Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BullsFan22]

Way too early to say what the season will bring, but one thing is for sure, so nice to have real winter conditions, though it couldn’t have felt too nice for the athletes in -15, -16 with humidity.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Wow, Karlsson beats Johaug and a shocking performance by Henning. Norway really is not at their best in these types of real winter conditions.

Hennig's style looked really smooth, one hell of a performance by her. She was incredible during the 2nd half of the race.
When it gets close to -20 the snow gets "dull" and slower, I mainly know this kind of conditions from Alpine Skiing. Not as easy to prepare for than one might think, I guess Norway used too much wax.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Hennig's style looked really smooth, one hell of a performance by her. She was incredible during the 2nd half of the race.
When it gets close to -20 the snow gets "dull" and slower, I mainly know this kind of conditions from Alpine Skiing. Not as easy to prepare for than one might think, I guess Norway used too much wax.

Norway is somehoe never at their best in these conditions. The thing is, today, the humidity was still relatively high. In Bejing it should be as cold as today but much dryer, which makes the slow a lot slower. Those conditions will be really hard.

 

[BigCoward]

Laegried can shoot like nobodies business can't he.
Big surprise that T Boe had a better time than JTB despite both missing twice.

 

[BullsFan22]

Two weeks ago in Muonio Nepryaeva beat Hennig by 18.8 seconds in a 10km classic race. Today Hennig beat Nepryaeva by 50 seconds. A lot of things in play there, but it’s still a significant turnaround. Especially as Hennig isn’t known as someone who starts the season that well.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Riiber really is absurd. How much do nordic combined athletes make compared to the biathletes/XC skiers?

The better comparison should be to ski jumpers - and the answer would be 'quite a bit less'.

You'll seldom find a NoCo athlete come across from XC, most of them will come from converted ski jumpers, or younger athletes who didn't specialise in one of the disciplines - and if they are good enough at the one specialism and able to do so, they will often gravitate toward that specialism anyway as they're bigger sports, like Evgeny Klimov. Ski jumping is such a niche and specialised skill that it really isn't something you can pick up later in life and expect to be competitive, plus of course the risk of injury factor and the wider potential for success due to varying shooting conditions and considerations makes biathlon a much easier sell to an XC skier looking to convert.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Hennig's style looked really smooth, one hell of a performance by her. She was incredible during the 2nd half of the race.
When it gets close to -20 the snow gets "dull" and slower, I mainly know this kind of conditions from Alpine Skiing. Not as easy to prepare for than one might think, I guess Norway used too much wax.

The snow indeed becomes much rougher as the temperature gets lower. I remember that when I was in driving school my instructor said that when the temperature drops to -25 C the snow becomes as abrasive as the sand. I don't know if it's scientifically accurate, but that's what I was told. I haven't tried skiing in -25 C or below, but at around -20 the snow indeed becomes really coarse and a layer of loose snow on top of prepared smooth track has a similar effect to that of a patch of sand on icy street.

From my own low level hobby skier experience the main difference between skiing in -5 and -15 degree temperature comes from the declining oxygen intake ability - even on sea level altitudes. Maybe its not as much of an issue for super fit professional athletes and the ski prep does in fact plays the main part even in seemingly stable "real winter" conditions.

 

[KZD]

The Norwegian female cross-country team is looking so vulnerable these days, glad that Karlsson won and Henning almost as fast as Johaug is something I never thought that I would see.

In the biathlon perfect race from Davidova with Hauser seemingly keeping her last season's shape which might give her a place in the fight for the World cup. In the men's side, Laegreid keeps showing that he is perfect for the individual race and good ski times by the French overall

 

[OJRvE]

Sweden even wants the 100m sprint as a new disciplnie in the World Cup and the big Events, lol.

I am a Swede and thats not true. Where have you read that?

 

[OJRvE]

Two weeks ago in Muonio Nepryaeva beat Hennig by 18.8 seconds in a 10km classic race. Today Hennig beat Nepryaeva by 50 seconds. A lot of things in play there, but it’s still a significant turnaround. Especially as Hennig isn’t known as someone who starts the season that well.

Neprajeva started the race fast but fell in the nasty downhill following the 3.1 checkpoint. They really need to do something with it because racers can get seriously injured. Noah Hoffman broke a leg some years ago and was never the same after. Yesterday Hakola had an accident and there is a risk he will miss the olympics.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I am a Swede and thats not true. Where have you read that?

It was reported on Eurosport yesterday.

 

[meat puppet]

If Niskanen and his coach have been telling the truth about his training, his situation looks excellent. According to them, he has done base and little intensity, so should be nowhere close to peak performance. Last season they tried incorporating high intensity throughout the summer, a la the Norwegian strategy, which resulted in being too close to peak form too early and unstable performances thereafter. Also he has said that skate has been de-emphasised again, as he is all in for the 15k classic olympic race. So I guess we'll get some info how he does on the worse technique today.

