November 22, 2015 (Gällivare, Sweden) – Team USA’s Jessie Diggins was fired up on a cold day in Sweden taking her second consecutive victory in the women’s 10km freestyle FIS race with teammate Caitlin Gregg landing on the podium in third behind Petra Novakova of the Czech Republic. Liz Stephen and Rosie Brennan just missed podium spots, grabbing fourth and fifth, respectively while the top Canuck was Emily Nishikawa in 9th.

“I was really happy with today!” said Diggins (Afton, MN) after her win. “It’s a challenging course with lots of climbing, twisting downhills and not too much recovery, but my plan was to take it out hot from the start and hold the pace as long as I could.”

In the men’s 15km FR race Alex Harvey put a silver lining on his final preparations to his World Cup season taking second behind Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov who claimed a double weekend victory. Veteran Devon Kershaw delivered a solid fourth-place finish signaling he’s back after a season plagued with illness and injury. The USA’s Noah Hoffman finished a strong 6th followed by Ivan Babikov in 8th and Erik Bjornsen in 10th with Graeme Killick 11th.

“It is always good to get the season started, and I’m excited to head to Finland with two solid results under my belt,” said Harvey. “I tend to start slow in individual starts which is not great if you want to contend for the podium. I went maybe a little to hard today, but I’m happy.

“It is one thing to have good feelings in training, but until you get the results in a race it is hard to tell where you are at. It was a good weekend to get the routine dialed in. There are so many little details to the minute from the time you wake up that goes into having a strong race,” he continued.

“It’s such a long season, but you have to really make sure your shape is in top from Christmas onwards,” added Harvey. “My target this year is to win the overall title. I didn’t necessarily believe that I could do that in the past, but I do believe I have a shot at that title this year.

We caught up with Gregg, Nishikawa, Hoffman, Bjornsen and Kershaw for their take on the weekend of racing and the final countdown as both teams head to Ruka, Finland Nov. 27-29 to kick off the first World Cup races.

Emily Nishikawa (CAN)
Thanks, it was a good first weekend of racing for me.  I was very happy with yesterday’s classic sprint, but I struggled today.  That’s what these tune up races are all about. I’m looking forward to Kuusamo next weekend!

Caitlin Gregg (USA)
This weekend was great! It always feels good to put a bib on after a solid summer and fall of training! The training in Gallivare has been fantastic, great snow, great trails and awesome accommodations! We (the whole team) put in a lot of solid efforts throughout the week and got to test the lungs in some colder weather during the weekend races. Really looking forward to this coming weekend and the entire season on the Word Cup

Erik Bjornsen (USA)
Today’s race was another great chance to practice racing. It wasn’t the effort I was looking for but that’s what these races are for, practice. I’m hoping to build into the season. I didn’t get as much race efforts and L4 as I would have liked this summer and fall, so I’ll be using these first few races to try and find form. I was a little surprised to finish in the top 10, I would have expected worse. I didn’t see any other racers on the course, if it weren’t for the coaches doing a great job yelling at me I would have thought the race had been canceled or something. I’m looking forward to some head to head skiing on the World Cup soon.

Noah Hoffman (USA)
Today was a great opportunity to test myself against some really high level competition. I feel like it was a good result that I can build on going into next week, when it actually starts to count! My summer and fall have gone exactly as I envisioned. I’ve made big improvements in my technique and body positioning/posture. My leg is 100%. I haven’t had any issues from it since returning to competition last season. It’s been awesome and I owe it to my incredible medical team. I feel like my fitness is very good. I’m very excited for the season.

Devon Kershaw (CAN)
The weekend was pretty good all around I would say. A good tune-up and coming out of it with some things to work on moving forward. Yesterday in the sprint it was great to have Emily in the final (she finished 6th) and on the men’s side I think we wanted a little more. In qualifying nobody skied that fast – but we turned it around as best we could for the heats with Alex, Lenny and I all making it through to the semis. Alex was only 0.01sec from making the final – so he was close (ended up 7th) and Lenny and I didn’t ski a great semi final (both finishing 5th in our heats) meaning we ended the day 9th and 10th – which isn’t amazing, but better than our qualifiers – so we’ll take it.

Today was a solid race for me. I am happy with how I executed it. Like last week in Beitostølen, I was a bit slow on my first lap – it seems it’s just taking some time to dial in my pacing I guess – but the feelings were good and I skied and felt better every lap. The reality is that it’s my best distance individual start skate race in 1.5 years, so I’ll take it too. The technique felt good, the skis were solid, and the body felt better than last week. Of course I’d like to be closer to the win, but Ustiugov really put on a clinic this weekend (winning both races). Alex was 2nd which was great for our team and Ivan 8th – so again like the day before we had 3 in the top 10 which isn’t too bad. Emily struggled a bit today – perhaps a bit under-dressed (she said she got really cold), but will look to bounce back next weekend.

Gallivare has been a great place to train and tune up – and we will leave for Kuusamo on Tuesday morning. Everyone is looking forward to the first races on the World Cup that starts next Friday.

Matt Whitcomb (US Women’s Coach)
Today was another brilliant race from Jessie. We weren’t firing on all cylinders as a team, so it really came down to Jessie going to battle with Petra Novacova of Czech for the win. I’m excited for Jessie and her great weekend here in Gaellivare. And she’s just getting started. I feel good about Caitlin, Liz and Rosie’s races as well, though it was still a step or two from what they would call a good race. Today’s effort is part of the solution to getting there. The girls are feeling good in training and have adjusted well to the travel demands. Now it is just a matter of racing our way into form. This weekend has shed light into where each athlete sits individually, so we know what type of work needs to be done. We will be ready for Kuusamo when the World Cup kicks off on Friday.

Our new service technicians already seem like they’ve been a part of the family for years, and because of a great camp in Gaellivare, we’re entering the season more prepared as a staff than we were last year without races. This crew is tight already. The skis were gliding fast today!