From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
As we start to close out the race season, we wanted to provide a link to John Lazenby’s gallery from the Québec City, Canada World Cup finals.
The dichotomous weekend was the World Cup beginning for some and a stop for others like Canada’s Alex Harvey and the U.S. Ski Team’s Ida Sargent — both are retiring from World Cup racing.
The World Cup season wrapped up with World Cup finals in Québec City and FasterSkier was there. Three photographers and three interviewers worked together to gather information from 150 racers, including 56 North Americans.
While top skiers chased glory on the tracks, 500 volunteers toiled out of sight. Alex Harvey retired in a public blaze of glory, Lenny Valjas and Ida Sargent retired in a flood of interviews but without a press conference, and a few more skiers retired discreetly.
Each day at the World Cup, three skiers of each gender stand on the podium and enjoy the celebration of success. The rest of the field trudges through the media zone, some hoping to be noticed, some hoping to not be noticed, and some too angry or frustrated to care. We caught almost all of the North Americans during the weekend, although a few of the interviews have too much crowd noise to be transcribed.
“I think it’s huge for every step of the sport, both developing levels, [to] engage the community, try to find sponsors, new sponsors, retain the actual sponsors for the team, it’s the best way to showcase our sport for our country. My first podium was at the Whistler World Cup in 2009, and that was in a team event with George Grey, so I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life, and it’s kind of for me a good way to finish – we’ve gone full circle now. So this has been special, but I think racing at home is always a unique experience. And for me to finish, not just in my home country, but in my hometown, it is just amazing. You saw there were big crowds today, there were big crowds in 2016, 2017 as well, and Whistler Olympics were also really fun for our whole team, and that World Cup the year before. We need to keep having events like that and it’s great that the circus will come back next year.” — Alex Harvey, on having World Cup racing at home.
“It is awesome here and a perfect place to end the season. Everybody is happy and relieved and satisfied. So now we are going to have a party and enjoy each other and have a good time. I feel like we deserve it and it is going to be nice to celebrate with the whole crew here, including the waxers and the coaches and other people, so it’s going to be awesome.” — Emil Iversen, before shooting that music video…
“It was a super crowd, incredible to race in front of my family, all my friends. I will definitely remember this. It was super cool when I took off my warm-ups and did a lap and everyone was there.” — Antoine Briand (translated)
“I have to say, I don’t think I have ever, in my life probably, had so many cheers on a qualifier for a sprint. That was the most exciting, cool, fun experience. The wall of noise when I started was just inspiring, it was just one of those really cool things that you just gotta appreciate and soak up the atmosphere when you can. It was just so cool to have my boyfriend here and my family and that is just such a fun way to end the season. Racing aside, just feeling this awesome supportive atmosphere has been pretty awesome.” — Jessie Diggins
“It’s so exciting, by that second hill there were so many people cheering, and it was like ‘woah,’ it just gives you some extra energy for sure.” — KSJ
“Nothing special, but I think it will be a really good type of race here. They really like us here and it is amazing to be here and I don’t think we can end the season better than what we are doing here with this weather and this people and so many people cheering for Alex and for us. It’s amazing, so we are really looking forward to coming back next year and it will be really good races.” — JHK
“It’s really cool, it was really unique to be in this competitive setting, still hearing the voices from rollerski practice every day in the summer. And I think it’s an invaluable experience for younger skiers to have, to be able to watch and compete and see what it’s like at the high level.” — Ben Saxton
“It’s awesome. You know, it’s pretty rare that we get the loudest cheers for the Americans, so it feels really special being on the start line, having so many friends and family here, and the fact that it’s my birthday makes it even more special.” — Sophie Caldwell
“You know, it’s amazing. I love that we end our season here because it feels like you have all your friends and family be a part of what you’ve been doing all winter. I mean, that big climb – it’s so loud, and just waving to the crowd on the start line was just like such a reminder of how much I love what I’m doing, and it’s so cool to share it with people because then you get to enjoy it ten times more. So I appreciate all the love out here.” — Sadie Bjornsen
“Fourth time in Quebec, so I think I know the city pretty well now, but it’s always a different track, but I think the atmosphere is great. And also I think that it’s really good to see all the Americans and all the Canadians that are starting today.” — Maiken Caspersen Falla
“I have never made a podium in Québec before so I think I can do it again next year.
I heard a lot of noise, ‘Pellegrino, Pellegrino.’ In Europe, it’s hard to get people to come out and watch in bad weather. There was a lot of emotion in Alex, but next year I hope they will still come watch even without Alex. The courses were in good shape in spite of the conditions and the crowd here is amazing!” — Federico Pellegrino, translated from French
“I was expecting it to be a lot colder and wetter because the weather forecast was kind of shitty, but we are feeling great. We came Monday and we have done some acclimatizing and we are happy to be here. It was so cool to be here two years ago and it is the same now.” — Eirik Myhr Nossum, Norwegian coach
“It was one of those things where the course sorta broke down, very similar to Falun actually, where it was just like, I guess the best descriptor is mashed potatoes. It was wet and deep and you just couldn’t get a lot of purchase. It was this soggy, saturated snow but instead of compressing, it was starting to get deep and mushy. They did the best they could, they had people literally sidestepping, packing down the downhill, and people raking the course. They did everything they could, it was just one of those days where it was just not great conditions to ski in to be totally honest.” — Jessie Diggins, on sprint conditions
“The crowd is awesome, best of the year.” — Sophie Caldwell, on Saturday.
