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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Apr 22, 2012
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Re:

python said:
yep, not sure where you got the klaebo 'big advantage'. he just lost to bolshunov narrowly in a monster double polling. klaebo just received the 1st direct humiliation from his super rival.
Advantage - in the qualification obviously, Singer01 wrote at 10:30. It's pretty clear, if you use brain a little bit.

What humiliation are you talking about? This is sport.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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someone clearly needs to use both the brain a little bit and the context... a post right before the final - and not waiting some short time to watch the final - without a reference to a particular heat was clearly strange. but i dont expect you to understand this. thanks for pointing to the sport. :lol:
 
Sep 25, 2009
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Singer01 said:
Bavarianrider said:
Haha, Klaebo making a total fool of himself. :lol: :lol:
Bolshunov is the real deal. World class from 1,5km to 50km. Way better overall skier than Klaebo.
Wanting something to be so doesn't make it so. It's his 3rd win. Calm down a bit?
this was a new season's 1st world cup race. we are yet to see if the old or new rankings at the top will be set.

as you correctly pointed out, klaebo had a clear margin today early on. as the heats started, it virtually disappeared when he faced bolshunov in person. let's recall that his classic sprint is stronger than his skating sprint. that is, klaebo was in his element today and he was very strong. plus he had the vintage steep hill at the end where he was superior - again - to every one. where the margin btwn him and bolshunov shrunk or disappeared, based on today only, was the finishing speed. bolshunov had clearly made a lot of progress in his double poling. enough to use it to shrink the distance after klaebo ran away at least twice on that hill. i frankly think that klaebo would have prevailed today if he did not start looking around. but i equally think, he'd lose to bolshunov if the finish was 10 meters further...he was clearly caught from behind in the final.

the rest of the season will show how he and bolshu compare in distance races. last year the advantage was clearly in the russian favour. i think bavaria had that in mind.
 
I don't dispute that Klaebo would have beaten Bolshinov without that Blunder. It's also likely that Bolshunov will never beat him in a classic sprint in Ruka. However, i am very sure that Bulshunov will totally dominate him in distance races. In fact, he was already better than Klaebo in distance races last year.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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I have to agree with Python and Bavarianrider, but one more thing: My god, the Italians are wearing some of the worst suits that I can remember, they just look horrible.
 
Singer01 said:
Bavarianrider said:
Haha, Klaebo making a total fool of himself. :lol: :lol:
Bolshunov is the real deal. World class from 1,5km to 50km. Way better overall skier than Klaebo.
Wanting something to be so doesn't make it so. It's his 3rd win. Calm down a bit?
In case you haven't noticed, this thread acts as a channel for some people to vent their frustrations with the Norwegian skiers. The reaction, when a (in particular a Norwegian) athlete of Klæbo's status loses because of his own cockiness, is always going to produce comments with shades of schadenfreude.

It's just the way it is.
 
Well, also Klæbo has an element of that nascent Northug-like media-friendly arrogance developing, so his being cut down to size by an error is greeted with a bit more glee than it would be for some of the other Norwegians too - for the longest time on this board everybody was sick of Norway's dominance in the women's competitions while simultaneously cheering for Heidi Weng to break her World Cup duck and things like her disastrous error in Ruka or Jarl Magnus Riiber's similar error (adding a lap rather than subtracting one) in Lahti were greeted with sympathy rather than derision.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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i was impressed with halfvarsson and iversen. both are good candidate for a minitour podium next week...niskanen was a little disappointing. certainly expected bolshu to win but did not expect him to shove klaebo so far down.

johaug's margin over a runner up kalla was smaller than i expected. ebba was my long predicted jewel and she's blossoming.
 
Apr 22, 2012
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Cance > TheRest said:
Singer01 said:
Bavarianrider said:
Haha, Klaebo making a total fool of himself. :lol: :lol:
Bolshunov is the real deal. World class from 1,5km to 50km. Way better overall skier than Klaebo.
Wanting something to be so doesn't make it so. It's his 3rd win. Calm down a bit?
this thread acts as a channel for some people to vent their frustrations with the Norwegian skiers.
Spot on. What we witness are some frustrated people commenting thus losing their common sense. Hence we read rubbish like "humiliation" or "making a total fool of himself" talking about simple thing xc race is. Of course to admit they have taken it step too far is hard for them, especially if you point that out; see what comment Python produced in response to me.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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if you cant use your brain to evaluate the norwegian reactions to what happened this weekend, try to read their media. some posters can not do either. hence some struggling with the elementary things, that produces nonsense comments. admitting one's rubbish is not easy. hence a deep-thought discovery about 'that's sport'
 
Merging the subjects of ski and cycling together: Norwegian xc skier Helene Marie Fossesholm - by many considered the greatest talent ever - wants to compete for Norway in junior world championship in both xc skiing and mountain bike. She could very well qualify for the national team in MTB. She also wants to compete in the senior ranks in the World Cup this season. She was 11th in last years national championships at the age of 16! But she will not be allowed by the Norwegian skiing federation to compete in the World Cup this year.
 
