November 26, 2016 (Ruka, Finland) – Snow fell throughout the competition as Sadie Bjornsen (USA) led the North American women as four qualified, ending up 17th in the women’s 1.4 km CL Sprint at the opening round of the Viessmann FIS XC Ski World Cup in Ruka, Finland. Stina Nilsson of Sweden took her first ever win in classic technique.

Just one year ago Nilsson finished second behind Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla but got her revenge today with Falla the bridesmaid. In third was Heidi Weng of Norway.

Jessie Diggins (13th), Ida Sargent (23rd) and Sophie Caldwell (30th) also advanced along with Bjornsen (7th) as Kikkan Randall settled for 52nd in a tie with teammate Caitlin Patterson. Both were just behind Canada’s Dahria Beatty in 50th and Rosie Brennan (USA) in 44th. Cendrine Brown (Can) finished 62nd.

“It was a fun and exciting start to the 16-17 season. I have had a much different preparation than normal leading into the season, so I was pleasantly surprised with how things went in the qualifier,” shared Bjornsen. “I have been suffering from some heel spur problems for the past 2 months, so I have spent the better part of it without shoes and doing lots of ski erg, swimming, and heelless biking.

Today was only my third time classic skiing in the past months, so it was great to finally find my classic “feeling” this morning just before the start. The past few days I have been nervous, and questioning myself more than normal, so today was a wonderful “check,” she continued. “Big thanks to our wax team for some awesome skis today! It is nice to start the season with great confidence in our wax crew. Also, great to see the depth and strength in our team. I think there are some good things for this team this season!”

Diggins was happy as well with her first World Cup outing as well. “It’s great to get back at it! I was definitely nervous, not knowing how I’d feel after deciding to have an extra week at home this year instead of going to Scandinavia early like I have in the past. I was really impressed with our service team as they were working so hard and so in synch with each other – the communication was flawless and really helped on a very tricky waxing day with new snow and rapidly deteriorating tracks!

“My skis were great, and I had my best ever qualifier here which was definitely confidence boosting! However, I struggled with my climbing technique in the quarter as the tracks were mushy and falling apart, and I wasn’t quite able to get the hang of it. But I’m proud of my efforts out there and I learned what I need to continue working on for next time,” she concluded.

Randall, who was off last year giving birth to new son Breck, knows it will take a bit of time but it all felt familiar including donning her first race bib in awhile.

“Super awesome to see my teammates ski so well. It felt great to put the bib on again and go through the whole routine of ski testing, warming up and running to the start.  Racing was fun as well although I didn’t ski as well as I wanted today,” commented the new mom.

” I’m feeling good but anxious to start racing to get myself reacquainted with race efforts.  I’ve had a lot of good training but racing is still a special feeling and after a year away I feel like it’s going to take some work to get into full race more again. I think my skis were fine today but I just struggled technically – it was a real technical skiers’ day.”

Tomorrow the women will tackle a 10km CL. “I have gone into the start of this season without expectations, but ready to fight each time I stand on the line, so that is what I went for today,” added Bjornsen. “I had a great qualifier, and went into the heats with some confidence. The start was great, but I started to struggle on the final climb. I am missing a little bit of “high speed leg speed”, but that is something I am confident will come with using my legs again. I am looking forward to skiing more, and racing more.”

So what’s Randall’s plan for Sunday’s 10km CL? “I have a feeling I might be in a better place for distance racing right now as I work my way back.  So I’m looking forward to the chance to test out my system and continue working on getting my feel back on snow.

Women’s Qualification here.
Women’s Final here.