“It’s really nice here. The city is beautiful and there are a lot of people on the tracks here so we are really happy to be here and to have the final season here.” — Therese Johaug
“As always it’s good to be here with the home crowd and seeing Alex on the podium was super cool. You feel that North American energy and it’s just awesome being here.” — Simi Hamilton
“Almost every day in the season, you are traveling in Europe and have the competition there. To travel a bit farther and have a competition here is really cool for us. It’s a new experience, and like I said, it’s an amazing atmosphere and I really appreciate everyone is cheering for us. Canada is for sure a very special place, and a cool place to have the ski races.” — Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
“They’re crazy! The fans are amazing, they’ve been cheering so hard. There’s a couple of corners out there where you forget where you are. One of the best World Cups, honestly, this season, crowd-wise.” — Russell Kennedy, on the smaller audience for Friday’s sprint.
“Today, the best thing was the crowd. One of the best of the World Cup, for sure. I felt like in Cogne, in my hometown, where we did a World Cup during this winter, and a lot of people came to cheer for me. The same time, here in Canada, a lot of people came for Alex, and this is good for cross country skiing.” — Federico Pellegrino
“It’s so fun to race here. The last two days have been also better weather so there are more people here. In Norway, we’re used to that everyone knows what cross country skiing is, but maybe not everyone knows what it is here, so it’s good that there’s a lot of people here and cheer for us. That’s nice.” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
“It looks like a fun tour. A lot of traveling and racing, so it’s going to be a really tough tour, but I’m really looking forward to it. And we also go to the US, so that will be exciting.” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg on the 2020 schedule (ending in Québec City, Minnesota, and Canmore).
“I think it has been good competitions here. It is my first time in Canada, I have really enjoyed it.” — Ebba Andersen
“It was beautiful. It was really amazing to go here when it’s sun and blue sky. It’s a lot of people out on the tracks. I know that I’m fighting for a place on the podium, for the overall World Cup and also for the spring tour here in Canada, and I get to the second place in the spring tour, and the third place in the overall World Cup, so I’m really happy with the race today.” — Therese Johaug
“Of course, the thirty-five or forty minutes a day we race, I mean, I’m not going to say that I want to rip off the heads off the guys next to me, but it’s close to that, like it’s hell out there, it’s hard. Everybody’s suffering, and you’re fighting, but when you cross the line you can become friends again, and have a good time, and I’m already excited for the party tonight, to hang out with all those competitors that I’ve had epic battles throughout the years, and to say a last goodbye to them.” — Alex Harvey
“I think with the Canadians it is much more friendly than with the Russians. I don’t have any bad things to say about Russia at any time. It’s good to have this type of duels I think. It’s really fun and exciting for the sport that we have this tight duel. I don’t know how many points it was at the end there, but I don’t think it was that much. It’s cool to have this type of competition and today was a lot of points to ahead today. The Canadian guys, it’s just friendly. No enemies at all, so it’s really cool and I think we all are very happy about Harvey and the way he can end his career.” — Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
“I do know what happened, because Charlotte came and apologized afterwards, and I was like ‘Yeah, you know it sucks.’ I was on the inside so I had nowhere else to go and she just came in a little too tight and yeah, it happened, it’s frustrating.” — Jessie Diggins, describing her tangle with Charlotte Kalla during the sprint.
“The fourth or the fifth lap, with the bonus sprints, we try to take as many bonus as we could, and avoid that Bolshunov got, but he is strong. It was like Klaæbo had two bonus sprints and win so he got a total of 45 seconds, so that was the important thing.” — Didrik Tønseth
“Because Østberg is a really fair sportsman, [laughs] no sportswoman. With the Norwegian, we have a really good contact and communication. They want the best to win, no like when it happen like this.” — Markus Kramer, Russian team coach,, who speaks at least four languages better than English.
“Everybody want to win, and there is a lot of emotions. After five minutes, then it is okay and they shake hands. Sometimes in the summer, we do training together. No, we have a good relationship with them [the Norwegian men].” — Markus Kramer
“When Therese catch me, then we try to ski together, but Stina, she was too strong. In the end, we knew that Therese could fight for the third place in the overall, if she beat Krista in the today’s race. I think she beat her with just a few points.” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
“Me and Krista started at almost the same time, and together we could keep up a good pace. It was a tough race in the windy conditions, but we fight all the way to the finish line.” — Ebba Andersen
“You don’t have to persuade him [to lead] anytime! He does it in a sprint, in a mass start, in a 50k, 10k. You don’t need to persuade him, he doesn’t want… the Russians don’t like to follow, so it’s pretty easy.” — Alex Harvey, on getting Bolshunov to lead the chase to Klæbo.
“I maybe started out a little aggressive, trying to catch up. Fortunately, I had Charlotte to just stick my mind on, and she was incredibly strong today. Every time at the top of the course by the cannon, she was pulling away and I just kept trying to push: ‘hang on, hang on, hang on’. Unfortunately on the last lap, I just couldn’t, so she made a little gap, and I’m glad I was able to hold off the group behind us, because it was just painfully close the whole time.” — Sadie Bjorsen
“I was also in the jury room, and they show me a video of this part. You can see it was very soft, and pole goes in the snow [demonstrating], and when you push, the pole broke. It was very bad moment.” — Markus Kramer, Russian team coach, on Bolshunov’s broken pole during Saturday’s race. Bolshunov pushed his pole through the crust cresting a hill with 2km to go, and the crust snapped the pole. Harvey said in French that he didn’t have the same problem because he isn’t as strong as Bolshunov.
