Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Bavarianrider]

Well hopefully they continue once Cologna and Olson are caught.
The Torwegians are beatable today, if the others continue to go hard.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

I wish the russians and other teams in the bunch would sit back andm force the norwegians to chase the breakaway.

 

[MrRoboto]

Yeah, really hope they keep it up. Sadly that fall by Cologna might kill this.

 

[zapata]

Olson is still going strong.

 

[Bavarianrider]

There's a real chance for Olson i think. Right now the bunch seems to be drafting a bit.
If he gets an adavantage of about 50 seconds thing will get really interesting

 

[zapata]

Olson lost a little bit again. Northug is close to cracking, looks like.

 

[maltiv]

Olson looks tired now, but the peloton is riding very slowly at the moment.

Time for Poltaranin to go for it soon?

 

[Bavarianrider]

Well i don't understand the field. If they went hard they would have dropped Northug. If they wait till the last 10km he might recover.

 

[zapata]

Rønning looking good. Olson maybe less than thirty seconds lead now. Edit 34 seconds now.

 

[zapata]

Boy! Phenomenal by Olson. But Cologna only 12 seconds back in the end, shame about his fall.

 

[Walkman]

Boy! Phenomenal by Olson. But Cologna only 12 seconds back in the end, shame about his fall.

Olsson did 35-40 km alone. He was clearly superior today.

 

[zapata]

I think cologna would have won if not for the fall, but obviously we'll never know.

 

[blueskies]

Fantastic performance by Olsson today. Truly deserved.

Northug had nothing extra to give today, and he shows as during tour de ski that his recovery is not his greatest strength.

Could Cologna have followed Olsson without the fall? Could he have caught Olsson if he had risked more in the end? It's not obvious to me that the answer is no..

The second biggest winner today is the competition format. I obviously prefer the individual start, but the mass start can be entertaining as well..

 

[jsem94]

YES!!!!!!!!!! Was so happy for Olsson, fantastic!

Can't help but to ponder about what could have happened had Cologna not fallen, but you've got to stand on your skis too - just as much as a downhill is in cycling.

Northug had a bad day today, but he's had a good championship nonetheless.

Aukland brothers going strong in Vasaloppet was not a surprise either, but out of all the Xtra Personell skiers I thought Simen would have the best chance of winning. I also thought Brink would take the sprint, but he had nothing the the tank at the end - epic race.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Superb performance by Olson. Congratulation! They simply couldn't chase him down.

Cologna would have though if not for the fall.
It Just showed what a classy human being Cologna is. He did not try to chase back Olson.
Great that the two men who took risks were rewarded with gold and silver.
Although he won bronze i am disapointed with Poltoranin. He had a totally invisible race today. Did nothing to go for gold.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Claudia Künzel Nystadt announced her comeback today.
She wants to compete in Sotchi.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Epic performance by Olsson today. Great, great race and nice to see a mass start lead to a real race! The Norwegian crowd at Holmenkollen may have been pretty silenced by Norway's lack of medals, but there was an enormous round of applause for Olsson's finishing, some serious respect there.

 

[dirkprovin]

Epic performance by Olsson today. Great, great race and nice to see a mass start lead to a real race! The Norwegian crowd at Holmenkollen may have been pretty silenced by Norway's lack of medals, but there was an enormous round of applause for Olsson's finishing, some serious respect there.

Jeez, it must have been an amazing optical illusion but it was biathlon I thought I was watching from Hollmenkollen, not XC ?? Although there did seem to be plenty of em down at Val de Fiemme.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jeez, it must have been an amazing optical illusion but it was biathlon I thought I was watching from Hollmenkollen, not XC ?? Although there did seem to be plenty of em down at Val de Fiemme.

I was in the crowd at Holmenkollen. They were showing it on the big screen between the women's and men's races.

 

[dirkprovin]

Fair enough. Have been there myself and you are right; they ARE pretty fair and respectful of a top class performance ... wherever they come from

 

[meat puppet]

amazing (g)race.

olsson played it to his strengths, clearly. he is one of the best at sub-threshold endurance efforts, not necessarily so in shorter races ridden above the threshold. remember vancouver skiathlon when he wa th breakaway man of the swedes.

seemed to me the swedes have the best grasp of cycling like tactics. nicely done slowing down the bunch at critical moments. really puzzling to watch the bunch though. sure, you dont wanna fire too early (wtf bauer...?), but push never really came to shove yesterday. If I was there, I'd attack only if the gap starts dropping without the bunch speeding up - in other words, when olsson gets tired.

IMO they would have chased earlier had cologna not fallen. would olsson and cologna have shared work? i dont know, honestly. but if they came together to the last kms, of course cologna could have beaten him.

Im glad the race was on and olsson got rewarded. the conditions played into his hand, im sure.

 

[ToreBear]

Johan Olsson Rulez!

That race was incredible! I found my self thinking a gold for him would be the best outcome, while a Norwegian victory would have been my second preffered option.

Finally someone has showed how a mass start race can play out over 50k with enough strength, determination, tactics and excellent skiing technique.

This will hopefully give others the idea that they too can do it, and finally unleash the potential of the 50k mass start.

It took the Swedish team and Johan Olsson to show that even with these snow conditions, the skier makes the race and not vice versa.

As for the race itself. Had Cologna not fallen I think both would have been brought back in. The field slowed down after he was caught. I'm thinking they figured catching Johan could wait for later, but when that time came, they could not cooperate well enough to finally do it.

Congratulations Sweden! A well deserved victory!

 

[ToreBear]

Claudia Künzel Nystadt announced her comeback today.
She wants to compete in Sotchi.

Article in Norwegian:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2013/03/04/sport/vm_i_val_di_fiemme/ski-vm_2013/langrenn/claudia_nystad/26045010/

It will be interesting to see how good she is. The competion has improved a lot since she retired, so what was good before is not good enough now.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Article in Norwegian:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2013/03/04/sport/vm_i_val_di_fiemme/ski-vm_2013/langrenn/claudia_nystad/26045010/

It will be interesting to see how good she is. The competion has improved a lot since she retired, so what was good before is not good enough now.

Hmm i don't now.
After the Norwegians and Kovalchik, the quality of the field isn't all that high.
So i could see her being a top 10 athlete again.

 

[python]

unfortunately i was only able to watch about 40km of the total 50km yesterday.

leaving the telle, i told myself, olsson can't sustain the 50 second gap anyway. i thought to myself, at least i personally never saw a classic 50 km where anyone could sustain a solo effort for that long. added to the projection, was the realization that the tracks were supposed to be soggy and wet as they always are in +10C and for anyone in front compacting the melting snow before the pack stomped on it, would surely cost too much.

after the race, reto burgermesister also marveled that he never saw anything like that.

but olsson did despite all odds. how was it possible ?

one obvious reason is that his overall fitness was clearly timed to peak when it did. he was invisible until davos and val di fiemme...

the second reason, seems the confusion of the chasers. at no time, he was taken seriously. even by the teams that had the numbers and the horse power (the norwegians and the russians) never organized a determined chase.

i sure was not surprised by the waiting tactic from the norwegians always transparent when northug is there, but the russians were completely inapt tactically as they often are. ok, cologna and poltoranin would have to chase solo due to lack of teammates, but the russians had a powerful quartet (2 of whom at least on paper, vyleg and japaroff) are among the best classic specialists who could launch their team leader legkov into the gap. in stead, they continued to work separately.

at the end, the brave, smart and strong prevailed over brute strength (legkov) and fatigue (northug).