January 09, 2016 (Val di Fiemme, ITA) – Sadie Bjornsen led the U.S. team to a top-10 finish in stage seven of the Tour de Ski Saturday placing ninth in the women’s 10km CL Mst start as Norway’s Heidi Weng won her first individual World Cup race in a battle to the line with teammate Ingvild Oestberg. Therese Johaug, finished third for a Norwegian podium sweep.

“I cannot believe it, it is so crazy and hard to describe it. I was the best today and I still cannot believe it. Today I followed Ingvild’s track in the last uphill. I had stiff legs in the downhills. I was just focused on the finish,” said Weng.

Bjornsen started 13th and was able to move up early in the race and pushed hard through the first seven kilometers despite tricky conditions. She dabbled between sixth and 10th position, but had to back off to recover with two kilometers to the finish. Jessie Diggins finished 17th and remains 10th in the overall Tour standings with one stage remaining while Bjornsen moved up to 12th overall.

“It was a really fun race out there today. I struggled with classic in the middle of this tour with a fall in the classic qualifier, and then slow and slick skis in the classic mass start in Obersdorf… so it feels nice to be back where I feel like I belong.

“I felt amazing for 7k out there today, at which point I just pushed a little too hard on the uphill, and took the next 2k to recover. It was fun to be skiing with the best for a while though, how fun! One day I will fight up there! Conditions were incredibly tricky out there with icing skis on the uphill, but we all managed. Sometimes you just have to accept the challenge and find a way to make it work. It made a world of difference to have some skis that were fast enough to keep up, so the minor challenges became small!

“One more big challenge tomorrow in this big Tour de Ski battle. The only other year I have done the TDS is last year, and I dropped out after 4 stages… and the second half has proved to be much more challenging! I can’t wait to make it to the top and celebrate the achievement, but also take the energy to celebrate Sophie and Jessie’s huge achievements these last few days,” said Bjornsen.

Rosie Brennan from Park City, UT, who skis for APU finished 30th in the points and we caught up with her for her take on today’s race.

“I am satisfied with my race today. It’s been a slow start to the season for me, but I think I am coming around. It was a very challenging day with tricky wax conditions, and some very tired bodies. It was all about keeping up the fight and making do with what you had.

“The course was great and provided a much more mellow mass start than other course, which was very welcome. We are all very happy, proud, and inspired by the great results coming from the team and I’m sure we will do more celebrating when the tour is over, but for now we are all focused on getting up the mountain tomorrow,” commented Brennan.

Today’s tough conditions were echoed by US Women’s coach Matt Whitcomb. “Today was a very tricky waxing day for the entire field. Every team had visible icing issues, including Norway, so we watched athletes stumble over the tops of each hill as they attempted to clear the snow from their klister. It was very challenging skiing for a field of tired athletes,” shared Whitcomb.

Full results here.
Overall Standings here.