“The sprint was too awful and then my chances went away, but yeah, I am happy to get the 5th place and ‘end the season with style,’ as we say in Norway.” — Emil Iversen
“It was pretty good, until the last 1k. I had an accident with 1k to go. Then I lost some positions, but overall it has been a good weekend.” — Sindre Bjørnestad Skar
“This weekend, we are not lucky. Nepryaeva, she crashed the first lap. She was excellent, together with Johaug, but she fall, broke a pole. It was one part where some tourist give her a pole, but then she lose so much places, and it was not possible. […] In Falun, she was sick and the distance race, she cannot start. Only one week for recovery, and it was too short. […] This season, at the end, we are not lucky.” — Markus Kramer
“I thought I was skiing smooth, I was having a great race and just when I was going to one-skate and get the bulk of the hill behind me, I sort of caught the outside of my ski, there is a big rut there. Sort of pulled to my right, I killed my speed and began offset much earlier than I wanted. I have not even seen the results but I thought I skied OK. If I am near anywhere close it is frustrating to have a mistake like that.” — Lenny Valjas, on the sprint qualifier
“Still didn’t feel like it, I’m still trying to come back from my back injury; I had a bulging disc about eight weeks ago. It feels better than it did at World Champs, but still having a hard time putting some power down but we’ll see how it feels in distance races, and just try to go from there.” — Andy Newell
“You know, believe it or not, I happen to love these conditions. It’s what I train on all summer on the glacier, so I have a lot of practice, but it was very soft.” — Sadie Bjorsen, on the sprint course
“It looked like Jessie and Kalla collided. But the problem was my skis were stuck underneath them. So I had to just stand there and really hope they got up fast, but they kept sliding on each other and stuff, and I was almost like ‘COME ON,’ and it was just like ‘wait,’ and then it was like a huge… I’m glad Jessie got up and we both were kind of fighting with each other, it was a huge surge to get back on the group, so it was a miracle I somehow still qualified. … But the finals – I was definitely feeling the effort from the semi-final, I just barely had anything left, so it was definitely not the final I would have dreamed of, but given what happened in the semis I have to be happy.” — Sadie Bjornsen
“You know I think I’ve gotten better at skiing in those kinds of conditions, but still not totally there and it was just really soft and slow, made it extra hard with the headwind in places and it’s not fun skiing, but that’s ski racing. It’s not gonna be super enjoyable all the time. I think probably everyone feels like they can’t really ski out there today because it’s so hard.” — Simi Hamilton
“It’s pretty wet and deep on that corner especially and a snake jumped up and bit me and down I went. That’s how it goes I guess, but it’s tricky conditions out there and even on the downhill leading into it was grabbing the skis and going everywhere. You have to be light on your feet, which is not my forte.” — Logan Hanneman
“The team tactic would be best if we had a lot of Norwegians in front but Bolshunov was so strong. The other guys hadn’t a chance. He [Bolshunov] is quite strong and I expect him to be the two next days as well, this will be a hard battle.” — Eirik Myhr Nossum, on stacking the first quarterfinal in an attempt to eliminate Bolshunov
“No, I’m having a really good season and it has been a dream. Every race I’m ‘go’ and today it was a special race. It’s a 10km classic mass start and it’s also really easy tracks here and we have ice out there so it was difficult to get a big gap, but I feel that I do a good race and I’m going in front the last two laps and did a good job. I am happy that I also had the great finish that I had.” — Therese Johaug, on winning all but one distance race this season.
“When there are the surges in the pack, if I try to go I just flood and I can’t really recover the way I’m hoping, but it was fun today. I think it might have been the first time I was leading a World Cup for a bit. There was a gap, a hole and I just went for it and then it just felt easy to be in the lead there for a bit so I was like ‘oh, this is fun, I’ll just try it out.’” — Erik Bjornsen, on the classic.
“Yeah, I am psyched for tomorrow. I feel like my skating is my strength and hopefully, it will firm up, freeze up overnight and get really fast and hard tomorrow.” — Simi Hamilton, looking ahead to Sunday.
“I didn’t have the best day, or the best skis, and it was going really fast, so that was an awful day. I think the plan was good, but I wasn’t good enough yesterday.” — Emil Iversen, looking back on the sprint.
“I think I never skied in these kinds of conditions. It was really hard. It will definitely be a tough race tomorrow as well. Yesterday, was perfect conditions. Too bad, that’s kind of outdoor sports.” — Pål Golberg
“It’s been a while since I’ve done much sprinting, and I found it hard to psych myself up for the quarterfinal. I was just a little bit urrrrgh.” — Andy Musgrave
“Today was quite bad weather, luckily no raining. Of course, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday was really good training, but we have been a little bit unlucky today.” — Krista Pärmäkoski, on the sprint.
“I was expecting it to be similar to yesterday, but it froze up really well. Icy and tricky conditions, but it was a lot of fun racing out there today.” — Emily Nishikawa on Saturday.
“I knew I am not the one who is going to try to get rid of Therese uphill, so I just wanted to be as close as I could. She was strong on the last uphill, so she had a gap. Then the last 100m, I could close that gap.” — Stina Nilsson.
“I am not expecting to be alone the whole race, so it will be a tactical and really exciting race tomorrow.” –Stina Nilsson, speculating about Sunday.
“One of the best distance races of my career. I have had a few really good ones, but I don’t think I’ve been near 30 in my career, other than the two podiums. I was bib 69 and I was skiing with guys in the top 20. … I’m happy that I’ve had a race that I can be proud of to end my season.” — Lenny Valjas
“It was a strange moment, down through the trees. Alex did a little bit of [gestures to indicate snowplow], he tried to stop a little bit. We were smash together and someone has to go down, and I was the one.” — Federico Pellegrino, on getting up close and personal with Alex Harvey.
“Today, you see it’s very fast conditions. For the men, only four laps, so maximum 30 minutes I think. 42 seconds, I think it’s not possible to get this. But you never know. We hope, we hope until the finish line.” — Markus Kramer
”The crowds are incredible. They’re so loud, you skate up the hill and you can’t hear anything but the screams of the crowd.” — Rémi Drolet, on the sprint qualifier.
