December 01, 2018 (Lillehammer, Norway) – Sadie Bjornsen led the Americans in 9th while her teammate Rosie Brennan took home a career-best 11th with Jessie Diggins 12th in the women’s 10km FR World Cup on Day Two at Lillehammer, Norway. Therese Johaug (Nor) took another win over Sweden’s Edda Andersson in second and Charlotte Kalla in third.

“After climbing up the big long climb at 3.5k, I finally found my rhythm and my craving for the pain cave,” said Bjornsen, who posted her second-consecutive top 10-result after landing third on the podium in Friday’s sprint. “From there I kept pushing myself and tried to cut some time off the leaders. I was happy with my ninth place finish today. I think I have more in me, so I look forward to another try at distance skating next weekend. I think today was actually a step up from my distance race in Beito before the World Cup season started, so that is a step in the right direction.”

“I am thrilled with my result and am looking forward to being in the mix tomorrow,” said Brennan. “I have never started in bib #1 in my whole career so that was a new experience for me, but it seemed to work out all right. Because I was starting first, I tried to really focus on myself and my own skiing knowing that information would be sparse out there.”

“I had confidence I could have a good race after a really good summer of training and lots of improvements in my skating in particular. I love skiing alone so interval starts are something I always look forward to. When I lapped through, the A seed was starting so I could get some gauge on my speed, but because the snow was so dirty, my skis were much slower than those that were just starting so it wasn’t terribly inspiring. I did a good job of turning the focus back to my own skiing and focusing on good strong movement for the entirety of the race. And when I crossed the line, I dashed into that leaders chair as I have never had my turn in that thing before ; ),” she concluded.

“My body is in a weird place coming right off being sick, so although I know I’m still very much working towards my top form it was encouraging to be able to get out there and race today,” Diggins said. “I’m so proud of Rosie for her career best World Cup result, and excited to dig deep one last time in Lillehammer tomorrow.”

Results here.