Andersson skates solo to dominant skiathlon win in Trondheim
Dec 16, 2023·Cross-Country
Ebba Andersson won the women's 20km skiathlon classic/free at the Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Trondheim, Norway, on Saturday, with a dominant display in the second half of the race.
The Swedish 26-year-old skated alone for the whole freestyle part of the dual-style competition to claim her second win of the season with a comfortable gap down to runner-up Jessie Diggins from USA. It makes Andersson the first Swedish skier to win a World Cup race in Trondheim, the site of next season's FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.
In the first 10km in classic style, Andersson stayed in the front of the field but with the chasing pack right behind her. Changing skis for the 10km free, she had got herself a three-second gap down to the rest of the field. After 1.1 kilometre of freestyle skiing, that gap had grown to more than 14 seconds – an advantage that no competitor could do anything about. Skating solo to her seventh World Cup victory, the Swede crossed the finish line 15.2 seconds before Diggins, as Heidi Weng from Norway finished third, 16.7 seconds behind.
"I tried to have some speed out there and I wanted to have it from the beginning," Andersson said.
She had to settle for a ninth-place in the 10km free in Oestersund, Sweden, last weekend, and had rested from Friday's sprint competition to gather energy. That plan worked well as she looked like a winner with 9km left to race. Just before the 18km mark, Andersson had a lead of about 30 seconds.
"I took the first lap just to find a good feeling in my skiing and then after that I just tried to push but not push too hard so that I would have some power in the free technique as well," she said.
Before the race, a lot of talk had been about the relatively warm conditions with positive degrees and risk for rain, but Andersson said that had not bothered her.
"We prepared for the worst but it has been quite good out there. A little wet but not any rain. It was warm and comfortable," she said.
Behind Andersson, a group of five skiers were fighting for the two remaining podium positions. Coming into the last kilometre of the race, overall World Cup leader Diggins broke away as the home hope Weng came after. Austria's Teresa Stadlober in fourth place, Norway's Astrid Oeyre Slind in fifth and Germany's No.6 Victoria Carl were all six seconds from a podium spot but unable to respond to Diggins and Weng.
Securing her second-place rather than exhausting herself in a chase after Andersson, a tactically brilliant race from Diggins keeps her on top of the overall world cup rankings, where the Swedish winner climbed from seventh to fourth place. In the distance standings, Andersson is No.1 with Diggins in second place only 22 points behind.
Overall No.3, Rosie Brennan from USA, was in second place after the 10km classic and part of the chase group for the first part of freestyle skiing, but struggled to keep up the rest of the pack and had to battle for the seventh-place with Sweden's Emma Ribom and Linn Svahn.
Ribom, who was 0.16 seconds from winning Friday's sprint, finished first of the three, 48.9 seconds after Andersson, to protect her second-place in the overall world cup rankings before Brennan, who finished eighth before Svahn.
The World Cup action in Trondheim concludes with the 10km classic on Sunday.
Click here for full results from the women's 20km skiathlon classic/free.