“It’s been cool, I would say that people warned me it’s going to be kind of just like every other race, which is very true up until you’re racing, and then the crowd out there was crazy, and it almost took my breath away on one of the hills, and I was like ‘oh wow, I’m not used to this.’ So that was really cool, just to have so many people out there.” — Alayna Sonnesyn
“It feels incredible just being here and racing with so many people cheering you on, just the energy is just contagious, it makes you feel like you want to go faster.” — Hannah Mehain
“I wasn’t really [nervous] going into it, but skiing around this morning and seeing the whole scene I got pretty nervous. It’s pretty crazy.” — Ben Ogden
“Really exciting, really fun. It was nice because I didn’t have too much pressure, I could just race how I wanted to race.” — Gus Schumacher
“It’s definitely a different atmosphere. This is so much more of a party than it was [at Junior Worlds]” — Gus Schumacher
“It was kind of weird, because at the beginning the pace didn’t feel super-fast, except the pack was just so close together that you couldn’t just couldn’t pass anyone, so you were just cruising.’ — Rémi Drolet
“It was awesome. I really realized how fast these guys are, but at the same time, it’s encouraging, ’cause I feel like I’m not too far off. [Inaudible bit, as Harvey steps on the podium] When you pass by, it’s deafening all the time. It’s really encouraging to be in front of the home crowd, it helps you push that little bit harder.” — Rémi Drolet
The Plains of Abraham venue is unusual in that it is an open, rolling field with very few restrictions or impediments to choosing a course. Each season, the course is redesigned with different goals in mind. With very soft conditions on Friday, the sprint course skied much longer than the 1.6 km it is on paper. Fast conditions on Saturday and Sunday allowed a lot of rest and regrouping, on a course that had almost no rest on training days.
“I think it’s a good course, but it’s not a great course. I think that they could do a much better job with being creative with the course here and I don’t think they were this year so I was bummed about that. But you know with such a super long finish into the stadium at the end, coming down that downhill and with this headwind right now, that makes it super tactical, so I think it’s going to come down to that today and getting a slingshot on the downhill into the finish.” — Simi Hamilton
“The track, it’s too easy to make a difference. It’s a nice area, but the track, it’s too easy.” — Markus Kramer
“It’s a nice course. High speed, a lot of turns, and a lot of action.” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg
“I feel it’s a little bit many corners. I don’t like the downhill from upstairs, the trees is a little bit tight. The other tracks is good, it’s not so long hills, like this loop [pointing to city walls] but I don’t like that track [pointing to the descent from the cannon corner] where the trees is so tight.” — Heidi Weng
“I don’t know [if we will have more races in Cogne]. As athletes, we are pushing a lot to do less venues. I think that for Italy, it is not the best place for where to race, talking about the ski tracks. We have Val di Fiemme, [with the] most ski championships in cross country history. I don’t know if in our ideal calendar, it’s the right venue. But for sure, the crowd was good. We always have to look at the race, not only by the well ski tracks, even by the compromise ski tracks and the crowd. And for sure, [Québec City is] a success because the compromise was perfect. And Cogne too.” — Federico Pellegrino
“This adds to the long list of second place behind Johannes…it will be a long list.” — Chicco Pellegrino, translated from French
“The shape is really good.” — Chicco Pellegrino, channeling Marit Bjørgen.
“It feels amazing. And it was heavy!” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, on the crystal globe.
“Then I heard there were some problems with the Russian guy, with Bolshunov. Harvey came up beside me and said, ‘Go! Go! Go!’. And then I said, he’s the boss here, I had to listen to him.” — Didrik Tønseth.
“Oh, that’s a good question. I’ve been three times on the podium in the overall. In the distance, I’ve also done, and in the sprint’s, second and third, but never the first.” — Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, trying to remember how many times she has been on the overall, sprint, and distance podiums before taking the big globe.
Alex Harvey finished his career racing for Canada with a bang today in Québec City, Canada. Harvey placed second to Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in today’s 15-kilometer freestyle pursuit. It was Harvey’s second podium in as many races as he can now claim a perfect ending to his career. Another solid ending went to Klæbo, who with his win today earned the overall World Cup title. Although the point differential lent an air of intrigue to the racing as Klæbo and Alexander Bolshunov of Russia were fighting for the overall title today, Klæbo’s knack for theater and endurance left nothing to doubt. Bolshunov placed third on the day and second in the overall standings.
“It was a cool race out there, Klæbo told FasterSkier after the race. “Bolshunov and Harvey were really strong and I think Bolshunov did most of the job today. On the second lap there, I felt the pace behind was quite high so I decided to let them in and I saw that when they took the head with me I felt like it was much easier to stay behind. This was a really cool race and it’s really cool to have Harvey on the podium again. I am really happy for him and it was important for me that he took Bolshunov as well. I was saying thank you to him after the race. I think he was really happy, he said so.”
Klæbo’s sentiments weren’t guaranteed with Bolshunov as the chaser. Klæbo started the pursuit 52 seconds ahead of Bolshunov and Harvey. Because of this, Klæbo skied the first half of the race alone. But, in a chase lead by Bolshunov, Harvey and Bolshunov continued to make up time on the Norwegian. Just before the 8k mark, Bolshunov and Harvey came into eyesight of Klæbo and by the 8.2 checkpoint, the three skiers were skiing together. They were locked as a trio until near the finish.
Bolshunov lead the second half of the race, with Harvey in second and Klæbo sitting in behind. But during the final climb, Klæbo found a last bit of energy and attacked, pulling ahead of Bolshunov and Harvey. He kept this lead to the finish, ending the race +2.8 seconds ahead of Harvey.
Bolshunov seemed to have second place in the bag when he and Harvey came around the corner into the finishing stretch. Harvey came from behind with an inspiring final push and managed to overtake Bolshunov and grab second place. Today’s podium was the 28th and final podium of Harvey’s World Cup Career as he is set to retire at the end of this season. Bolshunov is ending his 2018/2-19 season with 10 podiums, five of which were wins.
