Cross-country skiing: Therese Johaug already at the top
This Friday morning, 137 days before the women’s individual classic at the cross-country skiing world championships in Trondheim (Norway), the Norwegian national team carried out a time test of… 10km classic on the track at these same World Championships.
Among the participants, one was particularly closely watched by the local media: legend Therese Johaug. Having come out of retirement for the meeting in Granåsen in a few months’ time, she is not returning to the competition to make up the numbers.
Up against Lotta Udnes Weng, Margrethe Bergane and Julie Myhre (Tiril Udnes Weng, who was also at the start, stayed behind), Therese Johaug started last in this full-scale test on soaking wet tarmac. And, as in her heyday, she won. With a time of 30 min 36, she beat Lotta Udnes Weng, the only rider not to have finished in her rear-view mirror, by 19 seconds.
“It was hard and brutal, but I enjoyed [the race],” Therese Johaug told NRK afterwards. Despite this, the Norwegian was cautious about her return to the world circuit: “I checked this morning and Victoria Carl had clocked a time of 28 min 13 this winter, so we’ll see how far behind I am [in the coming season’s competitions],” she confided with a smile.
In just over a month’s time, at the opening Norwegian races in Beitostølen (Norway), Therese Johaug will officially return to competition.
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