Klæbo in the last leg changes the whole dynamic of the relay. If you put Holund last, Norway desperately needs to get a gap on the rest because you know that anyone able to ski a good 10km will wheelsuck and beat him at the finish. Using Klæbo ensures that all other teams know they will need that gap or they will lose, and the other Norwegians get an easier job. Didn't help today, we needed one of Krüger, Røthe, Iversen or Valnes in good shape. Alternatively Amundsen or someone else. Golberg didn't look all that great either, and if they had to try to get Holund a 20 second lead I don't think we'd even be in the fight for a medal.
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Seems that even NRK is reacting (Norwegian public service news corporation) https://www.nrk.no/sport/norges-solv-oppforsel-refses-__mener-det-skader-omdommet-1.15853630
Look at the French joy of bronze. Look at the German silver celebration yesterday. This type of behavior only supports the outside world's impression of Norwegian runners who are spoiled in success and more than privileged. It makes even fewer want to pay tribute to us the next time we succeed.
It shows a lack of respect for the Olympics and for a silver medal, that for everyone else but Norway would be a triumph.
- Regardless of disappointment, it is a duty to show good sportsmanship and line up, even if you do not succeed completely.
Couldn't agree more. A total disgrace when Klaebo refused to be on the photo with the other medalists. A great skier but a very small sportsman.
On the other side, we dont know what shape Ustyugov is in and today really didn't say much as Klaebo didn't even pretend to chase him. Maybe if you do Klaebo earlier, you're within distance to actually hit at the Russians on that last leg. Klaebos only useful in that last leg if you're close, when you're not, he just fecks around a bit for 9.5k and beats someone in a sprint.
I must disagree. Having Klaebo in the last leg only ensured that Russia will go all out to crack Iversen. If you put Klaebo in the first leg that chances the whole Dynamik of the relay. You have to put Russia unter pressure. When Things are not going as planned they tend to get nervous and make mistakes.
What is Klaebos response for not Attendorn the ceremony. Frankly, if Norwegians coachen had any balls they would kick him off the team sprint. You canT allow that level of disrespect.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen him miss the photo shoot. He did it when Bolshunov beat him Ruka in 2018. It was only Bolshunov and Brandsda on the photo that day. He did show up for the flower ceremony and press conference that came after, I believe.
I think the Russians were going to go hard from the beginning today, no matter what the lineup. My guess is that nobody was 100% sure of Ustiugov’s form, so they needed to push the pace. Iversen was predictably Norway’s weakest link and that’s where the they got half of the gap, then just kept building bit by bit. Holund chipped away 15 seconds but he probably needed another 15-20 to give Klæbo a chance. Having said that Klæbo really didn’t seem too interested.
I don’t think the Norwegian coaches will do or say anything to him. He’s racing the team sprint because without him their chances drop significantly.
Välbe stated after the race that this was Ustiugov’s last race at these Olympics. Strange decision. He had the fastest last leg, and he was 39 seconds behind Holund, but he spent the last 1.5km-2.0km skiing easy and doing high fives with the staff and then slowed more in the stadium plus picked up the flag.
Putting Yakimushkin in the 50km skate is more risky than putting Ustiugov.
Putting Yakimushkin in the 50km skate is more risky than putting Ustiugov.
Wow that is crazy and sad for him. There have to be some politics going on against Kramer's group. Ustiugov has earned at least one distance Race. This seems wrong. Feel sorry for him. I would not be suprised If Kramer will be kicked after the season. Something seems wrong.
My opinion is that having an "unbeatable" guy on the last leg (Alsgaard, Northug, Klæbo) has won us quite a few gold medals in relays that would otherwise have gone quite differently. As long as the course isn't too hard it is such an advantage that everybody on the team knows that you don't need to do any work in front on the first 1-2 loops of every leg.
The last time we didn't use the guy with the best sprint on the last leg was probably in 1994. That hurt so much that I don't think we will ever do that again.
The last time we didn't use the guy with the best sprint on the last leg was probably in 1994. That hurt so much that I don't think we will ever do that again.
