Back to back victory for Linn Svahn at Tour de Ski 2021
Jan 02, 2021·Cross-Country
Heading into todays 10km C Mass start as the first Distance competition of the Tour de Ski 2021, it was Frida Karlsson taking over the lead. As the 21-year old Swede had impressively beaten Therese Johaug in the last Distance mass start competition at Holmenkollen in the previous season, she had proven capable of taking over the pace setter role. However, breaking away was almost impossible on the long uphill course in Val Müstair.
Jessie Diggins (USA) trailed Karlsson throughout the race and took over the leading work in the final lap together with yesterdays Sprint winner Linn Svahn (SWE). Pulling out her Sprint expertise, Svahn broke away in the downhill leading back to the stadium and was hard to catch for Diggins and the following group of Karlsson, Yulia Stupak (RUS), Katharina Hennig (GER), Rosie Brennan (USA).
Fighting for the top spots, Yulia Stupak impressively pushed through the final, slightly uphill leaning stretch towards the finish line, managing to almost take the victory of Svahn. However, only separated by 0.7 seconds, Stupak takes the second rank 0.1 second before Jessie Diggins.
For Linn Svahn, it is the first Distance World Cup victory. With her performance, Svahn heads into tomorrows Pursuit with a margin of 13 seconds to Jessie Diggins.
