The freestyle distance races at Changchun saw the best racers reach the top step of each podium. In the women's 10km, the winner was almost a foregone conclusion, and indeed Katerina Neumannova, the best freestyle racer in the world, demolished the field. With every other racer on course before she started, Neumannova immediately began putting time into the field - a whopping ten seconds at the 1.9km time check. She cruised in to win by more than a minute - a massive gap rarely seen in the World Cup and unlikely to appear again in the 15km freestyle race at the World Championships on the 27th. Behind the Czech veteran, Frenchwoman Karine Phillippot took second and Kazakh racer Svetlana Malahova-Shishkina took third, just a few ticks of the clock ahead of a surprising Chinese racer, Yuanyuan Li, posting her country's best-ever World Cup result.
With its bigger and more experienced field, the men's race devolved to the expected duel between German Tobias Angerer and Frenchman Vincent Vittoz. Youngsters Sergej Shiriaev (Russia) and Petter Northug (Norway) were in the mix as well, but at the finish Angerer took first, nearly 10 seconds up on Vittoz, who had another two seconds over his teammate Emmanuel Jonnier, taking his second podium spot of the winter. Shiriaev ended up fourth, Northug fifth. The top ten was an exclusive group, with three Germans, two Russians, two Norwegians, two Frenchmen and, in tenth, American Kris Freeman, posting his best World Cup result in a long time and showing the form necessary to vie for a podium in the the 15km at Worlds on February 28.