“I didn’t feel as strong today and I think that the pace behind was really high, so I decided to just let them get in and go behind and stay behind before the end there and then try to push all into the last uphill and before the finish there, “ Klæbo said of his race strategy. “The tactic worked quite good and it was even better to see Harvey beat the Russian guy, that was amazing.”
Yet Klæbo qualified his statements to note that he harbors no deep-seated resent for the Russians.
“I don’t have any bad things to say about Russia at any time,” Klæbo said. “It’s good to have this type of duels I think. It’s really fun and exciting for the sport that we have this tight duel. I don’t know how many points it was at the end there, but I don’t think it was that much. It’s cool to have this type of competition and today was a lot of points to ahead today. The Canadian guys, it’s just friendly. No enemies at all, so it’s really cool and I think we all are very happy about Harvey and the way he can end his career.”
Harvey spoke to FasterSkier about his season and ending his career.
“The last 5 months for me, basically since November, have been a struggle for me this year, so it’s a good way to end it. This is the best way to end a career with two podiums like that at home, so that’s the end.”
The chase pack, consisting of Norwegians and Italians fought hard to gain time of the leaders, but in the end, the leader of the chase pack, Francesco De Fabiani of Italy, finished +1:13.3 behind Klæbo. Norway finished the day with six men in the top ten and Italy with two.
Sjur Røthe was third in the Overall World Cup results. In today’s race, he was 10th, but he has won three World Cups and was second in a fourth race. Six Norwegian athletes finished in the top 10 of the season-long overall standings. De Fabiani and his teammate Federico Pellegrino were seventh and eighth respectively.
U.S. Ski Team member Erik Bjornsen was the next North American to finish, placing 20th. This is Bjornsen’s fifth top-20 this season.
“It’s been kind of an up and down season,” Bjornsen said in the mixed zone. “I’ve usually been pretty consistent in the past and this seasons, there’s been a lot of doubts, I’ve also had some of my best results so I’m looking forward training harder this summer and having a little bit more of a relaxed summer and hopefully getting more consistent results next year.”
Simi Hamilton placed 26th. Hamilton blasted the course to ski the third fastest time of day. Harvey and Bolshunov, wh0 turboed to catch Klæbo, were first and second respectively. Hamilton’s time of 28:48.9 was 33.5 seconds behind Harvey’s who skied the fastest time of day. British skier Andrew Young marked the fourth fastest time, 0.1 seconds slower than Hamilton.
“It was good, it was really fun fast skiing, good course, short course, not a ton of climbing, but really rolly,” Hamilton said. “My skis were awesome, you never really know how a pursuit is going to go, just because there is so much that depends on the people you’re skiing with and obviously with the wind today it was just so good to be in someone’s draft, I was really lucky to start in front of the first wave so it was basically guaranteed to skiing with people the whole time and I felt great. It went awesome. It was a good one to end on.”
Kevin Bolger and Scott Patterson skied together during today’s race, they finished 44th and 45th respectively. Also racing for the US were David Norris who was 55th, Logan Hanneman who was 65th and Ben Saxton who was 69th.
The US started a number of athletes who are new to the World Cup circuit. The was the first World Cup weekend for Gus Schumacher who placed 52nd, Ben Ogden who placed 66th, and Peter Holmes who placed 70th.
Schumacher spoke with FasterSkier after his race, “It was really good, I felt strong, and my skis were good. It was nice to just fight and race how I could. Yesterday was a little tough, conditions-wise, and today I just felt like it was kind of just me and my fitness out there.”
The US Super Finals begin on March 28th in Presque Isle, Maine. These are the final races of the season for the U.S Ski Team.
Men’s Results | Overall World Cup Standings- Men’s | Time of Day
It was beginning to seem as though it could not be done, and then it happened. Norway’s Therese Johaug did not stand atop the podium after the 10-kilometer classic first stage of the women’s pursuit in Québec City. Sprint champion Stina Nilsson did. Not only that, but the bonus seconds garnered from Nilsson’s win in Friday’s skate sprint allowed her to enter the course for the final leg of the week’s three-race series with a margin that seemed as though it might be insurmountable over her nearest competitors. She started the 10-k freestyle pursuit 33 seconds ahead of Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg who took eighth in the sprint and third in the 10 k classic, and 49 seconds ahead of Johaug, who took 25th in the sprint and after a double pole battle that she could not win, finished only 0.2 seconds behind Nilsson.
When it was her turn, Johaug charged onto the course like a hungry cheetah in pursuit of a Swedish gazelle on the city’s Plains of Abraham. She was simply attacking the course with the unmatched tempo and fire that earned her a perfect record in regular season distance races. On a relatively flat course and hard packed fast conditions, she could not delay her chase; she needed to begin making up time as soon as she pushed through the start gate. At the front, Nilsson skied smoothly, remaining calm and collected despite knowing she was a target for the two skiers in red who were slowly reeling her in.
By the 2.4 k checkpoint, Johaug had made up nearly 13 seconds of her deficit. By 5 k, she caught Østberg and remained tucked into her draft as the two continued to gain time on Nilsson. But as the finish line neared, it became clear that the Swede was not going to roll over for the Norwegians. In the final three kilometers, Østberg and Johaug could no longer make up significant ground and remained about 20 seconds behind Nilsson’s graceful and powerful V2.
With less than 1k to go, Nilsson crested the hill by the stone Martello gun tower and headed for the stadium. The Norwegians were lurking not far behind as she rounded the corner past the cannon and no pole skated down the hill before climbing over the final roller. But they were quickly running out of real estate in their chase.
