Rydzek earns maiden World Cup win in season's last Sprint: 'I didn't think I could ever achieve this'

Coletta Rydzek (GER) claimed the first Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup victory of her career as she won the Women's Sprint Free in Lahti, Finland on Friday.

In the last Sprint of the season, the German 27-year-old was unbeatable in the last stretches of the semifinal and final and reached the best result of her career, six years after her World Cup debut.

"(It's) unbelievable, really. It's hard to describe," Rydzek said.

One year ago, she finished in second place in the Lahti Sprint, behind Kristine Stavaas Skistad (NOR), who won the event in the southern-Finnish city for the second year in a row.

This season, Rydzek denied Skistad a third consecutive Lahti triumph as she blasted past the Norwegian superstar on the home straight to take the victory by a margin of 0.21 second. Switzerland's Nadine Faehndrich, who won the Sprint Free in Tallinn (EST) on Wednesday, finished third to make it to a second podium in three days this week, crossing the line 0.38 second after the winner.

It was Rydzek’s fourth World Cup podium, including Team Sprints, three of which have come in Lahti.

"I knew from last year that I love this course, and now (the course, that got colder and harder in the evening) was getting faster than in the prologue, so I just wanted to fight for the podium again," said Rydzek.

In the semifinal, Rydzek had been in third place coming into the last stretch of the race, but exploded past Johanna Hagstroem (SWE) and Jasmin Kahara (FIN) to grab the first place. Some would question whether that strong finish had taken a toll on Rydzek, but in the final she did it again.

This time, Skistad and Mathilde Myhrvold (NOR) kept the two front spots coming down the last downhill section, as Skistad tried to break away with an early surprise move. But on the last stretch, Rydzek, a little tangled up with with Myhrvold, pushed away and overtook Skistad in the last few meters of the course.

The German celebrated her milestone win with her team by the finish line, but said that a bigger celebrations would have to wait.

"I have the team sprint tomorrow but tomorrow (after the race) it is all in, Rydzek said, before remembering that some of her teammates would probably prefer the celebrations to wait until after the season's last race; the 50km Mass Start Classic:

"Or on Sunday, we will see."

Hagstroem, who had won the first Sprint of the season on Finnish snow in Ruka, in November was close to make it to a fourth podium but got stuck behind Skistad and had to settle for a fourth place, 13 hundredths of a second behind Faehndrich. Out of 12 Women's Sprints, it was only the second time that there was no Swede on the podium.

Myhrvold could not recover from the collision with Rydzek and finished in fifth place 0.71 of a second behind the winner as home hope Kahara, in her second Sprint final this season, had to settle for a sixth place. Her compatriot, Sprint Crystal Globe winner Jasmi Joensuu (FIN), failed to qualify from the semifinal and ended her Sprint season with an eighth place.

The last weekend of Cross-Country World Cup action this winter continues in Lahti on Saturday with the Team Sprint Free.

Click here for full results from the Women's Sprint Free and here for the Women's World Cup standings.