Didn't expect a podium for Italy in a sprint race without Pellegrino, but it's a nice surprise and good to see that a win in the Alpencup translates well one week later.
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He won the Alpencup sprint last week, let's hope so.
Rastelli lacks the pure power to keep up with the powerhouses double poling and can't match them. He's also 175cm tall, sub 70kg and usually at his strongest on the climbs. They should have tried to turn him more into a distance skier, would have given the team more options for classic relay lengths (not italy's biggest problem, that's the lack of a skating distance specialist since Clara left) and team sprints.
Bø dominates the ski times almost as much as Lampič did yesterday, and shows her what she's supposed to do in the range to boot. One thing to remember in biathlon ski times is that managing the work coming into the range is a skill that comes with experience as well. Johannes has that down pat, those disasters at the 2019 Worlds seem a long time ago now.
I just watched the recording of Linn Svahns comeback race in the national cup. Freestyle Sprint which she won comfortably against a weak field. Looked really promising even if it’s hard to tell her level but it seems she will go to Davos next week. Sundling will start her season next week in the Scandinavian Cup.
Yes, you're right, the US have apparently just not got the skis right today.
That's the only reason a distance classic specialist from the country that is most dedicated to distance classic is taking time out of Queen Jessica.
Norway put 9 skiers in the top 10, it's just a great talent pool, but Finland put a skier ahead of Diggins and it's apparently time that FIS crack down on the differences in team ski prep.
Edit: Lampič DNS in the pursuit. Kind of a shame, but I know a lot of biathletes early in their career would be held back from pursuits regardless of sprints, either for relays or just to manage workloads (albeit that was usually when they came through super young, like Braisaz for example). One thing that Anamarija may find is that the biathlon schedule is pretty intense, because the races don't have as much broad variation as XC, there is usually more or less the same field throughout rather than being able to rest up certain races.
This would have been a great opportunity though, starting so far up in the field, and the head to head racing is usually more of a challenge for converts to the sport than individual start - but given the lack of experience she might just not feel comfortable racing this format at the World Cup level - especially in a time compressed field, given how much she struggled with shooting in traffic at the IBU Cup last week. She hit 13/20 but the amount of time taken over the prone shoots was glacial, people at the other end of the range had left before she fired her first shot and she nearly held up the athlete who would need that mat from athletes 31-60. The mat would be needed for the 30+th athlete much sooner at this level than on the IBU Cup.
That's the only reason a distance classic specialist from the country that is most dedicated to distance classic is taking time out of Queen Jessica.
Norway put 9 skiers in the top 10, it's just a great talent pool, but Finland put a skier ahead of Diggins and it's apparently time that FIS crack down on the differences in team ski prep.
Edit: Lampič DNS in the pursuit. Kind of a shame, but I know a lot of biathletes early in their career would be held back from pursuits regardless of sprints, either for relays or just to manage workloads (albeit that was usually when they came through super young, like Braisaz for example). One thing that Anamarija may find is that the biathlon schedule is pretty intense, because the races don't have as much broad variation as XC, there is usually more or less the same field throughout rather than being able to rest up certain races.
This would have been a great opportunity though, starting so far up in the field, and the head to head racing is usually more of a challenge for converts to the sport than individual start - but given the lack of experience she might just not feel comfortable racing this format at the World Cup level - especially in a time compressed field, given how much she struggled with shooting in traffic at the IBU Cup last week. She hit 13/20 but the amount of time taken over the prone shoots was glacial, people at the other end of the range had left before she fired her first shot and she nearly held up the athlete who would need that mat from athletes 31-60. The mat would be needed for the 30+th athlete much sooner at this level than on the IBU Cup.
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Seeing how dominant the Norwegian biathlon relay team is at the minute makes me think about historical dominance in xc/nc/biathlon. Who is the most dominant (on paper) relay team in nordic sports history?
Norway women around 2012-16 (Bjoergen, Johaug, Weng, Oestberg) would seem to be the clear favourite even against the rest of the world all time team.
Who else comes close? Germany in NC in mid 10s, Norway in Biathlon in a few years after 2012 (OEB, JTB, TB and Svendsen) though perhaps just before JTB peak/slightly after OEB peak rules them out.
If they start doing mixed relay in NC Norway would probably currently be unbeatable also.
I've only been into nordic sports since about 2012 when my sister moved to just down the hill from Hollmenkollen so I have limited historical knowledge.
Norway women around 2012-16 (Bjoergen, Johaug, Weng, Oestberg) would seem to be the clear favourite even against the rest of the world all time team.
Who else comes close? Germany in NC in mid 10s, Norway in Biathlon in a few years after 2012 (OEB, JTB, TB and Svendsen) though perhaps just before JTB peak/slightly after OEB peak rules them out.
If they start doing mixed relay in NC Norway would probably currently be unbeatable also.
I've only been into nordic sports since about 2012 when my sister moved to just down the hill from Hollmenkollen so I have limited historical knowledge.
Russian XC womens team during most of the 90-ties were almost unbeatable in the relays. All the other new from the start, that the fight is for being the best of the rest. I have a hard time remembering big championships where they were beaten. Maybe some from the very beginning of the decade when the Finns had several strong ladies from older generation like Kirvesniemi and Matikainen still close to or at their peak levels. Unfortunately, I don't really remember the World Cup level races from that era particularily well.
