Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Biathlon News reports that Gößner has become the 5th woman to win a pursuit despite a shooting record of 75% or lower. Uschi Disl (who did it twice), Galina Koukleva (who missed 6 en route to her win), Liv Grete Poirée and Katrin Apel. Most of these are on tough trails - Fort Kent, Oberhof - and Poirée's victory with 5 errors came, just like Gößner's, at Pokljuka.

 

[ophene]

Skiing times from today:

1. Miriam Gössner
2. Kaisa Makarainen +44,1
3. Tora Berger +1:13,3
4. Andrea Henkel +1:17,6
5. Synnøve Solemdal +1:24,0
6. Olena Pidhrushna +1:31,8
7. Magdalena Gwizdon +1:33,3
8. Anais Bescond +1:37,4
9. Marie Dorin Habert +1:39,2
10. Gabriela Soukalova +1:42,4

Insanity...Mäkarainen isn't exactly slow either, so to beat her by 44 seconds is just out of this world. I'm sure Gössner could have challenged Bjørgen.

She was fast for sure, but Kaisa and Tora got stuck in traffic on several of their loops. There is also the added effect of racing for the win, compared to racing for a top ten. I would never bet against Bjørgen, if she is any where near her peak.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Interesting changes to the TdS schedule.

Oberhof, 3/4 km F individual start

Oberhof, 9/15 km C pursuit

Val Müstair sprint F

Cortina-Toblach 15/35 km F pursuit

Toblach 3/5 km C individual start

Val Di Fiemme 10/15 km C mass start

Val Di Fiemme 9/9 km F pursuit (Alpe Cermis)

Removing one of the sprints and bonus heavy mass starts is bad news for the puncheurs and moving the 35k pursuit to stage 4 will probably make the first 3 stages (including the single sprint) almost irrelevant. I would expect the field to come together on that one, as time gaps will be much smaller than usual. I don't see anyone opening up a huge lead in the short classical individual start or the shortened (meaning less sprints for bonus seconds) classical mass start, which was already less decisive last year, following rule changes (moving the IM sprint to the top of a hill, bonus secs for the top 10 rather than top 3) presumably put in place to prevent Northug and Cologna from going 1-2 in all 6 sprints and leaving everyone else in the dust overall. For the first time in 3 years, Cologna will be tested on Alpe Cermis.

This should be a climber's Tour , but the importance of the classical stages in Toblach and VDF could leave strong climbers like Hellner and Manificat out of contention on the final day of the race. Lukas Bauer would be the overwhelming favourite if he was a couple of years younger. The race looks like it was designed by the Czech ski federation.

I will be hugely impressed if Petter wins it.

 

[python]

i have a feeling that cologna will again come on the top at the tds...with legkov perhaps wedging in between him and northug...

cologna looked very imposing at the 3-day alpen cup in st. ulrich am pillersee. 3 races 3 poidiums, destroying everyone in a 10k individual skate.

 

[jsem94]

Cologna will probably own it again.

I hope the 35km race will be as good as usual even though they've moved it, or perhaps even better. It's usually my favorite stage.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle has put the poor ski times at Pokljuka behind her and won the Deutschlandpokal sprint at Ruhpolding today. Nevertheless, while these national Cup races are often used as qualifiers for them, it is already confirmed that Evi will not play a part in the two home World Cup events upcoming in Oberhof and Ruhpolding, as she will be rotated back onto IBU-Cup duties. She won with one penalty, finishing ahead of Karolin Horchler (younger sister of Nadine) and Maren Hammerschmidt (who has been rotating in and out of the World Cup team herself). I haven't seen the shooting records other than that Evi had one penalty as this was reported, however. Most interesting, however, is that the junior women raced the same course as this, and 18-year-old Franziska Preuß won her race in a time that was 0,8" better than Hammerschmidt's podium time. Also notably, the race saw the first return to action of Kathrin Lang (née Hitzer), who has been talking at length with other competitors such as Anastasiya Kuzmina about the balance of sporting career and motherhood. She finished 9th. In the Juniors there was also Anna Neuner, younger sister of Magdalena.

The men's race was interesting in that it was so tight. Again, the juniors covered the same course as the elite, and the top 10 times were separated by under 30 seconds. The best time was from 22-year-old Hannes Schandl, but less than a second ahead of 18-year-old prodigy Philipp Horn, with a 19-year-old Roman Rees just 2 seconds behind. Of the top 10, 7 are under 21, 5 under 20. Only former World Cup competitor Alexander Wolf in 10th breaks up the parade of youthful hopefuls.

