January 12, 2014 (Nova Mesto, CZE) – The USA’s Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent raced to solid 6th place today in the women’s 1.3km x 6 Team Sprint CL in Nova Mesto as Norway I’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg took the win over Finland (Mona-Lisa Malvelehto and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen) with Russia II (Evgenia Shapovalova and Julia Ivanova) claiming third.

The Norwegians took control early with Finland close behind as the USA’s Sargent skied mid-pack tagging Caldwell in 7th as Finland moved into second. Caldwell fired all engines gaining three spots by the next exchange as Saarinen took the lead for the Finns.

USA's Sargent battles Anastasia Dotsenko from Russia © Nordic Focus

Sargent did her best to maintain her position as the Russian teams started to move up and Norway’s Falla regained the lead from Finland’s Malvalehto. At the exchange the USA was in 6th and Caldwell went to work again taking over 5th when a Russian crashed as Saarinen and Oestberg battled for the lead. By the fourth exchange Team USA was back in 4th.

On the 5th leg Finland, Norway and Russia II broke away establishing a big lead as Sargent battled with Russia I and Norway II tagging Caldwell for the final time in 7th.

Finland looked strong leading into the final 1.3km but Oestberg proved to be stronger than Saarinen as she attacked to take a solid win for Norway while Russia II’s Ivanova claimed the bronze. Caldwell was able to grab 6th for the USA in the final push to the line. Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones finished 13th as only 10 teams advanced to the finals.

We caught up with Caldwell for her take on the day of racing. “My skis were good! It was pretty icy out there and the tracks weren’t breaking down much, so it wasn’t easy to get kick. The techs did a great job putting together some skis for us that were both fast and kicking.

Sophie Caldwell (USA) skied strong... © Nordic Focus

“Our exchanges went really well today. We practiced a couple before the race, but it’s always easier when you’re the only two in the exchange zone. I don’t think our exchanges in Asiago were anything to write home about, but I think today we had much better tags. There is definitely still room for improvement, but today was better,” commented Caldwell

Caldwell skied well gaining back spots on each leg – so was it tough to pass other skiers… ?

“It wasn’t nearly as hard to pass as it was for the skate race, but it still wasn’t easy. If you were coming into a hill with a lot of momentum, it was easy to choose an open track and make a move around someone, but if you were already striding up a hill, switching tracks could kill any momentum you had and take some extra energy. I focused on relaxing as much as possible when I was following people and then trying to ski the transitions hard and staying calm so my wax would keep working,” shared the Peru, Vt. skier.

How tough was the final leg and the pace…? “The final leg was tough because there were a bunch of gaps in the field. The first three had broken away and then there was a gap to the next two, and then there was another gap before I started a little behind Slovenia. Slovenia was moving at a good pace and I think we were too far behind the next group to catch them, so I tried to follow her in order to conserve enough energy for the end and that worked out well,” she concluded.

Final podium (l-r) Finland 2nd, Norway I 1st, Russia II 3rd. © Nordic Focus

For Sargent it was day of dealing with tricky conditions and making improvements.

“Today was hard but fun.  The snow was really icy and glazed and variable so you had to finesse the kick and ski smoothly to make it work.  It wasn’t easy kicking conditions but we were lucky to have really good skis that made it as easy as possible.  Sophie and I had great exchanges which I thought went much better than when we raced in Asiago together so that was a cool improvement.

“It was hard to pass out there but not impossible. Mostly hard I guess because everyone is so fast! Team sprints are definitely one of the toughest race formats but I was excited that I felt better today in the final than the semifinal.  Sophie was really strong today and it was very fun to race with her,” shared Sargent.

The team will stay in Nove Mesto for a few more days before going to Poland as the snow situation doesn’t look great there.

Full results here.
Results with splits here.