Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg, after falling back to 20th position after the first prone stage staged a brilliant comeback with just one other penalty to win the Annecy Le Grand Bornand women’s 12.5 km mass start in 33:37.8. Elvira’s second career win came on the heels of a steady climb from 20th to 15th to 9th and then 2nd after the last standing stage, followed by a blazing last loop, securing the win. Julia Simon of France, with two penalties, finished second, 10.7 seconds back after a last loop battle with Russia’s Kristina Reztsova. The third-place Russian with her first career podium also had two penalties,12.1 seconds back.

Dorothea Wierer of Italy, with one penalty finished in a season-best fourth place, 13.3 seconds back. Jessica Jislova of Czech Republic shot clean in a career-best fifth place, 13.9 seconds back. The Yellow Bib Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway, with two penalties finished sixth, 19.3 seconds back.

More fans; nineteen clean first prone

Just when one thought the crowds could not get much bigger, they did, with 20,000 plus fans invading Le Grand Bornand The first women’s mass of the season saw again clear skies, temperature just above freezing and no wind on the range. Quality shooting would undoubtably determine the podium. The Oebergs set the pace into the first prone stage, with the Yellow Bib on the tails of their skis. Hanna cleaned first with Sola, Hauser, Chevalier-Bouchet and Olsbu Roeiseland next and an additional 14 women also perfect, all going out within 20 seconds. The two Hannas initially controlled the pace heading to the second prone stage with a pack of eight forming and breaking from the field.

Simon moves up

Hanna Oeberg missed twice, with Simon taking the lead after quickly closing the second prone, with Chevalier-Bouchet, Reztsova and Hauser close on her heels, also perfect. The number of clean shooters through the prone stages dropped to nine, all still within 20 seconds as the standing stages loomed on the next visit to the stadium.

Wierer takes over

Chevalier-Bouchet and Simon led the field into the first standing stage to the delight of the French fans. Wierer and Hauser cleaned first leaving in tandem, with surprising Lotte Lie next also clean and Reztsova, Chevalier-Bouchet, Jessica Jislova at just over 20 seconds from the two leaders. Elvira, in 14th before the stage, cleaned to move up to 9th heading to the last standing stage.

Deciding last standing; big move by Elvira

Wierer put a few seconds on her Austrian rival, stretching it to 7 seconds by the 8.5 km split, with the next group 13+ seconds in arrears. The Italian set up on lane one for the final, deciding standing stage. None of the leaders cleaned, save Jislova who got away 1.3 seconds faster than Elvira who moved from eighth before shooting, 20 seconds back before closing all five of her final targets. Simon and Wierer after penalty loops were less than 3 seconds behind the two women in front with 2.5 km to go.

Elvira flies to second career victory

Elvira quickly showed her track superiority, blazing to into the lead as they left the stadium and flying to a 11 second lead by the 11 km mark, making no doubt that she would get her second career victory. She skied into the stadium sporting a huge smile, waving the Swedish flag with win number two in hand. The battle for second and third was down to four women. Reztsova and Simon battled until about 300 meters to go until Simon pulled away to easily take second placed with the Russian in third.

Disappointment leads to podium

Reztsova’s disappointing 9th placed in the pursuit spurred her on to her first-ever BMW IBU World Cup podium. “Yesterday I was quite disappointed because I wanted to have better results after a good sprint but I could not fight because I had quite a bad shooting. today I was trying to forget about yesterday and start from scratch. That was important for me. It was my first World Cup mass start, so I am really satisfied with my result.” Photos: IBU/ Manzoni, Thibaut