The 2022-23 Tour de Ski wrapped up on Sunday, and Park City native Rosie Brennan finished the competition as the top American in the overall standings in fourth place.
Brennan came in sixth place in Sunday’s 10K freestyle mass start to cap off the Tour de Ski. Athletes competed in seven stage races across Europe between Dec. 31 and Jan. 8.
“I am very happy with how it all finished,” Brennan said. “I felt strong in Val Mustair in the first few stages, and then in the middle I kind of wavered a bit and was not feeling so good and then started feeling good again when we got to the last few stages. So, that was nice to kind of feel like I was building form a bit at the end there.”
Consistency was the name of the game for Brennan during the Tour de Ski. While she didn’t claim a spot on the podium in any of the races, Brennan finished in the top 15 in all of them.
“Just kind of consistently being in the mix, and that worked out well for me,” Brennan said. “I was very happy to kind of have very steady races throughout the event.”
She started the Tour de Ski with a 14th-place finish and then a seventh-place result in the two races in Val Mustair, Switzerland, before finishing outside of the top 10 in both races in Oberstdorf, Germany. Brennan saved her best racing for the final three events in Val di Fiemme, Italy. She placed in the top 10 in each race and scored her best finish of the Tour de Ski, a fourth-place finish in the 15K classic.
But the most challenging part for Brennan was staying healthy and motivated through seven races in such a short time.
“Just keeping the hype the whole time can be challenging,” she said. “Especially in Germany, it was pouring rain and just absolutely miserable. It’s hard to kind of rally and get the energy going to finish the races. That can be challenging sometimes. Staying fueled and staying healthy are probably the hardest part.”
While she finished just outside the top three in the overall standings and didn’t land on the podium in any individual races, Brennan was pleased with how this year’s Tour de Ski turned out for her.
“That’s my best overall, and of course, it’s annoying being in fourth,” Brennan said with a laugh. “But it’s better than fifth, so I can’t complain too much. Especially given the venues and the conditions we had, I’m really happy with how I was able to manage all the conditions and just all the curveballs that’s been thrown at us with the snow conditions and lack of snow. But also, our team really struggled with some illness and staff, so we were down a lot of staff and had to really rally at the end there to make things happen.”
Brennan’s strong performances have propelled her up the overall World Cup standings to sixth place, just two spots behind American teammate Jessie Diggins.
“The Tour de Ski is worth a lot of points in the overall (standings), so it helps with that,” she said. “It’s a ton of intensity over a short period of time. And so that works out well for hopefully getting kind of a boost in training heading towards the rest of the season and specifically towards world (championships), so I feel optimistic for the rest of the season, for sure.”
The World Cup will continue in Italy later this month, but Brennan is also focused on the world championships. Her performance at the Tour de Ski gives her plenty of confidence going forward.
“I feel like I came out of the Tour in OK place, like an expected amount of fatigue, so I hope I will be able to recover well and get back to training and use the tour as a really good training boost heading into world championships,” Brennan said. “Having that really good classic race definitely helped with some confidence in my classic skiing heading into world championships. I think my form is coming around, and I’m really looking forward to world championships.”