March 25, 2012 (Craftsbury, Vermont) – Sadie Bjornsen (USST) lead her APU teammates Rosie Brennan and Holly Brooks (USST) to a sweep of the podium in Saturday’s women’s 10km classic race at the US SuperTour Finals at the Craftsbury Outdoor Centre in Craftsbury, Vermont. Liz Stephen (Burke Mountain Academy/USST) was fourth, while Becca Rorabaugh (APU) and Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST) rounded out the top six.

After capturing bronze in Saturday’s prologue, Bjornsen roared off the start line in Sunday’s mass start classic race, leading more or less from start to finish in slow snow with warm and slushy conditions, rain on and off, temps in the 40’s, and a large crowd of spectators. “I pretty much went from the gun without realizing it,” Bjornsen told SkiTrax earlier today, “I wanted to get those preems and then I decided since I had already made a gap, I should just go with it.”

Bjornsen eventually started to pay for her early efforts and by the end of the third lap was beginning to fade. She credited team mate Rosie Brennan with giving her a boost of energy that enabled her to hang on for the win by just 5.7 seconds over Brennan.

“I started to die at the end of the third lap,” she explained, “and by that point Rosie Brennan, one of my best friends and teammates, pulled up beside me saying ‘C’mon Sadie, we can do this’. I knew people were gaining on us from behind, so at that point Rosie took the lead and I held on by my fingernails. At the last hill, I just got this second wind and managed to get by her, but I have Rosie to thank for keeping my head going.”

Bjornsen wasn’t bothered by the tricky snow and waxing conditions at Craftsbury, where it had rained earlier in the day. “The course was pretty broken down by the time we started,” she said, “just like the Oslo Holmenkollen 30km, so I almost felt right at home. It really didn’t bother me at all. My skis were fast and I had great kick.”

Bjornsen was impressed with how well the trails were standing up given the conditions, and credited the Craftsbury organizers and volunteers for keeping things in shape: “Hats off to them, they are truly pulling it off”.

Brennan, for her part, had a poor start, but managed slowly to work her way through the pack to the front, where she briefly took the lead from Bjornsen near the end of the final lap.

“I had a pretty bad start,” Brennan told Ski Trax, “[and] I found myself further back than I was comfortable with on the first lap. I was able to work my way through the pack slowly and just started picking people off one by one.”

“Eventually, going into the last lap,” she continued, “I caught Holly and realized we had an APU sweep going and that was really something exciting, and something I could get myself to dig a little deeper for.”

“Then I caught Sadie, who is one of my best friends and teammates and I could not have been more excited to be skiing with her. I told her we could do this if we just pushed it a little harder to the finish. I was feeling good up that last big hill so I took the lead, but Sadie is a very tough racer and she hung with me and pulled herself away from me up the hill into the stadium.”

Both skiers were thrilled with the APU podium sweep. “It’s so fun to be back with the APU group,” Bjornsen said, “I have absolutely loved having a women’s team over in Europe where we are all pushing each other and working hard – so it’s fun to come back and share that with my home club team. It’s so cool to see how these girls have stepped it up and are throwing it out there already this week.”

“An APU sweep is not surprising to me at all,” Brennan added, “our women’s team is just full of very talented athletes, I just never expected myself to be part of the sweep.”

The US Super Tour Finals continue with Tuesday’s grueling hill climb event.

Full results HERE.
Full results w/splits HERE.