Some interesting startlists for the relay given that there's no Worlds to build for, lots of experimental selections.
Norway going for youth (Christiansen/L'Abée-Lund/Johannes Bø/Tarjei Bø), but sticking to the typical "strongest athletes on legs 2 and 4" formula; Russia try out Loginov (Shipulin/Loginov/Malyshko/Ustyugov) while hiding the out-of-form Shipulin on leg 1 and swapping Ustyugov and Malyshko over. Germany give Benedikt Doll a go - on the anchor leg! Lesser, who has anchored for much of the season despite his inexperience, moves to leg 1 (Lesser/Birnbacher/Peiffer/Doll). Vit Janov is rewarded for his good showings by a spot in place of Vitek in the strong Czech team (Šlesingr/Soukup/Janov/Moravec), while other teams showcase their talent in different forms; Slovenia move Fak to leg 2 with Bauer anchoring, Ukraine start off with Semenov and Deryzemlya but will be hard pushed to keep that momentum up later on; Italy move Hofer to leg 1 (!!!) and give Pietro Dutto a runout on leg 3 instead of Martinelli or Markus Windisch, while Latvia for some reason feel they're strong enough to justify moving the in-form Andrejs Rastorgujevs to anchor, while by giving both Ferry and Lindström the day off the Swedish team looks very weak. The favourites, you would then wager, would have to be France, who are not interested in giving anybody a go, sticking with the tried and trusted formula that has served them well for the last season (Simon Fourcade/Beatrix/Bœuf/Martin Fourcade), while similarly Austria (Eder/Mesotitsch/Eberhard/Landertinger) are more or less at full strength given that Sumann hasn't made the trip and Friedrich Pinter has had a disappointing couple of days with the rifle in Sochi.
EDIT: OK I just saw that Martin Fourcade tweeted that he woke up with back problems and has pulled out of the relay as a precaution. Simon Desthieux likely to replace him, not sure if they'll rejig the order.
EDIT EDIT: No rejig of the order, France going with Simon Fourcade/Beatrix/Bœuf/Desthieux. Also Landertinger has pulled out late and been replaced by Pinter.
Among the women, similar noticeable experimentation and/or resting of top names. The Norwegians (Fenne/Eckhoff/Flatland/Berger) look almost full strength given Solemdal's illness, and Tiril Eckhoff has been on very good form since the Worlds; Ukraine rest Pidhrushna but do not reshuffle the lineup, which means that Mariya Panfilova comes into the team as the anchor (Dzhyma/Vita Semerenko/Valj Semerenko/Panfilova). Russia replace the ailing Shumilova with Ekaterina Iourieva (probably winning the internal competition for the spot with some solid results in Oslo and here), and swap Vilukhina back to 2 where she's happiest (Glazyrina/Vilukhina/Iourieva/Zaitseva). Germany have gone really experimental. Henkel, who has anchored all season, moves to leg 1 of all places, while Miri Gössner moves from leg 2 to leg 3, which is normally the leg of slower skiers! The normally crucial legs 2 and 4 will be handled by a combination of inexperience and youth (Henkel/Sachenbacher-Stehle/Gößner/Dahlmeier). Will be interesting to see how Dahlmeier copes with the anchor leg, but she has taken the scene by storm so far (also interesting how Podchufarova, who outskied her in Obertilliach, hasn't had the same effect despite shooting well. Loginov has been the real standout of the young competitors stepping up late-season, while Bø is obviously taking a little while to adjust, which is fair enough, and after his huge and horrible crash yesterday it is unfair to put any judgment on Tsvetkov). France tried to go with no changes in the men's race, and in the women's the only change is that Brunet hasn't gone to Russia, so Marine Bolliet gets a go in her place (Bescond/Boilley/Bolliet/Dorin-Habert). This (Bolliet for Brunet) happened in Ruhpolding as well, and is the only change that the French relay team have made in more than two years, other than tinkering with the order. Italy (Ponza/Gontier/Runggaldier/Oberhofer) have no Wierer (the fastest shot on the circuit), so Ponza leads off with Runggaldier on leg 3. She struggled for ski speed earlier in the season on her leg, so I hope for her sake she doesn't find herself being chased by Gössner, Kuzmina and/or Semerenko. After many disasters with the rifle this year Nastassia Dubarezava has been jettisoned by Belarus, with Pisareva taking her place in the otherwise stable team (Skardino/Kalin'chik/Pisareva/Domracheva) while the Polish team move the in-form Hojnisz to anchor and take the out-of-form Nowakowska to leg 3 (Pałka/Gwizdoń/Nowakowska-Ziemniak/Hojnisz) - they should be a major threat, assuming Pałka's lack of ski speed yesterday was an outlier considering how strong she has been in the second half of the season. If she's not ill or anything, I can't really see why she's on leg 1 anymore, when she would be better served anchoring. Then we have the teams who have half a top level team. The Czechs will look to stay in this as long as possible with Vítková and Soukalová on legs 1 and 2, giving Landová and Tomešová enough chance to stay in it. Slovakia lead off with Gereková as usual but surprisingly move Kuzmina to leg 3, with Poliaková on leg 2 as a gamble and Chrapanová anchoring (no Fialková?). The other team likely to be up there at first is Finland, with Mari Laukkanen and Kaisa Mäkäräinen on legs 1 and 2 before depth starts to hurt them.
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