Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[meat puppet]

so, mäkäräinen will do 10k skate in the xc world champs. kinda interested in seeing her real measure vs xc specialists on tougher courses. her skiing form appeared to be more than a bit off during the biathlon worlds. no idea why and only care for academic reasons, really, but after the xc nats gold medal I thought she was gonna pull out a monstrous form. anyway, im kinda glad that the great white hope didnt score this time.

domracheva's skiing is such eye candy, and so it was today. apparently she also shoots well when in flow-mode skiing. (+ usual caveats. just admiring her technical finesse here)

 

[jsem94]

Johan Olsson. Yeah. Probably not going to win the worlds just because he won this race - but should bring in a medal in the worlds at least. He's in stellar form. Poltoranin today was a disappointment though. Bjørgen's sudden exit was a bit surprising, but Johaug still did bring in the win for Norway - unsurprisingly. Justyna is going to be difficult to beat in classic though, she's even so strong that she can podium skate now with crap technique.

Both Dasha and Bø deserved their golds... Dasha has had a rough World Champs, and Bø a rough season - and nice to see a break in the dominance.. lol.

 

[roundabout]

so, mäkäräinen will do 10k skate in the xc world champs. kinda interested in seeing her real measure vs xc specialists on tougher courses. her skiing form appeared to be more than a bit off during the biathlon worlds. no idea why and only care for academic reasons, really, but after the xc nats gold medal I thought she was gonna pull out a monstrous form. anyway, im kinda glad that the great white hope didnt score this time.

domracheva's skiing is such eye candy, and so it was today. apparently she also shoots well when in flow-mode skiing. (+ usual caveats. just admiring her technical finesse here)

Well, Selina Gasparin raced in Davos against the specialists today and finished 21st and she wasn't in particularly impressive skiing form in Nove Mesto.

Poltoranin to me is primarily a classic specialist. And he seems to be a bit big for such a course like Davos anyway.

 

[dirkprovin]

Poltaranin has traditionally been a classic specialist but his skating form (and results) have been on a distinct upwards curve this season rather like Johnsrud Sundby the previous season.

Back to baithlon. Smart tactics from Boe to go early and go hard and it paid off. Was nice also to see Shipulin pick up another medal as he has had a very consistent Championship and has possibly been the next cab on the rank behind the Big Two. Frankly he and the incredibly unlucky Zaitseva are the only Russian team members who merit a plane ticket home ..... the rest should be made to walk !!

Damned right about the aesthetics of Dasha on skis. One can only hope SWE biathlon does poach Kalla cos watching those two racing each other would be something to behold

 

[python]

follow the championship with me

the wordic world championship starts tomorrow. since this is my favourite sporting event, i follow it very closely.

below are some of the xc resources i bookmarked and decided to share with any likely minded fans.

the wc organization and the web support are truly fantastic !

Val di fiemme main xc skiing page (also available in german and italian)
http://www.fiemme2013.com/en/crosscountry/detail.php?box=news&uuid=4D87473254AB47D994CD9EA96A9391C2

Races schedule and program
http://storage.fiemme2013.com/x0000...Elements/A2AFD7D9768F4097ADD465F4DE99B8CD.pdf

Mobile apps (iphone and android)
http://www.fiemme2013.com/en/apps.php

other resources I follow (for miscellaneous details and analysis)

swedish
http://www.langd.se/

german
http://www.xc-ski.de/224--aktuelles.html

norwegian
http://www.langrenn.com/

english
http://fasterskier.com/

with a bit of google help

french
http://www.ski-nordique.net/

russian
http://www.skisport.ru/

finnish
http://www.hevoskuuri.fi/

(i think that most finnish fans will also understand swedish http://www.langd.se/)

 

[Bavarianrider]

I've to admit as the Nordic ski championchips are about to start i start getting sad. I miss the days so much when cross country skiing was sill what cross country skiing is supoosed to be.
I am simply sick of modern cross country skiing borefests with a 1 km sprint at the end of every race
I wish this was 1993 not 2013

 

[Libertine Seguros]

At least the sprints are on a weekday so at the weekends when I have more time to watch, I get to watch REAL events.

 

[Bavarianrider]

At least the sprints are on a weekday so at the weekends when I have more time to watch, I get to watch REAL events.

The question is , will the other races really be events?
Ok, the women's races will.
But the men's? Not so sure about that!

 

[ToreBear]

The Biathlon was a bit more fun than I expected. It took time to land after all that gold!

I figured out the Norwegian secret. It was NM. The contest was held in Nove Mesto Na Morave which became NM NM for short. In Norway NM is short for Norges Mesterskap(Norwegian championships). And for Norwegians it's a competition with a lot of tradition.

The poor athletes became confused and forgot to let the foreigners win. Sorry.

The NRK studio evening broadcast had set up a nice glass montage which they would fill with either Bronze, Silver or Gold balls for all the Championships this february(alpine, Biathlon, Speed skating and Nordic)in their respective places. The glass tube only held room for 8 gold medals, so they had to make an adjustment. Now it looks like a sign for giving the finger.


Anyway now my favorite competition starts. I have really no idea what to expect from the races since the courses are mostly new.

I would not expect as much success as we had in Holmenkollen in XC.

On the Womens side, we are likely to dominate, but on the mens side, I don't expect another Northug show.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The question is , will the other races really be events?
Ok, the women's races will.
But the men's? Not so sure about that!

I didn't mean real events as in exciting spectacles. I meant real events as in races that belong at a World Championships.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I didn't mean real events as in exciting spectacles. I meant real events as in races that belong at a World Championships.

