Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[python]

just overheard that shipulin with 1 miss had the fastest shooting and 3d or 4th leg speed putting him 41 seconds ahead of fourcade with 2 misses. that is, it looks like he wasn't all that much slower than fourcade on his legs.

if that's a formula to beat the french given the cruel penalty of 1 min per miss, perhaps others should take a notice ?

 

[kingjr]

He still lost 46 seconds on the track, that's ok-ish considering that Antholz is supposed to be where he is at his best in terms of skiing speed (I'm still convinced that he knows a shortcut on the way from the start to the first timecheck on the 3.3k loop )

 

[Kokoso]

Re:

just overheard that shipulin with 1 miss had the fastest shooting and 3d or 4th leg speed putting him 41 seconds ahead of fourcade with 2 misses. that is, it looks like he wasn't all that much slower than fourcade on his legs.

if that's a formula to beat the french given the cruel penalty of 1 min per miss, perhaps others should take a notice ?

To shoot fast and accurate and run fast is almost universal formula to beat Fourcade, no matter whether penalty is one minute or penalty lap, Captain Obviuos.

 

[python]

another clueless remark from the champion of the clueless who can't figure out that an automatic penalty of 1min a miss is much longer than a time penalty of running an extra loop for a miss or just a few seconds while using an extra round, like during relays...combining such a harsh penalty with the usual attributes of doing well provides for a better chance of beating a fourcade compared to the disciplines with less harsh penalties where he had proven to catch just about everyone after missing more than a runner up...

i am promoting you to an all-time obvious captain of uselessness and worthless inputs...

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

just overheard that shipulin with 1 miss had the fastest shooting and 3d or 4th leg speed putting him 41 seconds ahead of fourcade with 2 misses. that is, it looks like he wasn't all that much slower than fourcade on his legs.

if that's a formula to beat the french given the cruel penalty of 1 min per miss, perhaps others should take a notice ?

Well Fourcade is certainly beatable, and has been so 3 or 4 times this season. It's just that almost nobody has taken advantage of it when he was human. Finally, it happened today with Shipulin shooting sufficiently well.

 

[BullsFan22]

Re:

He still lost 46 seconds on the track, that's ok-ish considering that Antholz is supposed to be where he is at his best in terms of skiing speed (I'm still convinced that he knows a shortcut on the way from


41 seconds, but whatever. Not a big deal in terms of the win and with just one more miss or one less miss for Fourcade and It'd be a 15-20 second win for the Frenchman. I am happy that it wasn't. I don't really have anything against Martin, but like most fans, I'd like to see more people taking the honors. Fourcade has been winning and winning and winning. Every time he doesn't win, it's like a small miracle these days, so Shipulin's win today was good. Shipulin is a much better biathlete when he is skiing head to head (pursuits, mass starts and especially relays). For him to win this type of race bodes well. There is something about Antholz/Anterselva that helps Shipulin. When is the next world's there? Hopefully before Shipulin retires because he can certainly add to his medals tally.

What was funny was Semenov's face plant into the finish. He JUST made it across too. It would have been sad and embarrassing had the transponder not crossed the line and time kept going. It would have been a cruel way to lose 3rd place.

 

[portugal11]

Martin isn't in great shape, he is weaker and more human than how he was in december. In 20 km he is clearly capable of winning more than one minute to his closest opponent. He has a great endurance and i think he is peaking for the worlds where we will see a super fourcade

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Martin isn't in great shape, he is weaker and more human than how he was in december. In 20 km he is clearly capable of winning more than one minute to his closest opponent. He has a great endurance and i think he is peaking for the worlds where we will see a super fourcade

Antholz is a relatively flat course. I think that suits Shipulin. Schempp is always good in Antholz. As such I do not share your belief that Fourcade is weak right now, when he beats Sihpulin by 46 seconds (divide it by 2 and he would have recovered a penalty lap on him in a sprint). A shame that Eberhard and Emil wasn't there yesterday. They could have provided a more solid benchmark to compare Fourcade against.

Nevertheless the men's relay look interesting today. The Germans go all in with their best team and should be able to win this. However, the Norwegians are not too far behind, I think. Cannot see France or Russia winning without Fourcade and Shipulin, respectively.

