January 03, 2019 (Oberstdorf, GER) – American Jessie Diggins stormed to a photo-finish podium claiming third in the women’s 10km Pursuit FR in a dazzling finale as she edged out Yulia Beluorukova (Rus) in a sprint finish by 0.1 seconds and is now third overall. She is also new Sprint leader and wears the gray bib.

Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg of Norway won the stage, followed by Natalia Nepryaeva of Russia in second. Diggins, who was part of a trio that included Krista Parmakoski of Finland and  Belorukova of Russia, did most of the work on the track as she and Belorukova duked it out with the American coming out on top.

“It was really fun working with Krista today, I love skiing with her because we share the work of leading and end up having a great race overall,” said Diggins. “It was so awesome getting the time of day win today and third in the tour in front of my parents and sister who came all the way over to cheer for the last three stages of the tour!”

Sadie Bjornsen was the only other U.S. starter and finished 11th for the day, while Canada’s Emily Nishikawa raced to 30th.

“Well, that’s a wrap for my Tour de Ski racing this season, signing out in 11th place,” said Bjornsen, “I decided to not complete the Tour this year in order to get a good training block in without too much race fatigue. With my heart set on World Championships this year, my coach and I made a plan to only go through five stages. It’s one of the hardest things in the world to drop from the Tour because it’s my favorite race of the season, but I have big goals ahead in February.”

“I felt really, really good today. I was in a big wave start and was skiing with a good group, but in the second lap a girl in front of me fell on the downhill into the stadium so I lost a lot of time,” said Nishikawa. “Even after a big crash, I felt really strong. I got up and skied well. I tried to get back onto the pack, but they were gone. I was happy to get through a few more girls.”

The Tour de Ski resumes with stage 6 on Saturday in Val di Fiemme, Italy, with a 10k mass start for the women and 15k mass start for the men.

Results here.
Overall here.