Somehow I expect Bolshunov to master his olympic peak the best, provided of course that he dodges the WvA syndrome, ie getting carried away with feeling unbeatable and trying to win every relatively meaningless race during the run up. TDS might become Bolshu's ToB.

Refreshing to see Johaug lose. But if I remember correctly, Ruka has not been the best track for her. And while I hope Karlsson just skis away, I fear that somehow Johaug cannibalises her today.

And ditto about Kläbo.

EDIT: Apparently Niskanen and many norwegians will DNS. Understandable, given the infection risk, but nonetheless part of me is very disappointed about their lack of sportsmanship. This is supposed to be a winter sport after all. I would never skip a skiing session just because of -17 centigrade temps.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Sorry but what an absolute whack assove by Niskaanen and the Norwegians. Pathetic. Disgraceful. I Wish them all the worst for the Future.

 

[BullsFan22]

What a mess this race has become.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yep, this will really help the dwindling audience for the sport...

 

[BigCoward]

What happened? I turned on after the start.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Seriously I Hope all the other nations boykott Lillehammer next. At some point they simply have put an end to the Norwegians and their ***. I dont have even words for the Finns.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What happened? I turned on after the start.

All the Norwegians and Finns withdrew because the conditions are too cold. FIS delayed the races to reach a point where they're above the minimum temperature, but some parts of the course are absolutely skirting the limit, so the Norwegians pulled out en masse.

Edit: not all the Finns, but Niskanen is out, the ones further down the startlist are competing, probably because they are more contingent on results for selection than Iivo is.

 

[craigmalone]

Bit surprised all of the Norwegians pulled out. I'd get Valnes and even Klaebo of the front group, and Krueger had no real reason to race with how far he was down but surprised the others opted out, and Niskanen aswell.

 

[BullsFan22]

FIS just isn’t firm or direct with many things. This is just one example of it. If you see the temperatures aren’t warming enough, you can’t just say well it’ll be -17 or -18 at that time and whatever happens, happens. At the same time strange that Niskanen didn’t start. He did a pre race interview with FIS and everything pointed to him starting.

The Norwegians are the Norwegians, they’ll do as they please, and there isn’t much FIS can do about it. That said, the fact that FIS didn’t budge last year at this time and went ahead with the races surprised me. At the same time, when the temps are that close to being illegal for racing, I can’t blame them too much.

 

[Bavarianrider]

FIS just isn’t firm or direct with many things. This is just one example of it. If you see the temperatures aren’t warming enough, you can’t just say well it’ll be -17 or -18 at that time and whatever happens, happens. At the same time strange that Niskanen didn’t start. He did a pre race interview with FIS and everything pointed to him starting.

The Norwegians are the Norwegians, they’ll do as they please, and there isn’t much FIS can do about it. That said, the fact that FIS didn’t budge last year at this time and went ahead with the races surprised me. At the same time, when the temps are that close to being illegal for racing, I can’t blame them too much.

Norwegians know that they are not at their best in these conditions, hence they want to force the race being cancelled. It is always the same with them. They Always try to Bend and force things their way. If you need a picture for "unsportsmanship behavior" in a dictionnary, take a photo of the Norwegians skiers. Can't go wrong with that.

 

[BullsFan22]

Norwegians know that they are not at their best in these conditions, hence they want to force the race being cancelled. It is always the same with them. They Always try to Bend and force things their way. If you need a picture for "unsportsmanship behavior" in a dictionnary, take a photo of the Norwegians skiers. Can't go wrong with that.

Yeah, I know they aren't their best in colder temps, that's why I hope it's going to be as cold as forecast in Beijing for the Olympics ( well, not in Beijing but at the XC venue). We'll see if they'll show the same bravado then as they did today.

 

[titan31]

Eurosport seem to have mixed up the audios on the men's biathlon and they have the cross country women's feed coming in as well as the biathlon feed. Not sure how they keep on doing this.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Eurosport seem to have mixed up the audios on the men's biathlon and they have the cross country women's feed coming in as well as the biathlon feed. Not sure how they keep on doing this.

On the cross-country feed you have Patrick on the biathlon as well.

Earlier on the women's biathlon on the ad-free stream you could hear Patrick asking if Mike could be plugged back in because the women's XC was delayed, clearly he was supposed to be doing the biathlon while Mike did the XC, but when the women's pursuit was delayed, they plugged him back onto the biathlon stream which enabled them to commentate together on the women's sprint and then the men's XC - and clearly they have left them both connected so they can't hear each other but both sets of commentary are audible on both streams.

 

[BigCoward]

Be funny if Klaebo loses the overall World Cup by a few points because of this.