First World Cup podiums for Svahn and Taugboel
Dec 14, 2019·Cross-Country
For the 47th time, Davos Nordic welcomed the FIS Cross-Country World Cup family. The «Bünda» and «Flüela» courses in the homeland of Swiss Cross-Country idol Dario Cologna got a final touch of snow just before the competition weekend was launched with the Sprint in Freestyle technique.
The womens prologue once again proved that the Swedish female sprint team is in top shape – all female athletes qualified for the finals. Nevertheless, also the US team impressed with 5 athletes in the top 30 plus Sophie Caldwell additionally winning the prologue.
Lucas Chanavat (FRA) raced the fastest time in the mens prologue, followed by Valnes and Taugboel (NOR) as well as sprint superstars Pellegrino (ITA) and Klæbo (NOR) who finished 0.01 sec apart.
The Sprint courses of Davos have to be handled in a tactical way as the course characteristics include narrow stretches and windy turns which makes it difficult to overtake and risky to attack. 20 year-old Svahn had two goals set for the season: a podium on a distance race and secondly, get a World Cup podium. That this World Cup podium comes before christmas was unexpected as the semi finals awaited with grand names such as Krista Pärmäkoski and Jonna Sundling. Sundling managed to also race the finals but had an unlucky misstep and lost precious seconds in the final heat - which gave Svahn the chance to shine. Last years winner Stina Nilsson also had to give her podium spot in the final heat away, finishing +0.36 seconds behind 3rd placed Sophie Caldwell who photo finished with Norwegian Maiken Caspersen Falla +0.55 seconds behind winner Linn Svahn.
On the mens Sprint, all eyes were set on Norwegian superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. However, Klæbo had a tough fight by racing each heat against French Sprint expert Lucas Chanavat. The two competed on equal level during the Sprint rounds at Davos, cheered on by a fantastic Swiss Cross-Country crowd. Taugboel had to prove against fellow Sprint specialists such as Skar (NOR) and Retivykh (RUS). As well as in the female team, the US mens team can be happy with todays achievements with Simi Hamilton ending up in the final heat, taking the final 6th position.
