World Cup Update: Tour de Ski Stages 1-3 Recap

Skinnyski: What a start to the Tour de Ski! Diggins makes the podium in second in the sprints to kick off stage 1. What can you tell us about that first stage?

Jeremy: It was a pretty wild weekend for the US women’s team. The entire team has shown up ready to race and the results show it. Things got started off with a bang during the stage 1 freestyle sprint. Five US women qualified (Diggins, Brennan, Swirbul, Hamilton Caldwell, and Kern) for the heats with Diggins and Brennan making it into the finals. Diggins and Brennan finished 3rd and 5th respectively, but were ultimately bumped up to 2nd and 4th with Anamarija Lampic was disqualified for impeding upon Nadine Faehndrich.

It was not nearly as successful on the men’s side with only Simi Hamilton and Kevin Bolger qualifying for the heats. Neither were successful in their attempt to move onto the finals. After a great 4th place qualifier, Hamilton narrowly missed moving onto the semi finals finishing only 0.02 seconds behind the time needed to be the 2nd lucky loser and finished in 13th. Bolger ran into some unfortunate luck breaking a pole in the opening moments of his heat and was never able to regain contact with the group and finished the day in 30th position.

Skinnyski: Diggins continues to improve in her classic skiing, was Saturday's third place one of her best classic races ever?

Jeremy: Results wise, this is by far her best distance classic race ever. This was her first podium in a distance classic race. She has been on the podium a couple times before in classic sprint races, and once for time of day during a classic pursuit at the Ski Tour Canada in 2016. Her race on Saturday was pretty great. One thing I have noticed with Diggins classic races is when she has confidence, she will be having a good race. Early on in the race you could tell she was confident in herself and her skis challenging the field and even leading the pack at moments. It was great to see her get on the podium in back to back races.

Skinnyski: Sunday's race was off-the-charts amazing -- to see two American women taking control of a World Cup distance race and then competing amongst themselves for the victory. One of the most historic days in US racing?

Jeremy: I think that this race took everyone by surprise. It was an unprecedented day for the US women’s squad going 1-2 in the freestyle pursuit from Diggins and Brennan. This has never happened in the history of US women’s skiing, and has only happened once in the US men’s history during the first year of the World Cup when Bill Koch and Dan Simoneau went 1-2 in a 30km at Falun, Sweden. Looking past those two amazing results, Hailey Swirbul and Katharine Ogden also had spectacular races. Swirbul was able to climb to 13th position after getting the 7th fastest time of the day, and Ogden managed to hit 25th from a 22nd fastest time of day. All four women are in a great position to finish this tour strong.

Skinnyski: How are the newest team members fairing?

Jeremy: While I had already mentioned Ogden and Swirbul above and their great performances, I did want to highlight how the other up and coming star, Gus Schumacher, has been doing. While not posting any standout results like the women’s squad, Schumacher has been very consistent through the first three stages which is a great sign for the future. Showing this type of consistency in his results is incredible to see in such a young athlete. There is a lot of physical and mental stress associated with racing for 3 days in a row and I like how he has responded so far!

Skinnyski: Looks like the temperatures were ideal -- mid to upper 20s. What have you heard about the waxing conditions?

Jeremy: Snow conditions were great for the wax techs. While falling snow is not always the easiest to wax for, it was pretty consistent light snow for the three days which allows wax techs to dial in the waxes over multiple days. What runs one day is typically going to run well the next which gives them a head start on testing. And if you know that you had good skis on day 1, it is much easier to get good skis on day 2. The Rex Racing service is following the Tour de Ski supporting all of the World Cup teams and let me know that HF21g block has been lights out good over the weekend as a paraffin. The powders have been changing around depending on how much humidity is in the snow, but TK-820 was running well. On the classic day the new N21G was a go to wax in the test and was able to beat out the tried and true 30G in new falling snow.

Skinnyski: Monday is a rest day, then they are right back to freestyle racing again on Tuesday. How do you see things going forward, especially with the grueling schedule of a stage race?

Jeremy: The team will need to reset expectations every day. While it may be easy to expect results similar to what we have seen over the first three days, it will take a lot of work from the athletes and coaches to get back there. This is the only time during the entire year where these athletes push their bodies this hard in such a short period of time and learning how to adapt and recover quickly is what will make the difference this week. I know that the athletes are going to be watching their caloric intake during meals to make sure they are getting enough food to help sustain their daily efforts.

Looking ahead for Diggins and Brennan specifically, they have a tough task ahead to stay on top of the podium. Karlsson is a very strong competitor and considered to be the odds on favorite for the overall title. There are still 5 races left in this year's edition of the Tour de Ski. Diggins and Brennan will need to battle it out and work together to dig more time into Karlsson whose technical ability is designed to climb which will be crucial on the final stage climbing the mountain. Both Diggins and Brennan have had some success in the past at the Tour de Ski and will be able to use that experience to their advantage over Karlsson who is debuting at this year's tour.

What I will find interesting this year compared to previous years is if any skiers will make the decision to drop mid week from the tour. In previous years many sprint specialists dropped out of the tour after the 2nd sprint event which typically happened earlier in the tour. In this year's edition, it is the penultimate event and only has the hill climb after. There may be more skiers willing to finish out the race knowing there is only one event remaining rather than drop out to focus on recovery for the rest of the season.

About the author... Jeremy Hecker is the current racing service manager at Pioneer Midwest and Rex Ski Wax technical representative for the US. He has been skiing for his entire lifetime, racing competitively in college for St. Scholastica. Since graduating in 2013 he has coached for numerous teams including Endurance United, Stratton Mountain School, and the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. In addition to his coaching experience, Jeremy has a Masters degree in the Biology of Physical Activity which he obtained from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. World Cup reporting is sponsored by: