Svahn praises teammate Karlsson after winning 'crazy race' to claim third Tour triumph

Sweden's Linn Svahn claimed her third stage victory of the 2023/24 Tour de Ski as won the women's 15km mass start classic in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on Saturday, praising her teammate Frida Karlsson for doing most of the hard work.

Karlsson, who had to settle for a second place 0.4 seconds behind Svahn as Germany's Katharina Hennig grabbed the last podium spot, had been in the lead for most of the race.

"It was a crazy race again," Svahn said.

"I felt strong the whole way but actually I think Frida was the strongest today, she did all the work."

In difficult conditions with wet snow coming down in the northern-Italian ski resort, it was hard to break away from the rest of the field and the skiers stayed together for the whole race.

Karlsson however took the first place after two kilometres to pick up the bonus points at the 2.3km and 8.5km mark, pulling the whole field by herself until the last sprint.

Svahn, Hennig and Germany's Victoria Carl stayed comfortably behind the leader for most of the 15km race. Coming into the last stretch, Svahn showed the shape that had given her two sprint victories in the tour, to claim her first distance win in the seven-stage competition.

"You know when I see a finish line I just need to go all the way to it," Svahn said, going back to thank fellow 24-year-old Swede Karlsson for her hard work at the front.

"She was the strongest but I had the finish."

Olympic sprint champion Jonna Sundling stayed a little bit further back in the field but made a push in the home straight to make it three Swedes among the top-four skiers; a performance that the Swedish wax team can feel proud about.

"It was a good race for Sweden and although the conditions were crazy we had amazing skis," Svahn said.

Germany also had a good day as Hennig and Carl worked well together, Carl claiming the seventh place behind No.5 Teresa Stadlober (AUT) and Delphine Claudel (FRA).

"This morning, at the breakfast table, I saw that it was snowing really hard again and that it was around zero degrees. I thought that 'wow, our technicians definitely have a lot of work to do right now'," Hennig said.

A week ago in Davos, Switzerland, the wax, snow and temperatures around freezing had made Hennig lose valuable seconds as she was forced to slow down to clear snow that had gathered on the skis.

"We were really nervous, wondering if it would be like Davos again, but they manage it very well," the 27-year-old said.

"I think we all dealt with it very well and I am just super happy to have reached my first podium finish of the season."

She said she and Carl had planned to stay in the front in the slow-paced, tactical race, but without wasting energy on trying to break away from the rest.

"That was simply due to the conditions, because a bit of track had broken in and it didn't make much sense to constantly change lanes," said Hennig, who had big support from her family in the stands.

"There are a total of 16 of my people here and the journey here is not the shortest. So I'm very grateful that so many people come and of course that makes it all even more special."

Hennig caught Covid-19 in the end of 2023 and missed the World Cup stops in Oestersund, Sweden and Trondheim, Norway. On Saturday, the Olympic team sprint champion could celebrate her first World Cup podium since her 20km mass start classic third-place in Lahti, Finland, last March.

"It took a while after catching corona that I really felt good again. That's why I am really happy with the team's result," she said.

USA's Jessie Diggins, who leads the overall Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup as well as the Tour de Ski No.1, started the race at a high pace but decided to play it safe to not waste any energy on trying to get the win. Finishing in eighth place, 5.7 seconds after Svahn, the 32-year-old still has good chances to repeat her Tour de Ski triumph from three years ago.

The only American to have won the title has a 43-second advantage on runner-up Sundling coming into Sunday's brutal last event; a 10km mass start free race that ends with a climb up the Alpine skiing course of Alpe Cermis.

Defending champion Karlsson is 44 seconds behind, Finland's Kerttu Niskanen 49 seconds behind as Svahn, in fifth place in the total standings, has to beat Diggins by 58 seconds to win.

Click here for full results from the women's 15km mass start classic.

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