January 03, 2015 (Obertsdorf, GER) – The 9th FIS Tour de Ski got underway today with the women’s 3.3km Prologue and the USA’s Sadie Bjornsen and Liz Stephen took the opportunity to claim strong top-10 results finishing 7th and 8th respectively.

Norwegian Marit Bjoergen scored another victory as Norway dominated once again earning the top four spots. Nicole Fessel (GER) was the first non-Norwegian in 5th place while Ragnhild Haga (NOR) landed on the World Cup podium for the first time in 3rd. Therese Johaug (NOR) was fourth.

Tour de Ski 2015 women's Prologue podium (l-r) Weng, Bjoergen, Haga © Nordic Focus

Team USA is second in the team rankings and Bjornsen equalled her career-best in 7th place result followed directly by Stephen as Jessie Diggins also had a solid showing in 14th with Kikkan Randall in the points as well in 22nd. Sophie Caldwell finished 44th and Ida Sargent was 58th out of 68 starters with no Canadians competing.

Conditions were good considering a rain hard yesterday and we caught with some of the US team skiers including Bjornsen, Stephen, Diggins and Randall for their take on their first race since the holiday break.

Sadie Bjornsen (USA) © Nordic Focus

Sadie Bjornsen
I was a great day! Last night I was more nervous than I have been in a while, so that was the first good sign for me. I tried to go out hard and hold on to the pace. It seems from my splits – that my start was still conservative – but that was not the real intention! Yet, I am extremely excited. I knew the very hilly course was going to be a challenge, but I tend to like the Prologue format, so it worked out well for me.

I had some great skis and the course was in great condition – lucky for us we escaped the rain! I don’t know what the old course was like (in Oberhof) as this is my first time at the Tour, but here in Obertsdorf it was a real challenge – similar to all World Cup courses! They like to make the legs burn!

I am pretty excited to be at my first TdS – it’s great to be part of it this year. Now I get to see how professional I am at resting as well as skiing. It is also fun to start with six American girls. I feel like we are going to battle as a little “mini stars and stripes army”. We all had a great break, and we are excited to take on this next period!

Liz Stephen (USA) © Peter Graves

Liz Stephen
When we showed up a few days ago it was a winter wonderland like we haven’t seen all winter or last winter. The snow was everywhere… so white and fluffy! We had one really nice day and then it began to rain hard yesterday afternoon so the course became a bit more on the brown side today – but the conditions were awesome today! Fast and fun, though the snow was wet, the organizers did a great job of laying a solid man-made layer down so it was in great shape. It’s raining again now and is supposed to continue all night and maybe turn to heavy snow in the morning hours, so who knows what tomorrow will bring!

It was nice to start the Tour here this year. My first TdS went through Oberstdorf for a couple stages after Oberhof and I have been here for an OPA Cup too. I’ve always liked the venue and it is a beautiful area of the world that you get to see when the skies clear. It’s definitely a tougher course than the Oberhof course which suits me well with two good climbs each lap for today’s course and tomorrow we’ll see three good climbs each lap. I’m really excited.

We had a great break in Davos, staying in a friend’s apartment right on the trails. Davos got some snow the last few days we were there which made Christmas feel like winter which was nice. My previous injury is totally better now so it’s not in my thoughts at all anymore.

I’m so excited to be doing to Tour again – I live for this series and the format of these races. It is so exciting, so constantly moving and rewarding. There will be up days and down days and the mental challenge is almost as fun as the physical one. My rule: smile in each starting gate and before you leave each finish zone. There is no way to have a bad Tour if you can get yourself to do that.

Jessie Diggins © Nordic Focus

Jessie Diggins
Happy New Year to you as well. It was wonderful to see so much snow here, and even though it rained the course held up really well and the uphills stayed firm while the downhill wasn’t scary.

I had been needing a little break from racing and so having Christmas with my family in Davos was just perfect. It was a great holiday and so awesome to see them, and we had a lot of fun!

This is my third TDS and I would love to improve upon last year’s finish (13th). To do that I need to stay consistent and make sure I take really good care of myself so I can recover after each race. I don’t need any spectacular results…  in a long Tour like this if you string together a lot of A- or B races it adds up to a really good result.

Kikkan Randall (USA) © Nordic Focus

Kikkan Randall
Happy New Year…today was a solid start for me for the 2015 Tour. Skate prologues are one of my favorite events and it was fun to start racing again after a couple weeks of training over the Christmas break.  The conditions were hard and fast here in Oberstdorf, Germany for our 2-lap course and we had fast skis.

I was happy to find my body in a good place today. I felt like I paced the two laps well, skied with solid technique and worked up a nice dose of lactic acid.  I’ve been light on race starts this season and every race now will help me sharpen my race form.

It was a great start to the Tour de Ski for our US women’s team.  Sadie Bjornsen and Liz Stephen made the top 10, Jessie Diggins was top 15 and I was 22nd.  Times were tight which should set up for an exciting pursuit start 10km classic race tomorrow!

The Tour de Ski is one of the highlights of the season – 7 races contested over 9 days in 3 countries!  Here is the link for more information and updates and Universal Sports will be airing the Tour de Ski online and on delay on their TV channel here.

Full results here.