March 18, 2011 (Falun, Sweden) – Under a cloudy sky and with light snow falling Norway’s Marit Bjoergen continued to demonstrate her prowess by winning the women’s 2.5km classic Prologue on Friday in Falun. Soft snow made for challenging wax conditions but Bjoergen was in control from the get-go trouncing the field with a winning time of 9:01.6, a comfortable 10.6s ahead of her main rival Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) in second, with her team mate Therese Johuag in 3rd.

U.S. Ski Team standout Kikkan Randall lead the North American finishers at the opening event of the final weekend of world cup racing finishing 19th at 41.7 seconds behind Bjoergen. Team mate Holly Brooks was 46th at 1:10.5 followed by Canada’s Perianne Jones in 49th at 1:19.2.

“You know, I am very satisfied with today,” said Randall “The body felt good, I had awesome skis in tricky waxing conditions and I am trying to be as efficient as possible. I still feel there is someway of being even more efficient, especially at the top-end speed and I’m working on it.”

The final four races that began in Stockholm on Wednesday are also part of the season-end “mini-tour” with the pursuit races on Saturday, followed by the final fabled climb up the punishing five-minute hill known as Morderbacken or “killers hill”. Each year the WCup winners are crowned King and Queen of Morderbacken.

As the light snow stopped the track got faster and faster as the race went on favouring the later starting skiers. While the crowds were light today, most of the spectators hiked out on the course to view the backbreaking climb.

Norway’s Johaug, who was 26th out of the gate today, set a blistering time up the climb to take the pole position with a finishing time of 9:14.5, by far the fastest of the day and it held up until Kowalczyk bested her laying down a solid 9:12.2.

It was up to Bjoergen and she did not disappoint showing excellent form and did not letting up as she took the gold in convincing style maintaining her stronghold lead in the mini tour followed by Kowalczyk in second with Petra Majdic (SLO), who had a rough day finishing 17th, in third. Randall is 10th overall, Jones is 28th and Brooks is 48th.

For Jones it’s been a memorable week as she posted her best-ever finish in Stockholm finishing 12th in the sprint WCup.

“I was really excited about my result earlier this week,” said Jones in a CCC release. “It was the first time I raced internationally in a while and to get into the semi finals was a huge confidence booster for sure. I wanted to stay home this year and not go on the World Cup until I felt like I belonged. We stuck with the plan, and I’m pretty satisfied with the improvements I have made since last year.”

Racing will continue at the world cup finals on Saturday with men’s and women’s pursuit races.

Full results HERE.
MiniTour Standings HERE.