 

[python]

this could be a big news...

if i read it right, tv2.no just reported that bjoergen could be out of the tds. she had some dangerous heart arrhythmia and was check to a hospital briefly.

the norge national team doctor thinks it could be serious enough so that she will have a pacer/monitor placed on her.

this is a sad news as i was anticipating a particularly feisty racing with justyna given the other news (see the clinic) tv2.no dug up on kowalczyk.

 

[jsem94]

She won't be participating if I'm reading the articles correctly.

Johaug ftw.

 

[hoerpi]

I think they should remove the prologue from TdS and add an extra longer (perhaps skiathlon) before the Cortina-Toblasch stage which is a lovely route.

 

[meat puppet]

TDS to start tomorrow. Have not done my homework properly, tbh. Hopefully it'l be a tight race.

Any links to livestreams?

 

[Ferminal]

So they've removed one of the sprint stages this year? Think it gives Johaug a chance?

 

[ToreBear]

Hot tip!:

You can predict who wins the overall and the individual stages. Mind, you only have about an hour to make the deadline to predict the overall and the prologue:
http://whowins.worldofxc.com/index.php?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So they've removed one of the sprint stages this year? Think it gives Johaug a chance?

Really glad about that. More real races, fewer carnivals.

And yes, the Alpe Cermis pursuit is kind of a carnival, but it's also pretty unique. The calendar is already saturated with those cursed sprints.

 

[ToreBear]

The seventh edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear will kick off in just a week, on 29th December 2012.

Due to the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships scheduled in Val di Fiemme from 20th February until 3rd March, the Tour will be shorter featuring just seven stages in nine days this year.

Traditionally, the Tour kicks off in Oberhof with a free technique prologue, 3 km ladies and 4 km men, on Saturday. A classical pursuit competition over 9 km for the ladies and 15 km for the men is scheduled on Sunday, 30th December 2012. Unlike in the previous editions of the Tour, Oberhof will be the only German host this year.

The last day of 2012 will feature one of the two rest days. On 1st January, Switzerland will host the first Tour stage in history. A free technique 1.4 km long sprint will be held in Val Müstair, the home of Dario Cologna. He was born in St. Maria, which lies only 8 km from Tschierv, the competition venue. Dario Cologna’a successes and growing reputation has increased the popularity of Cross-Country Skiing in the region.

After another rest day, it will be time for the first Italian stages in Cortina and Toblach. The men will compete on the longest stage of the tour – 35 km free technique pursuit from Cortina to Toblach – and the ladies’ 15km free are on schedule on 3rd January 2013. The day after, a short classical individual start competitions over 3 km for the ladies and 5 for the men will take place in Toblach before moving for the final phase of the Tour in Val di Fiemme.

Val di Fiemme is the traditional host of the final stages of all editions of the FIS Tour de Ski and has become the trademark of the toughest stage-competition on the World Cup circuit. The competition program on Saturday, 5th January contains 10 km mass start classic ladies and 15 km mass start classic men. The seventh and final competition day of the FIS Tour de Ski 2012/13 traditionally features the famous Final Climb onto Alpe Cermis. Both ladies and men will have to ski the final 9 km and 425 meters of elevation, which will determine the winners of the 2012/13 edition.

The snow conditions are looking good at all the Tour venues. All FIS Tour de Ski hosts have received snowfall in the past days or were able to produce snow. The seventh edition of the Viessmann FIS Tour de Ski performance by Craft Sportswear can start: We are ready - do join us on the Tour 2012/2013!

http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/news/fis-tour-ski-one-week,3488.html


A bit more about the race and possible contenders:
http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/news/race-preview-tour-ski-overall-prologue,3511.html

The set up of the race is a bit different this year. With only one sprint in frestyle with a rest day before and after makes things hard to predict. Also only 7 stages can make things interesting.


It's a shame Marit can't attend, but I don't think Justyna can declare vicory yet. I have hopes for Heidi Weng, she has the capacity to win this, but she lacks routine and might make mistakes. She is similar to Northug in that in a sprint, after a long race she is able to get the tecnique right when others fail due to exhaustion.

Johaug has done a lot of strength training in order to improve her top speed on the flat. I'm hoping to see more power in her skiing.

I have high hopes for Kalla. If her classic tecnique has become less vulnerable to less than perfect skiis, she can be a contender. I'm hoping Anna Haag is back on track with her new training program.

But there are many others who can make an impact: Laktenmaki, Randall etc. And then there are a lot of contenders for individual stages.

On the Mens side, there are so many contenders. The favorite is Dario Cologna, but there are a lot of guys who can challenge him.

 

[python]

in the news is that marit is returning to racing on 12 january in liberec. nothing was found.

speaking of health issues, it went virtually unnoticed that the swedish team withdrew 3 originally planned racers due to 'health problems'.

