January 19, 2013 (La Clusaz, France) – Norway’s Marit Bjoergen bided her time staying with the lead group of five that compacted to three with 2km to go as she battled with long-time rival Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) and teammate Therese Johaug (NOR) for top honours in the women’s 10km CL in La Clusaz, France.

Marit Bjoergen (NOR) strikes a familiar pose. © NordicFocus

Kowalczyk struck at the 7.8km mark but Bjoergen, who has missed four World Cup weekends since the Kuusamo mini-tour including the Tour de Ski due to heart rhythm abnormalities, is clearly on form as she charged to victory over Johaug in second as Kowalczyk cracked near the end grabbing third at 18s behind. It wasn’t the birthday present Kowalczyk was hoping for as Bjoergen earned her 58th World Cup victory.

For US fans it was a mixed bag emotions as Liz Stephen powered to a solid 15th place finish leading four skiers into the points including Jessie Diggins in 24th, Sadie Bjornsen in 28th and Ida Sargent in 29th. But missing on that points list was the team’s top gun, Kikkan Randall, who had a sluggish second half dropping from 18th to 32nd at the finish…

“The conditions were surprisingly tricky and variable. Ski testing before the race went relatively smooth and I headed to the start feeling pretty confident about my skis.  First lap they worked great, 2nd lap was a little bit of icing and then 3rd lap was a big battle. With 3km to go my skis were icing badly.  I crashed once and had to stop once to slid my skis across each other to clear the snow,” Randall told Trax post-race. So how’s her form after the grueling Tour de Ski and her break…

” I believe my form is still quite good. I didn’t feel 100% today but I felt decent. I think my rest period post-Tour was good and this weekend will be a good training component for the buildup to World Championships in the next few weeks,” she confided.

Meanwhile Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova put in a solid run for 27th. While she’s focusing on sprinting this year she’ll be a force to be reckoned with when and if she decides to revisit her distance skiing with the same passion. Perianne Jones finished 38th and Chandra Crawford was a surprising DNF.

“It was very tricky conditions around zero degrees – today the wax was really important and I’m glad I took the extra time with our technicians to find something that I was really happy with and my skis were great while others were not,” said Gaiazova in an interview with Trax. “It’s a pretty boring course through open fields, no exciting sections, more of a working course. I was able to pass people on the downhills and while I’m focused more on sprinting it’s always good to try and score points for the team.”

According to head coach Justin Wadsworth Crawford just didn’t have it today. “Chandra’s ok… just tired from what I gather and was not sure if she should race anyway. Sometimes you have to warm up and start to see what is really up. Today it wasn’t there, but she and the rest of the team will be back.”

The revelation of today’s competition was the strong performance by both Japan’s Masako Ishida and Heidi Weng (NOR) who made it a race of 5 leaders up until the 7km mark when the pace increased and Weng was dropped. Ishida was able to hang in until the 8km mark but she too succumbed to the onslaught of the world’s best xc skiers and ended up battling Kowalczyk for third, settling for fourth just 0.2s behind the Polish star.

Canada only has three skiers on site and will not be fielding a relay team on Sunday while the US is hoping to make more relay gains – here’s what Randall told us abou the plan for Sunday’s relay. “I haven’t heard for sure but I think we are going to repeat our order from the Gallivare [Sweden] relay. Holly is rested, Liz and Jessie were solid today and I am motivated to ski a strong relay leg for our team.”

Diggins who also had a solid day is excited for the relay. “I was psyched on today, and even more pumped seeing Liz have a great one. It wasn’t a crazy wild start and I think that was the closest I’ve ever stayed to the main pack! I grabbed the wrong poles before the start and ended up with a spare Canadian set. So when the gun went off my heart rate was already in L4! I’m excited (as always!) for our relay tomorrow.”

Full results HERE.