Håvard Solås Taugbøl (NOR) won the sprint at the Swedish cross-country season opener in Bruksvallarna Sunday, while Caitlin Gregg (USA) was third in the 10K skate in Gällivare.
Madshus racers waste no time when they get on snow.
“It was really good, and nice to get a victory this early in the season. I’m really not used to beating people like Jönsson and (Teodor) Peterson,” Håvard Solås Taugbøl said to VGTV after the sprint.
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Also in Gällivare (SWE), Madshus racer Noah Hoffman (USA) pulled into sixth place in the men’s 15K skate on Sunday. Caitlin Gregg, who earned the bronze medal in the women’s 10K at the 2015 FIS World Championships in Falun (SWE), was seventh in the classic sprint in Gällivare on Saturday.
Complete results from the FIS opener in Gällivare
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The season opener in Bruksvallarna (SWE) also featured classic races on Friday, where Swedish Madshus racers Sara Lindborg and Marika Sundin were fifth and seventh respectively, in the women’s 5-kilometer, and Simon Andersson was sixth in the men’s 10-kilometer event. On Saturday, Andersson was ninth in the 15-kilometer skate race, while Anton Lindblad was tenth.
Complete results from the FIS opener in Bruksvallarna
At Sjusjøen (NOR), the biathletes had their season opener with sprint competitions for both men and women on Saturday and mass starts on Sunday. Madshus racers posted several top 10 results on both days, including Benedikt Doll (GER), who was fifth in the sprint and tenth in the mass start on Sunday – just ahead of biathlon’s grand old man, Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR) in 11th place.
“It wasn’t half bad, but I didn’t shoot well today. It will get better as the season gets underway,” Bjørndalen said to NRK after the race on Sunday.
Both Bjørndalen and Svendsen sat out Saturday’s sprint race. Due to illness, injury and recent altitude camps, the two were playing the national races conservatively in order to be peaking for the first World Cup races in Östersund (SWE) December 1-6.