November 25, 2018 (Ruka, Finland) – Sadie Bjornsen led the Team USA charge again with a top-10 finish placing 8th in the women’s 10km individual CL won by Norway’s Therese Johaug as the FIS World Cup opener wrapped up in Finland on Sunday. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla was second while her teammate Ebba Andersson finished 3rd. It was Johaug’s 53rd World Cup victory.

Jessie Diggins, who was in the top 10 until the final 1.5km ended up 14th followed by Rosie Brennan in 23rd with Sophie Caldwell 43rd and Caitlin Patterson 46th.

“It was a fun and furious first distance race on the World Cup today,” said Bjornsen. “Due to a lack of snow, the course got changed to three laps of a 3.3k course, with an evil combination of constant work.

“The downhills were wicked fast, so there was little to no recovery. I went out hard, and did my very best to hang on. Despite losing the “fight for the podium” on my third lap, I feel so excited and encouraged about finishing 8th today. I had good feelings, I had good skis, and I know where I lost my time a bit.”

Diggins was happy with her race and her form as the season gets underway. “I was satisfied with this start to the season – I always like to build into the season and carry quite a bit of training load into the first few weekends in order to be racing in top form later in the year,” said the Olympic gold medalist. “So this is right around where I’d hoped to be.”

Brennan was also feeling good about her performance. “We got a dusting of snow last night on top of 100% man made, old snow. It made for some nice skiing. I was happy with my race today and felt I paced it better than in the past. It’s always a tricky thing on the first race with a course as steep as this one. I think today was a great starting place for distance and I hope to build on things from here,” Brennan told Trax.

Results here.
Women’s 10k Interval Start Classic Ruka, Finland