Svahn and Chanavat back on top as Tour takes off in Toblach

Linn Svahn said “it’s about time” after winning her first individual FIS Cross-Country World Cup race in nearly three years with victory in the Sprint Freestyle on Saturday in Toblach, Italy – the first event of this season’s Tour de Ski.

Still only 24, the Swedish skier burst onto the scene in the 2019-20 season having just turned 20 with three sprint victories, then topped the podium six more times the following season to claim the overall sprint title. But a serious shoulder injury forced Svahn to miss the entire 2021-22 campaign, including the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and last season was a struggle too as she battled her way back to fitness.

Svahn had to do it the hard way, too. Temperatures reached higher than five degrees Celsius in the Italian Dolomites, meaning the snow began to soften and cut up as the day progressed, only to become firmer and faster as the sun set behind the mountains and the mercury plummeted.

Svahn also had a stacked field to contend with. This season’s overall World Cup leader, Jessie Diggins (USA) – who has been much improved in the sprints - failed to qualify from the second semi-final after Svahn won a blisteringly fast first semi, biding her time to edge out sprint stars Kristine Stavaas Skistad (NOR) and Jonna Sundling (SWE).

The winner of the last World Cup sprint in Trondheim, Norway, Skistad hit the front early in the final, but the four Swedes worked together to prevent a breakaway. Cramped for space, Skistad stumbled on the penultimate climb, leaving her with too much ground to make up.

Olympic and World Champion, Sundling, a winner in Toblach last season, and Emma Ribom (SWE), who has won two sprints this season, would have fancied their chances, but it was their younger team-mate who had the finishing power, edging out Sundling. Skistad recovered well to take third.

“It’s been a long damn time,” Svahn said. “I felt I needed to get a victory now. I had a good day, almost everything went perfectly and I felt strong at the finish.”

The win also gives Svahn a 60-second bonus going into the next stage of the Tour de Ski.

Norway nowhere as Chanavat leads France one-two

The absence of the great Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo – who will miss the Tour de Ski after contracting flu –  dominated the pre-race talk in Toblach as the Freestyle Sprint kicked off the three-stage, seven-event shootout for Cross-Country Skiing supremacy.

And it was Lucas Chanavat (FRA), second to Klaebo in Trondheim, Norway, in the last World Cup sprint, who took full advantage. The 29-year-old looked the man to beat from the off, posting a time more than two seconds faster than anybody else in morning qualifying.

This was his 18th World Cup podium – all in sprints – but just his third victory, and first since January 2020.

Equally jubilant was compatriot Jules Chappaz, who hugged his teammate after crossing the line in second. The 24-year-old claimed sprint bronze at the FIS Nordic World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, in February but this was his first World Cup podium.

It was Chanavat, though, with his smooth, economical style, who led from the front in the final – as he had in his heat and semi-final – and despite an early stumble and looking a little ragged at the end of the first lap, it was a lead he never relinquished.

Swiss surprise package Valerio Grond had tried to stay with Chanavat but only teammate Chappaz and Ben Odgen (USA) could keep pace, the American claiming his first World Cup podium too.

“It’s so cool,” Chanavat said of the French one-two. “It didn’t realise it until I turned back at the finish line. I was like ‘Whoa!’ It’s well deserved.”

Ogden said of his maiden World Cup medal: "It was really fun, it just makes you want to do it again!

"I was able to execute every heat, just hung in there in second or third. I did the same in the final and I couldn't believe I was still there coming round the final bend. I thought 'it's pretty much over, I might as well try to make it onto the podium'.

"Jessie [Diggins] tried to give me some tips on spraying the champagne. It took me a second. I'll try to refine my strategy and do it a bit smoother then next time."

Norway, meanwhile, failed to win a men’s race for the first time this season. Only Erik Valnes and Harald Oestberg Amundsen qualified for the final, finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

They will be hoping for better on Sunday when the 2023/24 Tour de Ski continues in Toblach, with the men’s and women’s 10km Classic races.

For full results from Toblach, click here.