January 6, 2010 (Cortina/Toblach, Italy) – Local favourite Arianna Follis (Ita) has taken over the Tour de Ski lead with an impressive win at the women’s 16km Stage 5 Handicap Start Pursuit. Follis out-sprinted the ‘grandes dames’ of the 2010 Tour de Ski to take the win in front of the home town crowd besting Petra Majdic (SLO) and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) by four seconds.

Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, the Tour leader coming into Stage 5, finished in fourth at 24 seconds behind, while Italy’s Marianna Longa was also a crowd pleaser for local fans with her 5th place finish. Canada’s Sara Renner moved up from 29th to finish 23rd and is also 23rd overall at 3:46 behind the Tds red jersey leader Follis.

Women’s 16km Pursuit full results here.
Women’s TdS Overall standings here.

Results (brief)

1.Arianna Follis (ITA) 34:34.8
2.Petra Majdic (SLO) +3.4
3.Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) +4.1
4.Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) +27.6
5.Marianna Longo (ITA) 2:00.9

23.Sara Renner (CAN) +3:46.0

Ladies’ Press Conference Toblach, 16 km F Ladies Handicap Start