When she arrived at the stadium, she looked back and smiled. The gazelle was safe. She stood up and gave a wave, then continued to ski with purpose and joy to the hairpin turn before the final 100 meters where she savored her hard earned sweep of the World Cup Final tour. Nilsson looked both relieved and proud as she crossed the line, stopping the clock at 23:55.1. Never laying off the gas, Johaug slid through the finish 12.9 seconds behind, followed by Østberg in third (+15.1).
“It was really good,” Nilsson told the International Ski Federation (FIS) after the race. “I expected them to catch me quite fast, but when they didn’t I felt like, ‘okay, then I just keep going on with this speed’. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the last 100 meters because it is not so often that I can do that. So, it was really nice.”
The Swede has been well suited for the track in Québec, and though she was skiing alone, Nilsson never felt that way, as cheering spectators lined the majority of the course.
“I really like the course here, as I said yesterday,” she told FasterSkier in the mixed zone. “And the crowd was almost everywhere, so I was never alone even though I never had any [competitors] ahead of me.”
Her clean sweep of the tour was not the first time she has seen success in Canada. She also won the freestyle sprint there in both 2016 and 2017.
“Before this weekend, I had two victories here, and now I have five, so I really like Québec,” she laughed.
With Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva far behind in 12th (+1:53.0), Østberg also breathed a sigh of relief as she officially became the overall winner of the World Cup season. She led by only a small margin entering the tour, and as Nepryaeva experienced first hand after a crash and broken pole in the classic stage, anything can happen in the finals. Her younger self might have been in disbelief of this title, as she could not imagine herself at the level of her teammates who became champions before her.
“It’s hard to describe actually,” she told FIS about her emotions after the race. “I think I never could have dreamt about fighting for this jersey for some years ago, I saw Marit and Therese fighting for it and I was like, ‘Oh my god, they have the yellow jersey.’ And this year, I managed to fight for it, and the last races I’ve been tough both physically and mentally, and fight between me and Nepryaeve. Today, when I managed to finish on the podium in the tour and can say that I’m the winner of the overall world cup, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Though she did not catch Nilsson, Johaug skied the fastest time of the day, adding to her heavy purse of FIS points. Her second place finish Saturday did not make a dent in the lead she had over the rest of the women in the distance standings; she was essentially in possession of the distance globe before the final tour started. Even without competing in the Tour de Ski, Johaug’s string of nine victories, coupled with her results this weekend amassed 956 points, 139 more than Østberg who took second. She also finished the season ranked third in the overall despite only entering one sprint event on Friday.
“I’m so happy,” she told FasterSkier. “I cannot believe that I am been so good shape the whole time and coming back after two years out and have these results that I have. So I’m really happy.”
The American women were unable to crack the top 10 in the overall tour standings, but four of them were able to place within the top-30 in the Winner of the Day results. Sadie Bjornsen was the overall top ranked skier finishing 11th (+1:45.4) with the 13th fastest time on the course.
With her usual spark and never-give-up positive attitude, Jessie Diggins moved ahead nine places to finish 14th overall (+1:53.6).
“That was a really fun way to end the season,” Diggins told FasterSkier in the mixed zone. “Skating is always so fun because you can go as hard as you want to go, and it was really fun to be able to have the tools I needed to be able to use what energy my body had. So that was just very satisfying. I got to go so hard and dig deep, and it was just really fun to ski up and ski the way I know I can ski. So yeah, it’s just always fun to end your season on a good race.”
And it was a good race. Diggins powered through the course to ski the 4th fastest time of the day behind Johaug, Krista Pärmäkoski of Finland, and Ebba Andersson of Sweden.
“I was just going after time of day,” she explained. “I wasn’t really worried about where I place in the overall, I just wanted to put together the best race that I could.”
Rosie Brennan moved from 43rd to 39th by skiing the 28th fastest time of day (+4:41.8), and Julia Kern moved ahead seven spots to finish 43rd with the 30th fastest time (+5:23.7).
While Brennan had hoped for more from this weekend, she is proud of her race today.
“This is way better than yesterday,” she told FasterSkier. “It still wasn’t like… I had hoped to be fighting a little higher in the overall tour, but it was good to at least feel strong today and have some fight in there, so yeah, it was good.”
Brennan added insight into the tour format and race conditions during the final series in Quebec.
“It was a little bit wild,” she admitted. “We had a lot of gnarly conditions, so it’s been kind of a game of survival, which is in some ways fun but also hard because there’s so many things out of your control. So it’s maybe hard to get your storybook ending of the year. But it’s fun to be somewhere where we have so many fans. So that helps make up for all the crazy conditions we’ve had.”
Also for the U.S., Sophie Caldwell finished 36th (+4:05.1), Hailey Swirbul 41st (+5:06.2), Caitlin Patterson 46th (+6:11.4), Katherine Ogden 47th (+6:13.9), Ida Sargent 48th (+6:21.9), Kendall Kramer 51st (+6:31.4), Kaitlynn Miller 52nd (+6:44.7), Hannah Halvorsen 58th (+8:24.3), Becca Rorabaugh 59th (+8:44.1), and Alayna Sonnesyn 68th (+11:02.3).
Today’s race will be the last of Sargent’s career. The bio of the 31-year-old Craftsbury Green Racing Project member includes a long list of top 30 finishes from as far back as 2012. She competed in two Olympics, Sochi and PyeongChang, and stood on the podium three times during her career. As her hometown of Barton, VT is only three hours from Québec City, she was able to ski her final race with plenty of family and friends cheering her on. FasterSkier did not hear from Sargent after her finish, but after skiing together for seven years as USST A-Team members, Diggins shared her thoughts on Sargent’s retirement.
