Randall Leads USA in Mass Start
HIGHLIGHTS
- Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) skied to 14th to lead the U.S. women in a 10k mass start.
- Jessie Diggins (Afton, MN), who skied with Randall during a good part of the race, got tangled near the finish and dropped to 19th.
- Liz Stephen (E. Montpelier, VT) was 26th.
- Randall dropped from fourth to fifth in the FIS Cross Country World Cup overall standings, 13 points behind Sweden's Charlotte Kalla.
- Randall is now seventh in the Falun mini-tour going into the 10k pursuit finale.
- Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) the only American on the men's side, finished 29th.
- Pursuit race Sunday, 15k for men, 10k for women.
QUOTES
Kikkan Randall
It was decent. There were a few things I would have liked to do differently out there. With it being so icy outside the tracks on the up hills, you kind of had to be in the track and a couple times I got stuck behind people with slowertempos and I felt like if I had just gotten a little space to go around I would have just kept in a little higher of a tempo and gotten up to the next pack.
From the start the pack went for it, but I felt like it broke into pretty good packs and I was happy with the people I had to ski with. I just wish I could have stayed in that next pack forward.
I think our skis were great. I had good kick where I needed it and I think they were pretty fast.
Andy Newell
I had a good start position so I just tried to get out, not try to stay in front necessarily, but just try and ski relaxed. I knew it was going to pick up for the first time bonus so I just tried to not pick up my pace much so that I wouldn't blow up. I did that pretty well and then it came together again. It then started to get strung out. I was in a pack for position 24, 25, 26 and 27 and they just got away at the top of the Morderbacken on the last lap and I wasn't able to get back to them so I was really fighting for that 25th spot but ended up 29th and lost a few seconds in the last kilometer but it's OK, it's a long season.
RESULTS
Official Results
TV
Watch the race on Universal Sports TV (available on DirecTV and DISH) at 5:00, 8:00 and 11:00 p.m.