 

[python]

Re: Re:

As such I do not share your belief that Fourcade is weak right now, when he beats Sihpulin by 46 seconds (divide it by 2 and he would have recovered a penalty lap on him in a sprint). (snapped)

i agree completely. that was the key point of my earlier post. given the speeds we observed, fourcade would probably win had he been penalized by a lap rather than an automatic one minute...still, shipulin fully deserved the victory and i recon, he and his coaches were composing a winning plan based on the faster shooting and and a good enough leg speed...

to the xc skiing now...thank you krista and charlotte for making the race interesting. now looking forward to the men's race in a couple of hours.
--
Added: just reviewed the start list again...looks like it will be the 1st race for poltoranin. i'd be modest to expect much from him in the skate. anothe r interesting detail is that some very strong skaters will start after sundby (hellner, manificat cologna etc) and thus may use his time as a target. i am waiting to see if bessmetyck is going to show the skating progress we've ssen in the tds... curious about calle too

 

[BullsFan22]

Re: Re:

As such I do not share your belief that Fourcade is weak right now, when he beats Sihpulin by 46 seconds (divide it by 2 and he would have recovered a penalty lap on him in a sprint). (snapped)

i agree completely. that was the key point of my earlier post. given the speeds we observed, fourcade would probably win had he been penalized by a lap rather than an automatic one minute...still, shipulin fully deserved the victory and i recon, he and his coaches were composing a winning plan based on the faster shooting and and a good enough leg speed...

to the xc skiing now...thank you krista and charlotte for making the race interesting. now looking forward to the men's race in a couple of hours.
--
Added: just reviewed the start list again...looks like it will be the 1st race for poltoranin. i'd be modest to expect much from him in the skate. anothe r interesting detail is that some very strong skaters will start after sundby (hellner, manificat cologna etc) and thus may use his time as a target. i am waiting to see if bessmetyck is going to show the skating progress we've ssen in the tds... curious about calle too

Good races for Falk and Ingemarsdotter. Ingemarsdotter is actually a good distance racer on her day. Tomorrow's relay should be good. Kalla is back to something like her best, or getting there, and Swedish women in general were good today, and it was great to see Parkmakoski make it on the podium in a individual skate race. She is a better classic skier. Tomorrow it will be a fight between Norway, Sweden and Finland with Germany (German women had a good day today) and USA as outsiders. The other teams are simply too weak or don't even have enough skiers to field a team.

 

[kingjr]

Sundby running together with Krogh, that bodes well. for him.

 

[Kokoso]

Re:

another clueless remark from the champion of the clueless who can't figure out that an automatic penalty of 1min a miss is much longer than a time penalty of running an extra loop for a miss or just a few seconds while using an extra round, like during relays...combining such a harsh penalty with the usual attributes of doing well provides for a better chance of beating a fourcade compared to the disciplines with less harsh penalties where he had proven to catch just about everyone after missing more than a runner up...

That's obvious python. You've misunderstood what I've written. Dou you disagree that to shoot fast and run fast is formula to beat Fourcade, no matter what race?

How the hell did you come to the (wrong) conclusion that I can't see 1 minute penalty is worse than running extra loop or so anyway? Not a rhetorical question.

Edit: maybe problem is that what seems so obvious to me doesn't seem that obvious to you hence your wrong way of explaining my words.

 

[Kokoso]

Olsson tragic.

Sundby phantastic last kms.

 

[python]

Re:

as most here do, i am going to ignore the stupid inputs and obvious uselessness...

congrats to harvey ! i was really surprised he won. another surprise was sedov. perhaps he himself did not expect to finally start kicking. wonder what leg he will be placed into tomorrow. probably 3d.

hellner, while obviously gaining form, is still a tad off. sundby/krogh team work paid off.... for sundby. cologna was almost there, but could probably benefit from a good group more. calle a disappointment, as was bess. richardsson was higher than i thought he can.

am looking to the relays tomorrow.

 

[Kokoso]

Re: Re:

as most here do, i am going to ignore the stupid inputs and obvious uselessness...

congrats to harvey ! i was really surprised he won. another surprise was sedov. perhaps he himself did not expect to finally start kicking. wonder what leg he will be placed into tomorrow. probably 3d.

hellner, while obviously gaining form, is still a tad off. sundby/krogh team work paid off.... for sundby. cologna was almost there, but could probably benefit from a good group more. calle a disappointment, as was bess. richardsson was higher than i thought he can.

am looking to the relays tomorrow.

Yep, I've got you python, so it's better not to comment on the topic, divert attention elsewhere and try to devaluate the other. Nice try! You don't have easy life with me, python, I feel sorry for you

 

[Kokoso]

I suspect Sundby wanted to try to make it look human today but overrated himself or underrated others or combination of both and couldn't make up for the artificial deficit even despite huge acceleration in the last km's.

