Victoria Carl is in the form of her life. Two weeks after her victory over the 10 kilometers in Trondheim, she is back on the podium at the Tour de Ski over the same distance. On Sunday (December 31, 2023) Katharina Hennig also reported back after her sick leave.
The German cross-country skiers have set the next mark at the Tour de Ski. On the second stage in Toblach, Italy, Victoria Carl stormed to second place, Katharina Hennig came a strong fifth. The fastest over the 10 kilometers in the classic technique was the Finn Kerttu Niskanen.
This means that Carl is well placed in the race for overall victory on the tour. Behind Jessica Diggins from the USA, who placed third on Sunday, she is second, seven seconds behind.
For Carl, the recent success came as a bit of a surprise: “After Christmas I didn’t know what the shape was. Yesterday’s prologue surprised me and today everything was right again“, she said on ZDF after the race. The last few meters were really hard, but thanks to the encouragement from the trainers she was still able to mobilize the last reserves of strength.
Hennig was convincing right from the start
Given the conditions with which she started the tour, Hennig was surprised by the intermediate times. Starting the race in 27th place out of 67 starters, the Saxon woman, who had recently missed two World Cups due to corona illness and is not yet back to 100 percent, was able to get to the top of the ranking in every time measurement right up to the finish.
Directly behind her, the American Rosie Brennan and Niskanen put a lot of pressure on and were able to take 15 seconds (Brennan) and 29 seconds (Niskanen) away from Hennig over the ten kilometers. However, Hennig was able to hold her own in front of many of the favored Swedes, who dominated the sprint the day before, and Norwegians.
Diggins and Carl storm past
Hennig therefore still had two opponents in the fight for the podium place: Diggins and teammate Victoria Carl, who started the race with start number 48. Carl was just behind Hennig until the third kilometer, but was then able to push past him by a few seconds. Diggins only really turned up the heat in the last three kilometers and clearly pushed past Hennig.
But Diggins would still have to give up second place. Because Carl sprinted past the World Cup leader and celebrated his third podium this winter.
Rydzek with top 20 placement
Coletta Rydzek also showed another great performance one day after her seventh place in the sprint. She finished 16th, 1:19.4 behind.