Norway with a club skiier getting 2nd today in the sprint says a lot about how weak the sport is outside of the Russians.
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And the Russians didn’t perform well at all today. Outside of maybe the Planica sprint from December 2019, this was the worst sprint performance from the Russians I’ve seen. Hardly any energy. The course seems deceptively hard, almost a carbon copy of the Ulricehamn sprint from last season, you have to work every meter of the course. Very surprising to see Stupak and Nepryaeva not making it, but not just not making it, looking very lethargic in doing so, likewise Ustiugov and Retivykh in the quarterfinals. Bolshunov is clearly not in form and Terentjev made tactical errors and was impeded on several occasions.
Well Larsen isn't exactly your average club skier, I remember him winning medals in the Youth Games some 4/5 years ago but I don't think that he will make it to the Olympics considering that there are only 8 spots if I recall correctly.
As for the Russians they had a not a great day but its nothing too worrying and I disagree on Bolshunov because getting 7th in a skating sprint is not a bad result given its probably his worst race and it should be enough for him to regain the yellow bib from Klæbo tomorrow. Pellegrino is the one that has been in quite poor shape lately let's hope that he can turn it around.
As for the Russians they had a not a great day but its nothing too worrying and I disagree on Bolshunov because getting 7th in a skating sprint is not a bad result given its probably his worst race and it should be enough for him to regain the yellow bib from Klæbo tomorrow. Pellegrino is the one that has been in quite poor shape lately let's hope that he can turn it around.
The naming of the female French biathletes is just bizarre.
Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet
Anaïs Bescond
Chloe Chevalier
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet
Is the former just a merger of the other three?
Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet
Anaïs Bescond
Chloe Chevalier
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet
Is the former just a merger of the other three?
So why exactly did they have to chance this to a 15km race? Lillehammer looks pretty winterish to me. What a joke.
The things that's weirdest about that was that Anaïs Chevalier and Justine Braisaz both acquired the same surname through marriage the same year, but their husbands are unrelated.
Kind of like how Janina Hettich is from the same small town as the former Nordic Combined stars Urban Hettich and Georg Hettich, but none of the three are related to one another.
Okay, that's even more bizarre.
I think I had heard about the Bouchet situation.
Russians clearly not in form, but it doesn’t explain everything. Only Chervotkin, who has been a better classic skier over the past couple of seasons kept up the pace. Everyone else lost a lot in the second half of the race. Pacing is huge in any distance race and course, but especially one like today, which doesn’t have a huge hill, but it has a lot of hills you have to work on, and there’s not a lot of rest, which makes sense as there’s no significant hills. The new snow and perhaps subpar skis really hampered just about everyone except the Norwegians, Chervotkin, Novak and even Manificat, who is racing his first WC of the season. Sure hope nobody was using flouros…
I was disappointed to hear they did that last week, but after watching the race and seeing the gaps from the Norwegians to everyone else, I think that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is embarrassing for the rest of the world.
Nicely done.
Haven't looked at the results systematically, but not racing last weekend seems to have been a factor.
Haven't looked at the results systematically, but not racing last weekend seems to have been a factor.
talking about family relations... if anyone was wondering about biathlon newcomer Benita Peiffer from Canada: Michi Rösch (now expert on Gereman ES) called Arnd, and he told him that their grandfathers were cousins (meaning him and Benita share the same great-great-grandfather)
To me it also looked a bit like the Russians had bad skis for those conditions.
Just like last week Novak has been skating on a really high level, let's hope he can keep it up.
About family relations, the Swirbul family isn't the only skiing-cycling sibling combination. Austrian's Mika Vermeulen's brother Moran is racing for the CT team Felbermayr. This year he finished 6th on the gc in the Alpes-Isere Tour where he lost the leaders jersey on the final stage.
Just like last week Novak has been skating on a really high level, let's hope he can keep it up.
About family relations, the Swirbul family isn't the only skiing-cycling sibling combination. Austrian's Mika Vermeulen's brother Moran is racing for the CT team Felbermayr. This year he finished 6th on the gc in the Alpes-Isere Tour where he lost the leaders jersey on the final stage.
