Jessica Diggins won the Tour de Ski 2023/24. A sixth place was enough for the American on Sunday (January 7th, 2024) on the final stage up to Alpe Cermis to defend her overall lead. Her compatriot Sophia Laukli won the day.
For Laukli it was the first World Cup victory of her career, on the prestigious final climb of the Tour de Ski. Behind her, Heidi Weng from Norway came second on the day (+17.1 seconds), third place went to the French runner Delphine Claudel (+37.7 seconds).
Katharina Hennig came ninth in the daily ranking (+1:12.1 minutes). Victoria Carl, who was able to run the tour to the end for the first time, finished 14th (+1:52.4 min.). Lisa Lohmann, the third German starter in the field of 30, finished the race in 26th position (+3:34.2 min.).
Carl defends his top ten place in the overall ranking
In the overall ranking, Victoria Carl achieved a strong ninth place in her first full Tour de Ski. She was 2:39.9 minutes behind Diggins. The Thuringian was particularly impressive at the start of the tour in Toblach and stormed onto the podium twice. Hennig (+2:50.6 min.) finished eleventh and missed out on a place in the top ten by almost nine seconds.
After the race, Hennig was surprised by her own performance: “This is not my favorite discipline here. That’s why I always approach it with caution and I’m very, very happy to have finished ninth.“She’s slowly coming back after her sick break before Christmas”getting going again“.
Behind Diggins, Weng finished second, as in the daily rankings (+31.6 seconds). The Tour podium was completed by the Finn Kerttu Niskanen (+39.7 seconds).
No attacks until the climbs
As expected, the race started with no major attacks in the first few kilometers leading up to the final climb. Only in the intermediate sprints for the bonus seconds was the pace increased slightly. After almost 20 minutes of running, things slowly got steeper, even though the really big climbs were still ahead of the athletes. Carl and Hennig both kept up with the lead group of almost 15 people until the first steep climb – which had an incline of almost 24 percent.
Laukli sits down decisive away
Now the field began to slowly pull apart. The Norwegian Weng slowly increased the pace, only the American Sophia Laukli could follow. With just under a kilometer to go, Hennig was three quarters of a minute behind.
On the somewhat flatter final section, Laukli made the decisive attack, but Weng could no longer follow. Diggins exhausted himself to the point of complete exhaustion in the last few meters and collapsed into the snow in the finish area. She was only able to really celebrate her second overall victory in the Tour de Ski after a delay.