 

[ToreBear]

in the news is that marit is returning to racing on 12 january in liberec. nothing was found.

speaking of health issues, it went virtually unnoticed that the swedish team withdrew 3 originally planned racers due to 'health problems'.

Well, they werent favorites

I would have liked to see what Nelson and Larsen could do, but ce la vie. Sødergren will however be deeply missed by me. He is not a favorite, but has the capacity to impress.

But how long will Johan Olsson last? I hope he lasts the hole tour. But with his airways and health issues it feels like a long shot. But one can only hope.

 

[jens_attacks]

hoping the best for poltoranin !
and the russians to kick aszes today

 

[meat puppet]

matti heikkinen plans to quit after the first two races. nonetheless, he is not doing very well in the prologue.

expecting legkov to go big.

 

[ToreBear]

matti heikkinen plans to quit after the first two races. nonetheless, he is not doing very well in the prologue.

expecting legkov to go big.

Everything should come back together for the mens race tomorrow, so don't write him off.

 

[jsem94]

So Northug just put on a show... wow. Not that it matters that much.

Randall put on a show of her own too, she's should have a lead after three days as well if she does well enough tomorrow. Johaug is going to be dangerous this tour though. I don't expect Kowalczyk to have an easy tour by any means.

 

[python]

First race - first impressions…no bearing on the remaining 6 stages.

no surprise at all:
northug, randall, kowalczyk, kalla, hellner, legkov, harvey...

these performed as expected at a customary high level

slight surprise:

cologna (outside podium), vylegzhanin (he normally does not feature this high in shorter races), joensson (i thought he was capable of a higher position yesterday), johaug (the 13th is OK but the 17 seconds back of randall feels a bit too much since she was reported to improve her sprints…)

today i think justyna will quickly catch randall and stomp the field…

northug told nrk that he wont insist on fighting it alone all the way in todays pursuit and would rather carve a good position for a final acceleration. i think the russians have the goods and will try some team tactic to thwart his plans…

 

[ToreBear]

First race - first impressions…no bearing on the remaining 6 stages.

no surprise at all:
northug, randall, kowalczyk, kalla, hellner, legkov, harvey...

these performed as expected at a customary high level

slight surprise:

cologna (outside podium), vylegzhanin (he normally does not feature this high in shorter races), joensson (i thought he was capable of a higher position yesterday), johaug (the 13th is OK but the 17 seconds back of randall feels a bit too much since she was reported to improve her sprints…)

today i think justyna will quickly catch randall and stomp the field…

northug told nrk that he wont insist on fighting it alone all the way in todays pursuit and would rather carve a good position for a final acceleration. i think the russians have the goods and will try some team tactic to thwart his plans…

I think it's an improvement for Johaug compared to last year. She was very happy with her position.

What Justyna will do only Justyna knows. I'm hoping they go slow so Weng can catch up.

But knowing Justyna she will go hard all the way. I think Johaug will catch up to Justyna probably followed by Kristoffersen and Steira. I see Justyna winning with Johaug closely following if it is the usual go hard all the way womens race. The group behind will contain the Norwegians, Randall and hopefully Kalla if she gets the skis right. Kalla is very vulnerable to less than perfect skis in classic.

As for the mens race. The prologue is a strange race. It's difficult to get the pace right. And knowing the times of your competitors is a huge benefit. Northug used this for all it was worth yesterday. As for Emil, he could probably have skied faster, but didn't want to pay the price today.

As for tactics today, I think you are right regarding the Russians. I think Vylegzhanin is the one to watch. He is very good at maneuvering in the field in classic style.

But this race will come together. There is a very strong group of classics skiers coming from behind.

I'm looking forward to seeing Olsson and Richardsson, if they are in shape and their skis are good they have the capacity to break the field. Hellner like Kalla is vulnerable in classic, if he can avoid loosing too much time he should be happy.

Angerer and Teichmann might also show something. It's their home soil, and their forms seems to be better than previous seasons.

Northug and Cologna will be watching each other and are also contenders. I expect them to place highly.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Justyna destroying the field today. Johaug also impressive, and Steira and Kylloenen.

Commentators complaining that they give bonuses here, because they help Kowalczyk, but they were so happy about the bonuses yesterday because they're huge Kikkan Randall fans. To the level that they were saying we needed more sprints so that Randall could give Kowalczyk a challenge as with no Bjørgen they couldn't think of anybody bar her or perhaps Kalla who could be any threat at all. Then they suddenly remembered Johaug only after she appeared in 4th position in the race today.

 

[Ferminal]

What was the top5? Only Mens is live here for some reason.

 

[ToreBear]

Justyna
Johaug +41 + 5 =46 behind in overall
Kyllonen
Herman
Steira


Yep Justyna destroyed the field.

Hopefully she will totally boink in the sprint to make this exciting again.