Yes I also think that the Russians didn't have the best skis today even the fact that they all lost some time in the last laps seems to point into that direction. Many of the norwegians also started together which enable them to help each other and I am sure that Krüger and Holund are still not at their best as they only put 39 seconds into Klæbo and even less into club skiers like Moseby. Next weekend in Davos things should be more balanced.
Good to see Karlsson beating Johaug again this time in skating and interesting to see Brennan better than Diggins among the Americans. As for the biathlon, I am curious to see as how long will Elvira Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson hold this shape, the latter I actually think that can win the World Cup already this season.
Good to see Karlsson beating Johaug again this time in skating and interesting to see Brennan better than Diggins among the Americans. As for the biathlon, I am curious to see as how long will Elvira Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson hold this shape, the latter I actually think that can win the World Cup already this season.
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The situation in the men
s field is really abmissal. You have Norway and Russia but besides that it is just awful. Sweden has absolutely no one and is a total disater. Finnland has Niskanen and that is it. Italy is not even woth mentioning.
Norway and Russia could easily take the first 6 spots in a really if they were allowed to stage three relyays each.
At least the womens field is relly looging good this season. Many competitive skiers from different nations and Johaug has lost her untouching status.Not optimal skis plus a bit of a fast start and you’ll pay the price in the second half of the race. I really don’t understand how they can mess the glide up in temps that were around -10, even with different snow to last week in Finland. They corrected it for the women’s race, but I still think the Norwegians nailed the wax and structure for that as well. The Weng twins that high up in a individual skate race is a bit of a surprise.
Agreed. Michal Novak had the race of his life today and Chervotkin was solid, but that’s about it. French always do better at altitude but still, you’d expect them to be better than what they showed today. The Russians didn’t have great skis and paid the price in the second half of the race. The Italians non existent, the Germans, more or less standard mediocre skiing, Niskanen didn’t finish. His teammates didn’t ski well. The Swedish men were a disaster. No Cologna, and Baumann was the only guy in the top 30. I don’t expect these the results to continue the whole season though.
Apparently the new superstar in the women's nordic combined is her cousin, so there will remain an unbeatable person in the family for the next 10 years as she is only 18/19.
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They needed to relocate the race to the Bisthlon stadium which has asphalt surface (easier to pack the snow on). These tracks are very narrow and impossible to run a Skiathlon or even a skate mass start. I dont know if it had snowed enough this week to use the ordinary tracks. If it had been like in Bisthlon where IBU own the conpettition maybe they would have moved race somewhere else to carry out the initial programme but it is not possible in XC
My only thought is that Ustiugov is definitely not in form, otherwise there’s really no reason for him to wheel suck and not do anything, simply waiting for the sprint which isn’t clever with the ultimate wheel sucker Klæbo. They should have thought that one out with Yakimushkin on the final lap. We’ll see what happens on a harder course.
Dropping Klaebo on this course is also easier said than done, it's just not hard enough.
De Fabiani and Pellegrino looked better than on the last 2 days. Poromaa just waisted too much energy by always leading the chasing group and got dropped when Pellegrino attacked.
Yeah. I was happy to see De Fabiani and Pellegrino skiing well today, they haven’t had a great start to the season. I hope training with the Cramer group really pays off for them this season.
The French teams and the Finnish teams really died on those skate legs, which is shocking, for the French especially. Mäki just crashed and burned in the last couple kilometers and the French just disappeared. I wonder what happened to them, terrible skis, super bad form, a combination?
Well, Russia was a lot closer to Norway than one could expect after yesterdsays race. So that is at least a promising sign.
Pellegrino sking well today is also a very pleasant suprise. I think no one expected the Italians to be the best nation after the big two. So maybe there is more to come.
Pellegrino sking well today is also a very pleasant suprise. I think no one expected the Italians to be the best nation after the big two. So maybe there is more to come.
They still could have made a 30km race instead of a 15km race. That is my biggest point of critique. Why not a 30km race if you repace a skiathlon, why 15km again?
The argument that the loop was too short for a 30km race is silly. At one point yesterday almost every starter was on the course. So it would not have been all that different in a 30km race.
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