STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley’s John Steel Hagenbuch snuck around Gus Schumacher to win the Men’s National Championship 40-kilometer Nordic Mass Start Classic at the SWIX SuperTour and Spring Nationals held this week in Lake Placid, N.Y.

American phenom Jessie Diggins won the Women’s 40K Classic Mass Start at the races, which were held at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.

Diggins and Schumacher had just returned to the States from Lahti, Finland, where Diggins secured the Distance World Cup Crystal Globe to go along with her Overall Crystal Globe. Schumacher had finished eighth in the men’s Lahti 50K.

And Hagenbuch, who races for Dartmouth College, had just won back-to-back titles in the 7.5K at the NCAA Ski Championships.

The Men’s 40K at Lake Placid had winnowed down to a three-man affair consisting of Hagenbuch, Schumacher and Remi Drolet by the 10K mark. By 15k, as the race course headed up trail, those men were nearly a full minute ahead of the rest of the pack. And, by the 20K mark, they were 1 and a half minutes ahead.

Schumacher, who came to the nation’s attention when he won his first-ever World Cup in front of 40,000 fans in Minneapolis last year, led most of the way, said fasterskier.com’s John Teaford. But a “cagey” Hagenbuch outmaneuvered him at the end to win by less than a second. Drolet finished third.

Hagenbuch skied the course in 1 hour 51 minutes and six seconds.

Reid Goble, who took turns with Peter Wolter guiding Jake Adicoff through the Para World Cup this winter, finished in eighth, at 1:56:29.8. Wolter finished 13th at 2:01:10.6. Jake Adicoff finished 37th at 2:10:03.0.

Diggins and U.S. Ski Team teammate Julia Kern pulled away in the Women’s 40K Classic after five kilometers. By the halfway point they had a two-minute advantage over Erica Laven who was bravely skiing alone without the benefit of drafting.

Diggins pressed her pedal to the metal the last three kilometers to claim a 14-second win over Kerns. Her time: 2 hours 16 minutes and 45 seconds.