In my humble opinion a 50km mass start doesn't belong there
I am ok with sprint as long as it is a tough parcours of 1,5m at leat. Not some pancake flat 2 minutes crap.
The team sprint seems like a very very artificial discipline. On atough parcours like Sotchi it can be ok, though.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

As long as they continue to race with all the tactical sense of Andy Schleck on morphine, then no, a 50km mass start doesn't belong there either, notwithstanding the insulting justification for it. But at least it's a genuine event. The sprint is something that ought to be saved for a once-or-twice-a-season carnival like the Veltins-Arena biathlon or the München alphine skiing, rather than polluting our calendar and causing distances to become ever more truncated.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

I read the tracks are "custom made for Johaug" so the men's mass starts might not be a snoozefest for once, if the course is brutal.

M.Fourcade will not participate after all. He says he's worried it might cost him the overall WC, but I suspect he's just scared of getting his behind handed to him.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

More that it's harder for him to do logistically. It's hard enough for Mäkäräinen and Gößner, they're having to do the relay, then fly to Oslo the same night to compete in the sprint in Holmenkollen the next day. The men's relay in VDF is a day later, and the men's sprint in Oslo is a day earlier, so if he did the 15k but not the relay it might be ok, but if they wanted him for the relay he'd be flying back and forth.

Then again, you can write off your 2 worst results in the World Cup, so as long as he had faith in his own level at Sochi and Khanty he could skip the sprint (and by proxy the pursuit) at Holmenkollen and return for the Mass Start; however he has been at his weakest this season at altitude (worst skiing performances at Pokljuka - 1350m - and Antholz - 1600m), something he'll need to work on for Sochi.

I think it was a nice pipe dream but for the time being the time's not right for him yet. Also, from his XC performance earlier this season we found that for 10km he was among the very fastest, but that last 5km he completely and utterly collapsed, tumbling down the order, so maybe he'll take something from that experience and try again another time, probably post-Sochi.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I read the tracks are "custom made for Johaug" so the men's mass starts might not be a snoozefest for once, if the course is brutal.

M.Fourcade will not participate after all. He says he's worried it might cost him the overall WC, but I suspect he's just scared of getting his behind handed to him.

Let's wait. They said that the 50km loop in Holmenkollen 2011 was the hardest ever, yet it was the worst borefest ever.
The problem is, even if the track is hard, still nothing will happen for the first 45km. If it's a hard track they'll go from 45km onwards, if it is an easy one from 49kms.

 

[maltiv]

Let's wait. They said that the 50km loop in Holmenkollen 2011 was the hardest ever, yet it was the worst borefest ever.
The problem is, even if the track is hard, still nothing will happen for the first 45km. If it's a hard track they'll go from 45km onwards, if it is an easy one from 49kms.

Well, everything is caused by no one wanting to race. The parcours were more than hard enough to split things up.

If for example the Russians worked as a team they could sacrifice 2-3 guys on the front and it'd be absolute carnage. Instead, everyone are riding for themselves, thus mostly saving themselves for the sprint while going as slow as possible...

 

[python]

the link to the man's classic sprint course
http://www.fiemme2013.com/mappe/21-02 Sprint Men 1,5 Km.pdf

in my estimation the course is perfect for northug - the last climb is 150 m long and not steep enough (16%) to drop him decisively. it is then followed by a long 250 m descent into the stadium where (even if dropped on the hill) northug will surely take his favourite cover position for a final vintage sprint.

will he win ? He himself said unlikely but he's also known for being sly.

My bet is on him or poltoranin or kriukov since neither colongna nor hellner will contest. hard to predict who of the three will take what medal.

personally, i'd like jönsson to win but do not see him beating the three tomorrow and at best getting inot the top 5 with pellegrino.

 

[jsem94]

Definitely perfect for Northug. I'm crossing my fingers for Jönsson. But if it doesn't happen this year, he better have something in store for Sochi, he is after all arguably one of the best, if not the best, pure sprinters ever and deserves a gold soon enough.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I've to pay respect to the "exots" in the qaulifying race.
Even those who finished last clocked some very solid times. Nothing to be a shame of!

 

[Bavarianrider]

And why the hell do the ladies only 1,2km?
I thought they said ladies would do the same tracks from kow on?
Well seems we have to wait till Sotchi to see some serious cross country skiing again.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

And why the hell do the ladies only 1,2km?

To get the crap over and done with and onto some real skiing as soon as possible.

 

[Bavarianrider]

The women's 30km track is a joke, too. 5km loops what a crap.
Should be 7,5km at least.
Men's 50km loops should be 10km at least.
Short loops only cause the effect that absolutly nothing happens before the last few kilomteres.
They always start attacking only on the last loop. hence, the shorter the loops, the more boring the race.
Plus from an historic point of view those short loops simply are not waht croos country skking was supposed to be like.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Wow, Norway looked pretty wack in the sprint prologues.
Possibly they won't win a medal at all

 

[ToreBear]

Wow, Norway looked pretty wack in the sprint prologues.
Possibly they won't win a medal at all

They looked very good to me. But as it looks Kiriukov is the favorite with his double polling ability. The question is if he has enough energy left in the final.

 

[python]

Wow, Norway looked pretty wack in the sprint prologues.
Possibly they won't win a medal at all

perhaps it's few hours too early to tell...marit bjørgen certainly did not look at her best. as for northug, i thought he placed as expected in a short time trial and is still very much a contender. finnish girls were impressive as were russian men. emil looked good too.

a slight surprise was randall's lack of speed but she's not a classic lover...