“She’s had an incredible career,” said Diggins, “but beyond that she’s just a really caring teammate and she’s always down for a laugh. It’s hard to have somebody who, you know… we joined the team at the same time, so we’ve been on the team together the entire time. It’s hard to see someone retire, but I know that she’s going to do amazing things in her next career and I’m just so happy for her that she got this beautiful wonderful day in front of so many home fans to have her last race. What a special experience. And it was fun to spray her with champagne,” she laughed.
Since the finals were held in Canada, the U.S. was given the opportunity to enter more athletes in the races. This gave several younger athletes, including 16-year-old Kramer of Fairbanks, AK, the opportunity to experience their first World Cup race.
“It’s just amazing,” she shared regarding her experience. “This is probably the most spectators that have called out my name like ever before. It was just super amazing. This is one of the first times I’ve been hearing anything from the crowd,” she continued. “Usually I’m just in my zone racing, but now I can hear what everyone is saying and it’s all just really really fun.”
After her first season on the USST D-Team, Swirbul is walking away with a slew of positive results, including a 10th place finish in the 15 k classic at the U23 World Ski Championships in Lahti.
The Basalt, CO native said cheerfully that she is “ready for some rest and recovery and to train hard all summer and fall and do it again next year.”
Emily Nishikawa was Canada’s top finisher. She began as the 37th skier and placed 31st (+3:53.9).
“I had a blast racing today,” Nishikawa told FasterSkier. “I felt really strong and I’m really happy with the way I skied today.”
The next two fastest were Katherine Stewart-Jones who finished 44th (+5:27.2) followed by Dahria Beatty in 45th (+5:47.7).
– Peggy Shin, Gerry Furseth and Kelsey Dickinson contributed
FIS World Cup Finals Québec Women’s 10 k Freestyle Pursuit
Day three in Québec City brought sunny skies and fast tracks. The first starter on the day for the 10 k freestyle pursuit, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, took the win and with it the Québec City overall.
Nilsson began with a 33.2 second lead over Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in second and a 49.4 second lead on third starter Therese Johaug, also of Norway. Nilsson won in a time of 23:55.1 with the chasing Johaug and Østberg running out of real estate on the Plains of Abraham.
For the U.S., Sadie Bjornsen placed 11th (+1:45.4), Jessie Diggins moved up to 14th (+1:53.6). Canada’s Emily Nishikawa began as the 37th skier and placed 31st (+3:53.9).
The Québec City World Cup has been a wild ride for the first two days, which are really only setting the stage for the big event. On Sunday, two crystal globes will be decided and hometown superstar Alex Harvey will retire on a course he raced on as a child.
The first two days have brought wildly varying conditions, but both were challenging.
Rain on Thursday evening caused sugar snow conditions on much of the sprint course Friday, with challenging skating conditions and some hard crashes. More rain on Friday evening delivered hard and fast courses for Saturday’s classic mass start. The tracks stayed hard, while the outside snow slowly softened. In the 15km, Alexander Bolshunov pushed a pole through the crust with 2km to go, snapping the pole and gifting the rest of the top group an opportunity to get a gap.
Jessie Diggins, Charlotte Kalla, and Sadie Bjornsen got together on the first corner in their quarterfinal, after Diggin’s ski was stopped by either Maiken Caspersen Falla’s pole or Charlotte Kalla’s ski. Frida Karlsson escaped the carnage.
“It looked like Jessie and Kalla collided,” Bjornsen told FasterSkier after. “But the problem was my skis were stuck underneath them.”
A longer sequence in full resolution is available at Doug Stephen’s Flickr page, including the struggle to untangle.
“I think I never skied in these kind of conditions. It was really hard. It will definitely be a tough race tomorrow as well. Yesterday, was perfect conditions. Too bad, that’s kind of outdoor sports.” — Pål Golberg, on Friday’s sprint and Thursday’s official training.
“Ah, you can’t do anything with the weather. It’s still going to be the best person wins today, it’s still going to be snow. It’s an outdoor sport, that’s how it is.” — Andy Musgrave has clearly been drinking the Norwegian koolaid.
“For me and I am sure some of the bigger guys, it is always a little frustrating when it is soft. But it wasn’t just the conditions, I made a couple of mistakes that I am much more upset about than the conditions.” — Lenny Valjas, on the sprint. australian slots real money
“ It was good, the course is soft and changing rapidly, which makes it a little difficult to figure out what you’re going to get, but everyone’s dealing with the same stuff, and this is just part of ski racing in the spring.” — Ben Saxton, on the sprint course.
— Frida Karlsson liked the soft sprint snow. Really.
“It was a lot of fun. I was sort of worried about the conditions, but it was super-fast, hard packed and made for a really fun, fair race.” — Lenny Valjas, on the classic course.
“I think by far the hardest part about today was the poling. It was just super rotten everywhere, the tracks stayed firm, which was nice, but the poling trenches just got so deep.” — Simi Hamilton, on the classic conditions Saturday.
“It was tricky out there, it was definitely one of those days, it was a little frustrating. But, the whole crowd and the scene and everything was fun so it made up for it.” — Sadie Bjornsen had marginal grip in the 10km.
“After yesterday being so sloppy it was pretty hard and fast out there today. It was fun, but it made the downhills pretty sketchy.” — Sophie Caldwell, after the classic.
“The conditions were very fast today, and a lot of crashes. When someone else crashes in a track like this, they usually take someone else out. […] Some of the girls need to do more downhill skiing!” — Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen has training suggestions.
— Pellegrino was walking by Harvey during the interview with FasterSkier, so Harvey interrupted himself to trash talk Pellegrino. Pellegrino counter-attacked with an imitation of Harvey’s snowplow posture.
Harvey is a huge personality in Québec. His largest personal sponsor is a media company, Québecor, and the company has used its knowledge to grow Harvey’s brand. Hundreds of people saved the ‘Harvey head’ cutouts from the 2017 World Cup finals and were waving them Friday and Saturday.