Re:

Norbea said:
Merging the subjects of ski and cycling together: Norwegian xc skier Helene Marie Fossesholm - by many considered the greatest talent ever - wants to compete for Norway in junior world championship in both xc skiing and mountain bike. She could very well qualify for the national team in MTB. She also wants to compete in the senior ranks in the World Cup this season. She was 11th in last years national championships at the age of 16! But she will not be allowed by the Norwegian skiing federation to compete in the World Cup this year.


Do you have quotes? Who said that? I am aware of her, saw her for the first time in the Beitostølen races ten days ago and she looked good. Physically not the most imposing, but good technique and steady. For a seventeen year old, the results she had were very good, but I am curious who those 'many' are and what they said.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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lillehammer quals...

ladies: johaug did not qualify, the swedish girls very strong(8 or 9 in finals) including kalla surprisingly 5th

men (still on): klaebo way ahead, very strong norge showing, bolshu is in 5th, iversen in 2nd, pelle 3d, calle in as was sundby

the finals in 1:15
 
Re: Re:

BullsFan22 said:
Norbea said:
Merging the subjects of ski and cycling together: Norwegian xc skier Helene Marie Fossesholm - by many considered the greatest talent ever - wants to compete for Norway in junior world championship in both xc skiing and mountain bike. She could very well qualify for the national team in MTB. She also wants to compete in the senior ranks in the World Cup this season. She was 11th in last years national championships at the age of 16! But she will not be allowed by the Norwegian skiing federation to compete in the World Cup this year.


Do you have quotes? Who said that? I am aware of her, saw her for the first time in the Beitostølen races ten days ago and she looked good. Physically not the most imposing, but good technique and steady. For a seventeen year old, the results she had were very good, but I am curious who those 'many' are and what they said.

https://www.nrk.no/buskerud/helene-...a_-_-ma-fa-bryne-seg-mot-dei-beste-1.14308076
 
Sep 25, 2009
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RattaKuningas said:
Last week Klaebo himself made a mistake, but today was just bad luck. Hopefully next sprint goes better.
agree, it was bad luck. moreover, having the quals in mind, he was very strong.

in a sprint, poles get broken all the time and iirc, klaebo had NONE of the accidents last year while several of his chief competitors did break poles. sooner or later the law of bad luck catches up. not all that complicated when one observed the reactions of the 99% of the 'pole-smashed'. normally, the unlucky folks reach the finish smiling. but klaebo was mad on air. .. the way klaebo behaved showed both he's a souer loser and (perhaps it's the same thing atm) needs to grow. his tantrums against calle were poor form. i got a kick when callle said 'i dont understand norwegian when one mumbles' :lol: at least that's what i read in the expressen.se and now cant find it.
 
Re: Re:

Norbea said:
BullsFan22 said:
Norbea said:
Merging the subjects of ski and cycling together: Norwegian xc skier Helene Marie Fossesholm - by many considered the greatest talent ever - wants to compete for Norway in junior world championship in both xc skiing and mountain bike. She could very well qualify for the national team in MTB. She also wants to compete in the senior ranks in the World Cup this season. She was 11th in last years national championships at the age of 16! But she will not be allowed by the Norwegian skiing federation to compete in the World Cup this year.


Do you have quotes? Who said that? I am aware of her, saw her for the first time in the Beitostølen races ten days ago and she looked good. Physically not the most imposing, but good technique and steady. For a seventeen year old, the results she had were very good, but I am curious who those 'many' are and what they said.


https://www.nrk.no/buskerud/helene-...a_-_-ma-fa-bryne-seg-mot-dei-beste-1.14308076


Thanks, but where do 'many' say that she is the greatest talent? They compare her to Bjørgen, saying how she's better technically than Bjørgen was at that age. They have quotes from Loefshus, Fredrik Aukland and Torgeir Bjørn. I don't see where they say she is the greatest ever talent.
 
Re: Re:

python said:
RattaKuningas said:
Last week Klaebo himself made a mistake, but today was just bad luck. Hopefully next sprint goes better.
agree, it was bad luck. moreover, having the quals in mind, he was very strong.

in a sprint, poles get broken all the time and iirc, klaebo had NONE of the accidents last year while several of his chief competitors did break poles. sooner or later the law of bad luck catches up. not all that complicated when one observed the reactions of the 99% of the 'pole-smashed'. normally, the unlucky folks reach the finish smiling. but klaebo was mad on air. .. the way klaebo behaved showed both he's a souer loser and (perhaps it's the same thing atm) needs to grow. his tantrums against calle were poor form. i got a kick when callle said 'i dont understand norwegian when one mumbles' :lol: at least that's what i read in the expressen.se and now cant find it.

I think that as the time passes Klaebo will react more calmly to situations like this. He is a favourite in all sprint races and things like that have not happened much to him as you pointed out so I can understand his frustration . He will probably get used to situations like this though because it is certianly not going to be last time something like this happens. I think that what happened last weekend plays a big part also in how he reacted.
 
Sep 25, 2009
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it used to be minutes, and now no less than 5 are within 60 seconds of the 'electric girl'...what happened ?

tomorrow, it is very likely that kalla and ebba will try to catch up as soon as possible. 10-15 seconds are very doable when one sees the back of a competitor. then, the chances of wining the mini tour for johoug are increasingly small. all/ a lot depends on how far from the start line is the 1st serious hill...actually, given the small gap last week in a classic and the fact that kalla lost many seconds in a fall, i view kalla's chance of winning as 60/40.