December 13, 2012 (Canmore, AB) – Beautiful conditions set the stage for the women’s 10km CL in Canmore as the lead off event at the Alberta World Cup, round 4 of the Viessemann FIS XC series as Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk took no prisoners on her way to a dominating victory by 45+ second margin.

The battle was for second and third as Kowalczyk pulled away on the second of three laps with the Ukraine’s Valentina Shevchenko trying to stay with her by fell back to the chase group that included Randall, four Norwegians, Finland’s Anne Kylloenen and others. Soon after Shevchenko fell back Kylloenen attacked on a climb on the final lap and noone countered so the battle was now for third.

Randall was clearly looking strong and moved to the front on the final climb but lost ground to the Norwegian posse chasing her on the descent and in the final sprint to the line placed a strong 6th matching her best 10km CL result.  Maiken Caspersen Falla (Nor) grabbed the final podium spot as Vibeke W Skofterud was 4th and Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg was 5th.

“I didn’t feel that great on the first lap,” Randall told Trax. “But on the second time thru I felt better. It’s a hard course and I didn’t quite get to the finish the way I’d hoped. But I didn’t expect to be doing so well this early given my injury so I have to be happy with the way things are going.

“Overall it was a good day for me and the team and I’m happy to see my progress in classic skiing, and that I’m able to contend for the podium and the overall World Cup.”

The USA’s Sadie Bjornsen in 25th and Holly Brooks in 30th made the points with Ida Sargent just behind Brooks in 31st.

“Today was both challenging and very exciting. This is my first time to Canmore, so I was shocked with how hard the courses skid during training. I was pleasantly surprised though how much smoother it felt during racing,” said Bjornsen post-race.

“As far as the race, the first lap is always a whirlwind of finding your place in the pack. The second lap I struggled a bit on, as I think my body finally started realizing how hard it was, but by the third lap I was able to find a new gear, and really push it in. It was fun to ski through the course with teammates like Ida Sargent. She was able to pull me in some points, and I think I was able to pull her on in other places – which kept both of us on our toes and pushing.

“I was also very excited to make my first distance points, since placing 31st-35th a dozen times last winter. It was also fun to hear my parents voices throughout the course, since this was the first World Cup Event they have gotten to attend.”

Sargent agreed on the toughness of the Canmore course. “It was a really hard race!  Tough course but it’s really cool to see such a world class venue in North America. I started way at the back of the pack today and had to use a lot of energy to move up through the pack.  I just couldn’t seem to find an opening out there and spent a lot of time sprinting and then stopping,” Sargent told Trax correspondent Peter Graves.

“I ran out of the tracks for awhile trying to get by people. It’s hard because the pack spreads out so quickly that if you don’t try to move up gaps form. But I think I used a lot of energy too soon and faded in the last kilometer out there and lost a lot of places… 31st is never somewhere you want to end up but there are lots of more races ahead,” she added.

The top Canadian was Brittany Webster in 38th. “I was pretty nervous coming in, and it was tough today,” said Webster. “It is one of the most challenging courses in the world and you have to be careful not to go to hard on the climbs. It was not a stellar race, but it got better in the second and third lap.”

Jessie Diggins was not on the start line as she’s under the weather while teammate Liz Stephen took a break to rest up for Sunday’s Skiathlon. Canada’s Chandra Crawford, Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones were not on the start line focusing on Saturday’s sprint event.

Full results HERE.