Speaking only about cross-country skiing and biathlon in the last 15 years, I would say the only team that could be above Norway in biathlon right now is Norway's women cross-country skiing theam in the mid-2010s, with Steira instead of Ostberg as she was still mostly a sprinter back then.
I think the current Norwegian biathlon relay team is actually stronger than during the mid-2010s as Bjorndalen was already well past its best and despite being already one of the fastest skiers, JTB was inconsistent in the shooting range and his brother was often sick or below his best, while last year Norwegian men won all relay races, apart from Ruhpolding where none of the 'big4' raced and this year it seems that they will do something similar (their depth is much bigger than 7 or 8 years ago too).
Speaking about biathlon quite surprised to see Simon doing this well in the shooting range. If the Öberg sisters don't improve their shooting soon or any other biathlete steps up, she might actually take the overall this season.
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Norway 2 winning the relay is pretty funny. Are there plans for this to become a world championship/Olympics race? If so they might as well just let everyone else race for the silver and give Norway the gold without even racing.
If the Russians are back sooner rather than later, they’ll be beating the Norwegians. They have some massive young talents coming through, already beating Bolshunov and co. Russia has beaten Norway when Norway entered 4 teams, not 2 in Norway back in the 2019/2020 season (they went 1-2 in Lillehammer in December 2019) in 2018/2019 in Ulricehamn and back in 2013/2014 when Vylegzhanin outsmarted four Norwegian teams in Lillehammer. Last season in Lillehammer the Russian women won, and the two Russian mens teams battled it out with the two Norwegian teams. We saw what happened in Beijing. The Norwegians never stood a chance.
Stepanova crushed yesterdays 10km in snowy conditions, winning by over 1 minute. Granted Nepryaeva, Stupak, and Sorina didn’t race, but I am certain they wouldn’t have beaten her. Istomina was 10th in the Olympic 30km in Beijing and Rygalina was 8th in the Olympic skiathlon (3rd fastest skate time in that race). Smirnova has had top 20 World Cup results. I am confident in saying Stepanova would be well inside the top 10 of any skate race, sprint or distance, on the World Cup right now.
There’s no other team that has the balance of the women’s and men’s team. Sweden came close today, but Halfvarsson not good enough, which is strange in a short race like this. He is a much better sprinter than Krüger.
the Finns did alright as well today, just paid for Matintalo being too strong for their good.
I don't see any combination of 2 russian women and 1 russian man putting enough time into Klaebo over 5km circuits.
What combination could they throw at Weng, Weng, Goldberg, Klaebo? The number 2 female is definitely going to be their weak link.
If Russia goes with Nepryaeva, Bolshunov, Stepanova and Ustiugov, I don't think that Norwegian team stands much of a chance. Their first three skiers should be stronger than any of the Norwegians which would leave Klæbo at least 30 seconds behind Ustiugov and as we saw in the Olympics Klæbo can't recover ground against Ustiugov in skating.
Even if its the women closing the relay and Klæbo does the classic leg and Krüger the skating one (likely against Spitsov), their women would always be at a disavantage against the Russians.
Sort of off-topic but - do any of you fellow Yanks get your XC ski feed through Ski and Snowboard Live? I ask because the (presumably American) commentator's voice is just horrible. He sounds like he either smokes three packs a day or has just freshly swallowed a 10kg bag of gravel!
While extremely cold the scenery in Norway was simply beautiful this past weekend, but this commentator's voice just about ruined it all. (I know, I should have just put my TV on mute.)
While extremely cold the scenery in Norway was simply beautiful this past weekend, but this commentator's voice just about ruined it all. (I know, I should have just put my TV on mute.)
The Norwegians could go with Tiril Weng/Heidi Weng, Golberg/Iversen/Klæbo, Heidi Weng/Fossesholm, Klæbo/Krüger/Iversen…
The Finns with the Niskanen siblings, Pärmäkoski would be right up there after 3 legs but they don’t have a good distance skate skier on the men’s side. Mäki can’t ski longer than 3km it seems like and Hyvarinen is a lottery, in fact, he could only last 3km in yesterdays race.
The Finns with the Niskanen siblings, Pärmäkoski would be right up there after 3 legs but they don’t have a good distance skate skier on the men’s side. Mäki can’t ski longer than 3km it seems like and Hyvarinen is a lottery, in fact, he could only last 3km in yesterdays race.
If I may ask (and as a Yank) - where do you get your Russian Ski Cup feed from?
I live in the states as well, but try the YouTube channel ‘nalyzhi’ (on skis) they also have a page on VK, essentially the Russian version of Facebook: https://m.vk.com/nalyzhi.
You can also try typing in ‘Лыжные гонки’ to YouTube and try most recent. Unfortunately there’s no coverage of the most recent Russian cup races on tv, so the Russian fans seem to be relying on amateur footage.
This is all so stupid - gotta watch the Norwegians win everything on one channel, and then have to find a seperate channel to watch the Russians win everything.
As a mere (Yank) viewer I find this incredibly cost-inefficient!
Well I am really surprised that Peacock/NBC aren’t showing any races this season. Wonder if they simply didn’t have enough numbers the last couple seasons or something. Hard to grow a sport when you are not going to show it.
Peacock had a good thing going for a few seasons in terms of XC ski and biathlon coverage, but like every US channel before them it didn't last. I do suspect profits and viewership (or lack of) probably have a lot to do with it, it's a shame.
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