Niskanen wins thrilling Davos 20km as Jessie digs in

It started in heavy snowfall and finished under clear blue skies. In between, the Women’s 20km Classic Pursuit in Davos, Switzerland – stage five of this season’s FIS Tour de Ski – was arguably one of the most eventful races in World Cup cross-country skiing history.

“It feels like anything can happen,” Johanna Haegstroem said before the race, and the Swede turned out to be right. In a race dictated largely by conditions and choice of ski preparation, Kerttu Niskanen (FIN) eventually came out on top for the seventh World Cup win of her career – but it could have been anybody’s right up until the last two or three kilometres.

The racers went out according to their qualifying times in Wednesday’s sprint – minus the bonus time they had picked up from the final results – which meant Linn Svahn (SWE) started 15 seconds ahead of Tour leader Jessie Diggins (USA). But with three more starting within five seconds, many sprinters among the next out, and just 16 seconds separating 11th from 33rd position, it had the feel of a mass start.

And so it proved, with few skiers willing to make the running. This was understandable given the fresh snow on the tracks, with only the Swedes working together to share the load. Others, like Norway’s Astrid Øyre, used drink stops to slow down and let others take their turn at the front.

There was also an interesting contrast between the choices of techniques and tactics. This season, because of the ban on fluoro wax, skis have to be submitted for inspection 30 minutes before the start of each race. But in changeable weather conditions such as these, this can cause havoc for the competitors.

Those who chose to go without grip wax would have to ‘double pole’ the majority of the way. As well as putting tremendous strain on the arms, this would mean they would lose time climbs but have more speed on the flat and downhill sections. Skiers using grip wax, on the other hand, would make up time on the climbs by using the ‘herringbone’ technique – essentially angling their skis outwards and stepping uphill rather than skiing.

In temperatures around freezing, though, the wax can allow snow to gather on the bottom of the skis, with Katharina Hennig (GER) among those to lose time by having to slow down to clear her skis.

Throw in the altitude of Davos and poor visibility amid the heavy snowfall, and it made for a fascinating race.

In the end it came down to a shootout between Niskanen and Rosie Brennan (USA). The two 35-year-olds always threatened to break away on the two climbs and they finally moved clear on the second climb on the second of two 11km laps.

But the Fin – tucking so low on the final downhill that her upper body nearly touched the ground – wouldn’t be denied. A classic distance race specialist, Niskanen crossed the line in one hour, 12 minutes and 0.7 second for her second win in as many weeks following her 10km victory in Toblach, Italy.

Brennan was just 0.8 seconds back with Diggins overcoming an early fall and issues with her skis to take third. Jonna Sundling – the only Swede not to double pole her way round the course – used her sprint power to edge out Hennig, Frida Karlsson (SWE), Heidi Weng (NOR) and Margrethe Bergane (NOR) for fourth place.

“It was a neat course, and it made it interesting with some people going without wax and some with. I wasn’t sure how it would work out but I’m glad the wax worked out in the end.”

Diggins extends her lead in the Tour de Ski to 44 seconds ahead of Niskanen and Sundling, who is a further eight seconds back.

The Tour de Ski now moves on to Val di Fiemme, Italy with a 15km Mass Start on Saturday 6 January.

Click here for the full results from Davos.