Mass-start madness ruled the day Saturday in Falun, Sweden, where Anchorage skiers Sadie Maubet Bjornsen showed midseason form even though it’s her first week of racing, Gus Schumacher extended his streak by scoring World Cup points in a 10th straight individual race, and Hunter Wonders came within 8.8 seconds of collecting points in his fourth career start on cross-country skiing’s biggest stage.
Both races — the men’s 15-kilometer classic and the women’s 10K classic — were close, chaotic and filled with crashes, including one by men’s winner Alexander Bolshunov in the second half of the race.
The top five women finished with 1.5 seconds of each other and the top nine finished within a 10-second span. The men’s race was even closer — the top 15 finished in an 11-second span, with a photo finish deciding silver and bronze.
Norway’s Linn Svahn and Russia’s Bolshunov each won by four-tenths of a second. Minnesota’s Jessie Diggins finished seventh among the women to lead the United States and keep her World Cup overall lead, and Schumacher placed 28th to pace the American men.
Tight packs and icy corners contributed to the mayhem, and Schumacher — who lost ground in the first of three laps when someone stepped on his ski — said he was grateful to survive intact.
“I‘m not super happy with my result today, but I am happy with not falling or breaking any equipment,” he said by email. “I’m sure some of the chaos was visible on TV, but there was a lot more that was going on the whole time, in terms of falls and tangles.”
Schumacher, an Alaska Winter Stars skier, and Wonders, an Alaska Pacific University skier, skied in the same big pack for part of the race. At the 8.3-kilometer mark, they were in 45th and 46th place — yet less than 10 seconds behind the leader.
Schumacher, 20, wound up 18.4 seconds off Bolshunov’s winning time for his 10th-straight top-30 finish. He was less than eight seconds out of the top 10 and 12 seconds out of the top 15.
Wonders, 22, finished 32.4 seconds behind the winner in a career-best 36th place — less than nine seconds out of the top 30, the break-off for scoring World Cup points. APU’s David Norris finished 60th and Scott Patterson 65th.
In the women’s race, APU skier Bjornsen — who delayed the start of her season by two months — grabbed 15th place in a photo finish. It was her second top-15 showing in her second race back on the World Cup circuit. On Friday, she placed 10th in a freestyle race.
APU’s Rosie Brennan finished 33rd, a result that dropped her into third place in the World Cup overall standings. Caitlin Patterson, who is from Anchorage but trains in Vermont, placed 51st.
“After spending 11 months away from racing, this weekend has been particularly fun to just kind of re-remember how this works,” Bjornsen, a two-time Olympian, said by email. “I haven’t yet raced without spectators, and I will say it is a different feeling. It almost feels like a super serious summer time trial. You hear your coaches cheering more than ever, which is kind of fun in a new way! It kind of takes racing back to the core, which is special.”