There is much media attention on the retirement. Harvey has two assistants on site, both helping schedule media time.
Even other skiers were excited to see Harvey on the podium in his final weekend. After the race, Klæbo started his winner’s interview by talking about Harvey. At the end of the race, Klæbo chose his pursuit of the crystal globe over gifting a victory in the 15km classic.
“If I know that I have secured the gold, I would probably give the victory [today] to Alex, because I think it’s almost a victory for him today.”
On Saturday, the Plains of Abraham were filled with fans chanting “Alex! Alex! Alex!” and it was possible to hear where the lead group was just by the roar of the crowd. At the end of the race, Pierre Harvey dashed into the finish area to hug his son, who was crying with happiness.
“It’s unbelievable atmosphere out there, and I think it was even a better atmosphere when Harvey came up to the podium. It’s really special, I really glad what he’s done for the sport. I don’t think there’s a better way to end a career like this. I think he’s really glad today, and he deserves it.” — Klæbo
“My skating shape has been really good this year, so I hope to be up there, fighting for a podium. We’ll see. I hope Harvey wins.” — Didrik Tønseth on the Sunday pursuit.
“I’m so proud of Alex, that he was able to have one of his super races at home here on one of his last days. It was so amazing to hear the crowd when I was racing.” — Lenny Valjas.
With both of the overall crystal globes up for grabs, Sunday promises to be exciting. As the Russians do not have a translator this weekend, the Russians have not been granting interviews, only the Norwegians having been talking (in English).
Østberg leads Nepryaeva by 144 points. Østberg was visibly disappointed by Nepryaeva’s fall in the classic race. “I just heard a couple times that she was a little behind,” Østberg told FasterSkier. “But when I got to the finish then I heard she had an accident and fell. That is not fun. I don’t want anyone to fall, it is better than to just ski faster than the others.”
Stina Nilsson will start first on Sunday, followed by Østberg (33 seconds) and Johaug (49), and then three more Swedes: Dahlqvist (1:10), Sundling (1:19), and Ebba Andersen (1:24).
Nepryaeva needs to place first or second to have a mathematical chance at the crystal globe. With Nepryaeva starting 20th at 2:10, Østberg needs only finish in 20th place to guarantee success. That said, after the challenging conditions on the first two days, it might be Nepryaeva’s turn with good luck.
The men’s crystal globe remains close. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo leads Alexander Bolshunov by 42 points. Simen Hegstand Krüger, Didrik Tønseth, and Emil Iverson all have a mathematical possibility of catching Sjur Røthe for third.
Klæbo raced his first World Cup pursuit here in 2017, and it was also his first time as the lead skier.
“To go out in the front, it’s not the easiest way, because you have a lot of people behind trying to keep ahead with you. It’s really tough mentally, and I think Harvey and Bolshunov will set a really high pace behind me. Really just have to be smart tomorrow and I’m going to do my best, and hopefully it will be enough to secure the gold.”
Norway has worked all weekend to try to improve Klæbo’s chances. In the sprint heats, Klæbo, Chicco Pellegrino, Bolshunov, and Victor Thorn all chose the first heat, presumably with the goal of getting lucky loser spots. Emil Iversen and Pål Golberg, qualifying 16th and 18th, also selected the first heat which created an amazingly stacked quarterfinal.
Golberg explained after his quarterfinal, “We have a strategy that is hopefully going to make Norway win the crystal globe. We wanted to try to beat the Russian guy, that’s why.”
On Saturday, Iversen explained his sprint heat choice. “I think the plan was good, but I wasn’t good enough yesterday,” he told FasterSkier. “Today, I was feeling that I could help again, and I did that.”
Iversen helped in the 15km by pushing the pace early. “I just go to stay out of trouble, and maybe help to beat Bolshunov in some bonus sprints, and I did that two times. That was the tactic, and I was there to help Johannes today, and I did. I was a bit tired in the last lap, but I’m satisfied with my race.”
With bonus seconds (but not bonus points) available in the classic sprint, the team was able to increase Klæbo’s headstart to 52 seconds over Bolshunov, with the points gap at 42.
Harvey starts at 53 seconds, followed by a block of Norwegians at 1:07 to 1:25: Skar, Tønseth, Iversen, and Røthe. Pellegrino, the wily veteran, is at 1:13 and should be able to ride that train. With 200 points to the winner and 160 to second place, Klæbo is guaranteed to win the crystal globe by beating Bolshunov or coming second to him. Of this entire group, only Røthe and Tønseth aren’t sprinters.
In the past, Norwegians have refused to chase down their own teammates, leaving the work to other teams. Iversen doesn’t think this will apply on Sunday.
“Tomorrow, some Norwegian guys going together, so we just have to keep high speed and maybe aim for second or third, but hopefully Johannes will come first over the line. He has a good sprint, so I guess we can go as fast as we can behind.”
FIS World Cup Québec City 10 k Mass Start Classic
We’re changing the format for this race rundown. With many North Americans racing during World Cup finals in Québec, screenshots from Live Timing will keep the rundown updated efficiently.
Having won every World Cup distance she’s entered this season, Norway’s Therese Johaug couldn’t shake off Sweden’s Stina Nilsson or her own teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg on Saturday morning. We’ll get to all the details in the full race report, but it was yesterday’s sprint winner, Nilsson, who outsprinted the empress of distance skiing, Johaug. When she is on for a distance race, Nilsson is on. She won the Québec City 10-kilometer mass start classic in 25:51.6. Johaug was second, Østberg a not so distance third.
Sadie Bjornsen was the top U.S. finisher in 18th (+1:03.2), with Jessie Diggins in 29th (+24.0).
Emily Nishikawa was the best placed Canadian in 38th (+1:56.1)