I fear and hope at the same time that this was the last time we saw Ustiugov on skiis. Becoming an Olympics Champion was such a big dream for him and with the way his path with the Olympics have gone, I think this race finally totally broke him apart. He's one of the most emotional people you can ever find and seems like an amazing person. He never deserved such a maltreatment he received from the IOC and his ban from 2018 Olympics. That had massive impact on him. I hear that after the race he was speechless and said a very few words. I know that for sure this wasn't the way he wanted to fulfill his biggest sporting dream. He said something about thinking about Maltsev throughout his leg and how Maltsev would as well be able to bring it home. He doesn't feel like he earned this gold. So many injuries lately, maybe this truly is the perfect way for him to say goodbye to sport which he loves so much, but which on the other hand gave him so much pain, on and off the tracks.
Well , Alsgard turned out not that unbeatable, did he. Plus Klaebo in His current freestyle form in those tracks isn't that big of a Favorite over Ustiugov either.
Alsgaard was beaten once by a doper. Klæbo vs Ustiugov, I'd pick Klæbo 99 of 100 times.
If we didn't have those 3 on the last leg I think our gold count would be far less, even if they raced earlier legs.
No doubt about Hoffman, but let’s be real, which contender in those years was clean?
I think 99 of 100 is a massive exaggeration.
On most tracks, I might even agree with you. But here, Klaebo looks so vulnerable on the first long climb, I mean he was 20 seconds slower than Sergei who was skiing the last km in an amateur pace. Klaebo is so good tactically, he plays to his strengths perfectly, but after three times over that climb he needed a massive help from his skiis to beat an almost 36 year old Maurice Manificat. It's not a certainty he would be able to stay with Ustiugov today.
So I started thinking about a Team Sprint already, that might actually be a very open race.
Norway - 1Hollund (Golberg or Valnes but I doubt it)/ 2. Klaebo
Russia: 1. Bolshunov / 2. Terentyev - this lineup is a no brainer
Finland: 1 Niskanen / Maki (?)
Sweden: two out of Burman/Poromaa/Svensson
Italy: 1. De Fabiani / 2. Pelle - another no brainer
France: 1. Jouve / 2. Chanavat (?)
What are your ideal pairs?
Norway - 1Hollund (Golberg or Valnes but I doubt it)/ 2. Klaebo
Russia: 1. Bolshunov / 2. Terentyev - this lineup is a no brainer
Finland: 1 Niskanen / Maki (?)
Sweden: two out of Burman/Poromaa/Svensson
Italy: 1. De Fabiani / 2. Pelle - another no brainer
France: 1. Jouve / 2. Chanavat (?)
What are your ideal pairs?
Which has been the case in this very Olympics for every participant - except the gold medalist - in the womens' skiathlon and 10k. Btw, pretty much every contestant who the golden Norwegians shared the podium with during the 90s was a proven doper.
Ustiugov seems pretty fragile at this point and I kinda agree with the fact that the Cramer group isn't really getting the same chances as the others. It's probably not because of other nations being part of the training group, Pellegrino asked her in person if it would be ok if he and De Fa started training with them. It's probably some internal politics, but Stupak and Ustiugov delivered in the relay.
About the team sprint, I assume that the Russians will go Stupak-NN to make the race hard from the start. The Germans should think about using Hennig in the first leg.
Finnland should just go crazy on both the men's and the women's side and thrown in the Niskanen family to go crazy on the first leg.
Norway should save Holund for the 50km race and I kinda assume that they had Valnes rest for the team sprint.
France could go Lapalus-Jouve, but I doubt it.
People in Italy aren't 100% convinced of De Fa after today, but probably still the best option for multiple legs on a sprint course.
Tbf Klaebo spent his leg fecking around. He was skiing well within himself and didn't even bother.
To me if you wanted a sprinter on that last leg, they should have gone Valnes or Taugboel and hoped they could have hung on but you were probably better off putting one of Rothe, Holund or Krueger there.
