February 02, 2012 (Sochi, Russia) – On the second day of Olympic test events at the Laura Cross Country Ski Center near Sochi the USA’s Liz Stephen from E. Montpelier, Vermont skied to a career-best eighth in the women’s 15km skiathlon (7.5kmCL+7.5kmFR).

Kristin Stoermer Steira (NOR) surprised the field with a solid victory as the real battle was for 2nd with Yulia Tchekaleva nipping Nicole Fessel (GER) at the line at 19.2s behind Steira and Fessel at 19.9s.

It was a great day for the US women as Sadie Bjornsen finished in the points with a solid PB in 24th, followed by Jessie Diggins in 26th, Ida Sargent in 37th and Holly Brooks in 41st. No Canadian women competed.

We caught up with Stephen, Bjornsen and Diggins for their impressions on the Olympic course, the venue and their respective races.

Sadie Bjornsen
Today was super fun. The course was tough with all the new soft snow, and the huge climbs, but I was able to hang tough through the 15k. My classic leg went very well. At 5 minutes into the race, somehow I was in 4th place, in the front of the mass start. I guess I had a really good start- so it was fun to see what it felt like skiing in the front of a World Cup Field.

From there I sat back a bit and tried to save my legs, not go in too deep to the pain cave, since I knew the skate leg was going to be so hard. I was able to maintain contact with the front group thought until the switch.

After the switch to skate skis, I lost a little ground. I have always been a weaker skater, and especially uphill skating- so I just kept telling myself to hang tough.  So I was certainly satisfied with the day. It is my best distance result, and we had great skis as well!

Jessie Diggins
I was really psyched for Liz and Sadie today – it was so great to see Liz have a career best finish and to see Sadie skiing so strong! I need to work on my mass starts – I wasn’t aggressive enough and ended up way in the back. I was able to work my way up a bit in the skate, however, but my body just never felt that awesome-good-ready-to-rock feeling.

The course was much slower with the snow coming down hard, which definitely slowed the race down and kept the pack together longer. It’s basically been snowing hard for four days straight up here! Which is nice, because it seems we certainly don’t need to worry about any lack of snow in this venue.

The stadium is nice and big, the wax cabins and athlete hangout area are good up here, and there has been no issue with transportation on race day. Everything here seems to be running pretty smooth, and they haven’t even finished construction yet, so I’m excited to see what it looks like another year from now!

Liz Stephen
First of all it is really cool to be here and getting a chance to preview next year’s Olympic courses.  They are super challenging courses, particularly the skate side of the venue, which essentially sends you down the alpine mountain and then back up it.  It was particularly challenging today, as there was 6 inches of fresh powder this morning, and more falling the whole time we were racing, making for very soft conditions as well as fairly slow going as well, as we were plowing through snow each lap. It has been like we are living in a snow globe up here this week, though we have heard that tomorrow’s sprint relay will be clear, so we are looking forward to seeing whats really around here!

The race today was challenging for me.  The classic portion went really well, as I probably had my best ever start in a mass start, getting myself to the front of the group right away and staying in the top 10 for the whole classic portion of the race.  Once the skate started, though, my legs were not up for the hills today, and I was not able to ski the way I was hoping to.  That said, I skied my heart out, trying to stay with the lead chase pack, and I am certainly happy with my 8th place finish today, as it marks a career best in an individual World Cup (not a mini tour or Tour de Ski stage).

The best part of today was proving to myself that on a day when I feel really good, I can have a podium finish in a World Cup.  Getting myself to truly believe that has been an ongoing process and a tough mental barrier for me to break into, I think. After racing for quite a few years now on the World Cup circuit and slowly making gains each year, to finally see the podium as the next step, man, it’s hard to get your head around it in order to fully believe that I can be on one of those steps in the near future.  But it is also the most important part of getting onto the step.  Believing fully that you actually can do it.  So, days like today help in that process.

The Sochi atmosphere has been really welcoming, for the most part.  The volunteers are really friendly, though there is a definite language barrier that is tough to overlook at points!  The housing up on the mountain that we have been living in is really nice, for sure the nicest accommodations on the circuit, so that has been a real treat.  The food has been a bit hard to get used to, but getting a chance to come here and scope the scene before the games is going to be a real benefit for me if I am here next year.  I know what I will bring from home, what to picture in my head when thinking about the Games, as well as skiing and racing the courses gives me ideas of what I should work on this summer to be ready to ski the best I can here next February.

Thanks!
Best,
Liz

Women’s Skiathlon results HERE.
Result splits HERE.