Dramatic reveals from Jasmi Joensuu — “I couldn’t feel my legs” — Johanna Matintalo admits she nearly vomited

Yle Sport followed the final day of the Tour de Skin (see coverage here).

Unlike the men's race, the women's final stage did not slow down even on the stadium lap. The pace was driven by USA's Jessie Diggins and Sweden's Maja Dahlqvist.

At the start of the Alpe Cermis final climb six women broke clear: Diggins, Ebba Andersson, Karoline Simpson-Larsen, Heidi Weng, Nora Sanness and Nadja Kälin. Simpson-Larsen and Weng appeared to be the strongest and looked likely to leave the group.

In the end Simpson-Larsen took the stage win. For the 28-year-old Norwegian — who has broken through this season — it was the second victory and second podium of her career; her first had come in Davos in another 10 km freestyle race.

Simpson-Larsen has lived through a difficult and emotional period within the Norwegian winter sports community: her partner, biathlete Johan‑Olav Botn, was the one who found biathlete Sivert Guttorm Bakken dead in an Italian hotel room on 23 December.

Diggins produced a massive late surge and finished second on the stage; Weng was third, Austria’s strong climber Teresa Stadlober was fourth and Andersson fifth.

Jessie Diggins won the overall Tour by a large margin — her lead over Stadlober exceeded two minutes — and she lifted the Tour de Skin title for the third time in her career.

Finnish results on the final stage: Vilma Ryytty 12th (+1:53.6), Johanna Matintalo 15th (+2:02.1), Vilma Nissinen 32nd (+3:15.6) and Jasmi Joensuu 34th (+3:25.9). Jasmin Kähärä did not start the final stage. Later in the event Joensuu was listed 9th overall, Matintalo 6th, Ryytty 20th and Nissinen 24th. The Tour pays prize money to the top 20 overall: Matintalo earned €17,000, Joensuu €10,000 and Ryytty €1,500 (Joensuu's total from the Tour was €15,000, including sprint bonuses).

Joensuu: “My calves cramped — I couldn’t feel my legs”

After the stage Jasmi Joensuu limped into the mixed zone. "I feel really good. I’m not exhausted, but my calves seized early on. I don’t know what happened — they were completely cramped. I couldn’t feel my legs the whole race. It was difficult, but I finished, and that’s good," she said.

Joensuu had hoped to repeat last year’s strong climb; she said she was still strong at the top of Alpe Cermis last season. This time, though, the cramps limited her. She remained satisfied to stay inside the top‑10 on the day and pointed out that in the Tour’s free technique races she had similar leg problems: in the 5 km mass‑start free she placed 40th and the legs were already bothering her.

Joensuu said she used the same skis in both races and that they were very fast, but that she couldn’t stay on top of the skis — she wondered whether it was the ski profile or technique. With five weeks until the Olympics she stressed that staying healthy and relaxed is the priority; she may skip next weekend’s Finnish champs in Kuopio but might still race in the Oberhof World Cup.

Matintalo on the verge of vomiting

Johanna Matintalo, who had cried after Saturday's sprint out of frustration over grip problems, said she had wanted to push herself so hard on the final climb that she would end up vomiting. "I wanted to punish myself a bit for yesterday so that today I’d be pushed to the limit. I did get something up, but — well, I don’t know if it’s wise to describe that in detail on TV. My stomach was empty, so nothing actually came up. I reached the verge of vomiting," she said.

Matintalo was pleased that she was able to extract a good climb from herself and called her overall Tour placing satisfying. She noted she was only a couple of seconds shy of fifth on the stage if one wants to speculate. Matintalo plans to race before the Olympics in both the Oberhof World Cup and the Goms World Cup, then taper toward the Games. Her season earnings after the Tour stand at €22,600.

Ryytty partly satisfied

Vilma Ryytty was the best Finnish finisher on the final stage in 12th. Before the race she had hoped for a top‑10; she missed that by roughly 16 seconds. "This warms me up a bit. It was a solid performance and the whole climb went well," she said. Ryytty ended the Tour 20th overall, which gave her prize money and some satisfaction even if she was hoping for more.

Notes

— Karoline Simpson-Larsen won the stage on Alpe Cermis.
— Jessie Diggins won the overall Tour de Skin.
— The TV program is not available for viewing abroad.