Carl claims maiden World Cup win – 11 years after her debut
Dec 17, 2023·Cross-Country
Eleven years after making her Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup debut, Germany’s Victoria Carl on Sunday won her first race on the tour with a furious pace in the women’s 10km classic in Trondheim, Norway.
The 28-year-old, who has been competing against the best in the world since December 2012, reached her career-first individual podium as she finished third in the 10km free in Oestersund, Sweden, on 10 December.
One week later she was unbeatable in the classic interval start race, finishing 19.6 seconds faster than Rosie Brennan from USA in second place. Ebba Andersson from Sweden finished third.
”It's so crazy. The whole team is so on fire, we have very good skis,” Carl said, thanking her wax team for their service.
”I'm really happy.”
Starting as No.36, she had blasted out of the gate with a brutal speed. After two kilometres she was 6.8 seconds faster than Saturday’s skiathlon dominant Andersson, the leader of the World Cup distance rankings.
However, as many wondered if Carl could keep that high pace for the remainder of the race, the German thought that her start had been slow and knew she had more fuel left in the tank for the finish.
”I started not so fast. I was thinking I’d save energy,” she said.
”I fought a lot and I had the times from the rounds, from the trainers, they were so good and pushed me so much.”
Waiting nervously in the leader’s chair, Carl looked surprised as she saw one competitor after the other failing to match her time. At 7.5km, Andersson was more than 10 seconds behind her and started to run out of power, possibly feeling the 20km skiathlon classic/free race in her legs.
More than 15 seconds behind as she came into the last kilometres, Andersson was forced to battle it out for the second place with Brennan. The 35-year-old USA skier won that battle by two seconds to bag her third podium this season as Andersson had to settle for a third place, 21.6 seconds behind the winner.
Overall World Cup leader Jessie Diggins from USA finished fourth, Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen fifth and Astrid Oeyre Slind from Norway sixth.
Carl’s teammate Pia Fink made it two Germans in top-10 as she claimed the seventh place – by far the best result this season for the 28-year-old who improved on her 15th-place in the 10km free in Oestersund.
Sweden’s Emma Ribom finished eighth, just inside the minute after Carl, to retain her second place in the overall World Cup standings before No.3 Brennan.
Home skiers Heidi Weng and Margrethe Bergane completed the top-10.
Next up for the world's best cross-country skiers is the FIS Tour de Ski that kicks off on 30 December in Toblach, Italy.
Click here for full results from the women's 10km classic.
