Weng wins World Cup Finals in Engadin
Mar 14, 2021·Cross-Country
The grand finals of the COOP FIS Cross-Country World Cup season were held with the 30km/50km Pursuit competitions at Engadin valley in Switzerland. The course track of the Engadin Skimaraton was the stage for the long distance competitions as the traditional popular race could not take place due to Covid.
In Saturdays 10km C Mass start, the pole positions were distributed amongst Yulia Stupak (RUS), Heidi Weng (NOR) and Ebba Andersson (SWE). Also Laura Gimmler from Germany and the Overall World Cup winner Jessie Diggins from the USA set out in top positions to chase the leaders who had set out 16 and 30 seconds before them. On a course like the set 30km from St. Moritz to S-chanf, on high altitude, crossing open frozen lakes, with some headwind that blew in the layer of freshly fallen snow, team work became pivotal.
Laura Gimmler lost the access to the leaders after the first third of the race and the head of the group was down to Andersson, who did take in the pace setting position in the lead, Yulia Stupak, who made pressure from directly behind, Jessie Diggins who tried to break out of the line but was pushed back behind her competitors and Heidi Weng who made sure the leaders kept up their speed. The skiers alternated the lead as the task became very tiring in those conditions.
20km into the race, the gap to the first chasing group was at 1 minute 28 seconds.
The final move in the fight for the final podium spots of this World Cup season happened in the exhausting last, long uphill, where Heidi Weng sprinted to the front. Only Ebba Andersson managed to ski along and the duo set out to decide the victory between them. 4.5 seconds before Andersson, Weng catches her first World Cup victory after three years. In third position follows Julia Stupak who finishes 33 seconds behind the leader.
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