Canada's Alex Harvey eyes podium with top-10 cross-country finish

Canada's Alex Harvey is inching his way closer to the podium with a 10th-place result at Saturday's 10-kilometre cross-country World Cup race in Norway. 

"The top-10 is always the standard for me to be happy. A 10-kilometre race goes by really fast. The goal was not to lose any time on the first lap, and then fight hard for the second half. I went out hard today, but lost a couple of spots near the end," said Harvey, who finished in 23 minutes, 28.4 seconds. 

The 28-year-old, of St-Férréol-les-Neiges, Que., was in with the top-six for the first half of the race, but it was the final five kilometres on the icy tracks in Lillehammer that got the best of him.

"This is one of the hardest courses on the World Cup for sure. It is so hard on the legs. There is lots of steep terrain that shoots you into downhills, and offsets. You want to ski technically, but it is a really physical course so it is the shape that counts," said Harvey. 

Sweden's Calle Halfvarsson won the race in 23:04.9, beating teammate Marcus Hellner by 0.8 seconds.

American Jessie Diggins won an individual World Cup race for the second time, beating overall leader Heidi Weng on the 5-km cross-country course.

Diggins won in 12 minutes, 40.3 seconds, with Weng 4.8 seconds behind. Diggins is third overall in the weekend tour, 21.6 seconds behind Weng.

Marit Bjoergen of Norway was third Saturday — 15.8 seconds behind Diggins. Cendrine Browne of St-Jerome, Que., was the top Canadian in 50th.