Edit or he let yourself fool by Krogh's pace. Or combination of it all.

 

[python]

it's encouraging that most ignore the idiotic babble from a troll clogging the good thread...

appropriate for germany to win, appropriate for norway to podium. the russ w/o shipulin performed uneven. i was sure that malyshko got them off the podium, but babikov 'disagreed ' good race ! what was the temperature today ?

 

[BullsFan22]

It's not the biggest shock to see Alex winning this. He had a good TDS, an excellent team sprint in Toblach last week and he is still carrying this form. The only concern is that he is peaking too soon. The good thing is, he doesn't have to worry about peaking to simply make the team, like the Norwegians, Swedes and Russians do. He is by far the best skier in Canada. He can pick and choose what he wants to focus on and he'll race whatever he wants, unless he is sick or injured.

I think Ustiugov crashing last week and not getting any points really dealt a blow to his overall WC chances. Sundby didn't win, but 80 points and now over 200 points in the lead. It's going to be hard to overtake him. Next week's race suits him even more, 30km mass start classic on Falun's tough courses.

Great races from Stock, Musgrave, Sedov, Rueesch (a Swiss) and Perl (he's been MIA the last two seasons), and Yoshida.
Sedov and Turyshev were the two best Russians today. Both have trained with Marcus Kramer (Ustiugov's coach). Matveeva won the sprint and team sprint last week (with Belorukova.) Both of them train with Kramer. The guy's doing wonders for the Russians.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

it's encouraging that most ignore the idiotic babble from a troll clogging the good thread...

appropriate for germany to win, appropriate for norway to podium. the russ w/o shipulin performed uneven. i was sure that malyshko got them off the podium, but babikov 'disagreed ' good race ! what was the temperature today ?

I must admit I was very annoyed with Schempp's (Germany's) win the first 5 minutes after the race. It would have been awesome for the Norwegians to beat Germany's absolute A-team with a slightly handicapped B-team. But truthfully, we got a very nice relay again.

The commentators said it was 4 degrees celcius, wondering why Babikov was wearing all that clothing

 

[Singer01]

Another amazing womens race in biathlon, less than a minute separated the top 19, and i had no idea who was going to win until about 10 seconds before the end.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

And twice in two seasons (after Lesser in Ruhpolding last year) that a German has squeezed into the Mass Start at the last minute as #30 after withdrawals from among the top 25 qualified, hit all 20 targets and won completely unexpectedly.

 

[python]

..looking forward to the ulricehamn team relays. unfortunately, i wont be able to watch them live (probably my 1st wc race in several seasons).

the weather per the latest fis information is soft, no wind, just around zero C and almost 100% humidity. so, it's probably again a puzzle for some service folks. at least one of them, a norge, wont have to worry about his regular duties b/c - again - he will be running for the norway 2 team. not sure if it's the same tech who will replace dan stock complaining of sore throat after yesterday...

as i said few days back, i expect a surprise in the men's relay with sweden represented by its silver team from di fiemme and falun...norway 1 as always is strong, but not the strongest by far...

sundby will run the 2nd classic leg against olsson, niskanen, bessmertych and harvey. quite frankly i doubt he'll be able drop this very fine bunch but anything is possible. calle against krogh should be nail biting, but i did not see from calle yesterday what i expected. so, he needs hellner to bring him some gap time. marcus needs to deliver !!!!

in the ladies the finns and the swedes will give the norwegians a stiff fight, but i dont see the even strength/depth in them like in norway 1.

 

[meat puppet]

Re:

Another amazing womens race in biathlon, less than a minute separated the top 19, and i had no idea who was going to win until about 10 seconds before the end.

Word. That was most entertaining. Ideally mäkäräinen would have been say 5sec closer after the last shoot than she was. Then she might have challenged the top 3.

Today boe vs fillon maillet was also a fine showing. Thanks for not dominating, fourcade.

 

[BullsFan22]

Missed the women's relay. I suppose it's not a surprise to see the Norwegians winning this. Surprised to see Finland miss out on the podium. Just not the best day for the Finns and/or the other teams in front of them were better today?

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Great race. Johannes appears to be back in top shape (or atleast close to it) after a terrible Individual 20k. I would fear him in the sprint in Hochfilzen, if I was Fourcade.
Emil looks like a very solid medal bet in Hochfilzen as well. He's been in the top 7 for the last 9 races that he's been part of.