It’s a day that the French cross-country ski team will not soon forget. After the great victory of Jules Lapierre and the third place overall in the Tour de Ski for Hugo Lapalus among the men, Delphine Claudel completed this day by offering herself a 3rd place in the 10 km free mass-start of Val di Fiemme (Italy), Sunday. The Frenchwoman took the opportunity to take tenth position in the general classification of the Tour de Ski.
The race was won by Sophia Laukli who completed the 10 km in 38’16”5, ahead of Heidi Weng (+17”1) and Claudel (+37″ 7), therefore. of the first World Cup victory for the young American trail runner (23 years old) who was favorite for the event given her cross-country skier profile. She nevertheless proved impressive in the terrible climb towards Alpe Cermis, in placing a big acceleration in the last hectometers of the race to take almost twenty seconds from Weng in 200 meters.
Arriving around ten seconds behind Claudel, Jessie Diggins finished sixth in the race, which allowed her to win the general classification of the Tour de Ski. She won the 20 km freestyle pursuit in Toblach (Italy) and reached the podium three other times in the seven events. She is ahead of Weng and Kerttu Niskanen overall, ahead of the Swedes Frida Karlsson and Jonna Sundling.