Unless Iversen was strong (which no one really believed he was), they needed Klaebo to race the classic legs to even give the freestyle guys a shot. You lose the Klaebo finish but that finish is useless when you're a minute behind. Putting Klaebo 4th guaranteed you 2nd to me. It did nothing for attempting to win the race.
Some people argue that Klæbo isn't a clear favorite against Ustiugov if they had the same starting point while some people say Klæbo is bad for not going all out trying to win with a 45 second deficit.
I don't agree with either point of view. 20-30 seconds after and it would have been worth a try. More than that is too much, less than that is not enough (for Ustiugov).
I don't agree with either point of view. 20-30 seconds after and it would have been worth a try. More than that is too much, less than that is not enough (for Ustiugov).
Last month he stated that he was tired of just training, and all wanted to do is race. He seemed relaxed, but still hungry to race. I wonder how he and the coaches would have reacted had he made the sprint final and gotten a medal in that event. Probably guaranteed himself a spot in the team sprint. IMO he should have raced the skiathlon. I don’t know what his chances were in that race, but it couldn’t have been lower than say Maltsev’s, and Maltsev finished 9th, and looked ok. You would pick Ustiugov over Maltsev 10/10 times in equal condition. Of all the Russians, he beat everyone but Bolshunov and Chervotkin in Ruka, on a hard track on not really the fastest conditions, it was cold and hardly fast. I think he was the highest ranked Russian on the overall WC before the TDS. Did he really have back problems? It cannot be form, because he looked good today, even with a big advantage to work with. He also looked ok in the sprint, just missing out on the final.
I do think that for some time now Cramer has been given the short end of the stick, even when his group has had better results than any other training group. Perevozhikov’s skiers haven’t done much in Beijing. Semikov 9th and Yakimushkin 13th in the 15km. What exactly have they done at the WC? Yakimushkin also killed their chances at the Oberstdorf relay last year and he was sick in January. I guess Ustiugov gets two races and so does Yakimushkin. Everyone will ger at least two starts, except Semikov who wasn’t good enough in the 15km to get a place in the relay. Välbe is far more lenient with Perevozchikov than Cramer, and I am not even going to mention Borodavko. I’ve read that Ustiugov said that he would never train in Borodavko’s group. I don’t know if the reason for the criticism towards the Cramer group is because he’s a foreigner or she simply has more bias toward the other two because they’ve been there longer. In any case Cramer’s contract ends at the end of the season, so perhaps he will say goodbye no matter what results his group produces. I would actually move Stepanova to Cramer’s group because personality wise she would fit much more with the generally relaxed style of Cramer and his athletes than Borodavko and his athletes. I think it would be wrong if they don’t extend Markus’s contract for at least one more season. Next year it’s the World Championships. How will they mix the groups if he leaves? Who goes to what group? Perhaps Turyshev takes over? He’s been assisting Cramer since he retired. He seems like a logical replacement.
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If they had Krüger there, they could have easily picked Golberg in first, Klæbo second, Holund third and Krüger as anchor. It means that the skaters would need to push the pace from the start, but those two are capable of that.
Ya, I think something like that gives you a far better chance of gold. Still might not be good enough but I'd rather come 2nd where I lose in the sprint than 2nd where you were out of the race after 3km and never looked like bringing it back. I think that first two would have gone in maybe 20-30 seconds behind the Russians and at that point Holund and Burman likely catch Spitsov and you can see how strong Ustyugov actually is
It wasn't that terrible. He clearly gave up the chase for the gold early on and then he waited, didn't waste his energy in the steeper parts, and did a tactically good race head to head against Magnificat.
Klæbo knows what he is doing and has a hard program doing all distances. He needs to conserve his energy whenever he can. He is far from a favorite on the 50km, but he must be on the Norwegian team. If the pace isn't to fast he is in with an opportunity. But I think there are to many in the field who wants to make it a hard race.
But with Bolshunov, Spitsov and Yakimushkin in, they would still have a place for Ustiugov. And Maltsev too has already done two races here, I think it is Sergey's decision and not Vyalbe's.
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