It was at the end of January that Dahl lined up in Maricalonga over 70 km despite not being fully recovered from the covid disease that caused her to forgo La Diagonela in Switzerland the week before.
"It's never a success to compete when you're petty and I really tore under Marcialonga when I had covid. Maybe it's not something I'm going to do again, but to be in the fight for the yellow jersey, I couldn't afford to miss two races because I was also sick the weekend before," Dahl said.
Ida Dahl has the last two seasons been second in the overall in Ski Classics. Ahead of the final two races in Norway, she leads and can take her first title.
200 points for a victory
She leads by 55 points ahead of runner-up Magni Smedås. It's thanks to the 195 points Dahl drove in fourth in Marcialonga that she leads the total. The winner of the races this weekend gets 200 points per win, so the 55-point lead isn't much.
"With the benefit of hindsight, it's still gone well, so it's nice. I'm excited and eager to compete and I think that's the most important thing," Dahl said.
Not decided what the skis should look like
On Saturday, the Reistad race over 40 km will be decided in Bardu in northern Norway. The following day, Summit 2 Senja is decided over 68 km, a race that is run for the first time. Both races have huge uphill climbs where it takes something really special to be able to stake without a stronghold.
"It's always a trade-off when you come here. It will probably be a lot of the forehand that determines and how easy or difficult it is to get a foothold, how the rod mount is. I haven't decided yet but will test tomorrow and see how it feels.
April 1: Reistadslöpet 40 km. 10.00 broadcast on SVT1
April 2: Summit 2 Senya 68 km. 09.05 broadcast on SVT1