.”

Bjoergen stormed in for the win with a comfortable 25.1s-margin over Kowalczyk who secure second place as Johaug simply ran out of track and had to settle for third.

Bjoergen now leads the mini tour and starts Sunday’s final 10km handicap race with a 1:13.9 margin over Kowalczyk while Johaug is in 3rd at 2:34.2 behind. Randall sits in 17th in the mini-tour at 4:10.1 behind Bjoergen.

Full Results HERE.
MiniTour Standings HERE.
Results (brief)

1. Marit Bjoergen (NOR) 31:14.4
2. Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) 31:39.5
3. Therese Johaug (NOR) 31:48.3
4. Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (NOR) 31:58.9
5. Arianna Follis (ITA) 32:02.4

21. Kikkan Randall (USA) 33:17.7
37. Holly Brooks (USA) 34:14.8
43. Perianne Jones (CAN) 36:00.3