Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BullsFan22]

The women’s start list for tomorrow only has 39 skiers, again. I get that one or two are sick, but c’mon. France is less expensive than Scandinavia and Switzerland, so what’s the problem now?

 

[Mayomaniac]

The women’s start list for tomorrow only has 39 skiers, again. I get that one or two are sick, but c’mon. France is less expensive than Scandinavia and Switzerland, so what’s the problem now?

Yeah, this season it's happening for the 3rd time on the women's side.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ok, Claudel benefitted a lot from skiing behind the Ebba train for 2 laps, but a 2nd place is still a great result at home. 2 Fench women in the top 10 is impressive.
The lap looks hard and actually not a bad crowd for a week day.
Franchi faded in the final lap, but a decent showing for her. She won the 10km freestyle Italian NC (without the WC athletes) by being over 1min faster than everyone else.

 

[BigCoward]

Nice to see Oestberg back in reasonable form.

Womens NC makes men's biathlon seem positively competitive. Hansen has won her last 14 races she has finished going back 2 years.

 

[Mayomaniac]

See, this is why I have been saying og the final 1.4km, but a pronising performance.
Thank god he's now part of the Cramer training group. One of the only Italians who is better in skating distance races compared to classic. Him developing into a proper skating specialist would be big for Italian relay teams.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Nice to see Oestberg back in reasonable form.

Womens NC makes men's biathlon seem positively competitive. Hansen has won her last 14 races she has finished going back 2 years.

Before that it was Geraghty-Moats, who had been a teenage biathlete then switched to ski jumping, then just obliterated all the kids in the formative years of NoCo, only to then switch back to biathlon (I think she's dating one of the US biathlon men) a couple of years ago, but has been pretty anonymous even at the IBU Cup level.

At least women's NC has the excuse of being a developing sport, I remember when Takanashi was dominating ski jumping to a similar extent but now women's ski jumping is relatively well entrenched with a decent field of competition, if still significantly smaller than its male counterpart.

 

[DonAragona]

The individual start courses this season are an absolute joke - 3 laps of 3.3km - completely distorted results.

Andersson carried Claudel all the way to the podium and Diggins carried Theodorsen to Planica.

For races of such importance, how can Fis continue to allow this to happen?

 

[Mayomaniac]

The individual start courses this season are an absolute joke - 3 laps of 3.3km - completely distorted results.

Andersson carried Claudel all the way to the podium and Diggins carried Theodorsen to Planica.

For races of such importance, how can Fis continue to allow this to happen?

I mean, Claudel was able to keep up with Andersson who did the fastest final lap on her second lap and did the second fastest final lap afterwards. A top result was always in the cards for her.
On the men's side Graz never had a strong kier ahead of him and still managed to finish 14th.

That said, they are already using a 5km lap on Sunday, so I don't see any reason why they couldn't just use that one today...
I still have no idea what kind of laps they'll use in Toblach next weekend.

 

[BullsFan22]

The individual start courses this season are an absolute joke - 3 laps of 3.3km - completely distorted results.

Andersson carried Claudel all the way to the podium and Diggins carried Theodorsen to Planica.

For races of such importance, how can Fis continue to allow this to happen?

Exactly, now that there’s plenty of snow, they don’t use it. Also, another sub 22 minute 10km for the men. Makes me wonder how long that loop actually is.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Exactly, now that there’s plenty of snow, they don’t use it. Also, another sub 22 minute 10km for the men. Makes me wonder how long that loop actually is.

I mean, they just opened the long loops in Toblach last and this week, so they should, I say should, be used next weekend.
Last weekend I did 3 laps on one of the +5km laps in Toblach (I didn't go all out until the end of the final lap, tried to work on my uphill V1 technique), the conditions are nice and we got 15-20cm of fresh snow this week,

 

[KZD]

Exactly, now that there’s plenty of snow, they don’t use it. Also, another sub 22 minute 10km for the men. Makes me wonder how long that loop actually is.

10k in less than 22 minutes is not that surprising. I remember Krüger and Ustiugov doing the Toblach 15k in around 30 minutes.

Amundsen should have guaranteed his spot in the World Championships with this win and good race from Poromaa and Lapierre. Nice to see Golberg recovering a few points on Klaebo too.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Great crowd in France, the French should probably get a race weekend every year.

 

[BigCoward]

Shiiiiiiiit, Klaebo lost again. Wtf is happening, great for the home crowd.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Both the women's race and the men's race ended a bit unexpected.
I've never seen someone decent and glide away from the Swedish women like this.

Honestly a great crowd and I hope it won't be 7 years until the next race in France.

 

[BullsFan22]

Shiiiiiiiit, Klaebo lost again. Wtf is happening, great for the home crowd.

Why do you always swear?

 

[BullsFan22]

Both the women's race and the men's race ended a bit unexpected.
I've never seen someone decent and glide away from the Swedish women like this.

Honestly a great crowd and I hope it won't be 7 years until the next race in France.

Pleasantly surprised by the number of people. By far the most attended race on the xc circuit this, which wasn’t hard to do, but still. Not the 20 or 30,000 in Le Grand Bornard but it was a nice change.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Pleasantly surprised by the number of people. By far the most attended race on the xc circuit this, which wasn’t hard to do, but still. Not the 20 or 30,000 in Le Grand Bornard but it was a nice change.

They have been the best central European ski nation on the men's side in recent years, so they should probably get a weekend every year, if someone ifms willing to host the race.

The way Skistad descended and glided away from the rest was really impressive. She clearly had rockets on her feet, but was also super skilled.

 

[search]

They have been the best central European ski nation on the men's side in recent years, so they should probably get a weekend every year, if someone ifms willing to host the race.

it won't be this weekend of the year at least, though. In 2024 there'll be a world cup in Goms

Der Langlauf-Weltcup kommt ins Goms

In einem Jahr ist es soweit: Die internationale Langlauf-Elite wird sich im Januar 2024 im Goms messen. Schneesicherheit, anspruchsvolle Strecken und eine topmoderne Infrastruktur garantieren...

www.swiss-ski.ch

 

[OJRvE]

it won't be this weekend of the year at least, though. In 2024 there'll be a world cup in Goms

Der Langlauf-Weltcup kommt ins Goms

In einem Jahr ist es soweit: Die internationale Langlauf-Elite wird sich im Januar 2024 im Goms messen. Schneesicherheit, anspruchsvolle Strecken und eine topmoderne Infrastruktur garantieren...

www.swiss-ski.ch

Looking at the the draft calendar for next year there are two OPA weekends in the end of January. Since I read Toblach, Davos and Val di Fiemme will host the Tour stages, Les Rousses make sense unless they want a sprint weekend (which I think would make more sense in December) or find something in Germany.

https://assets.fis-ski.com/image/upload/v1622648679/fis-prod/assets/draft_WC_Calendar_CC_2023-25.pdf

 

[titan31]

But farcical in the mixed relay at the European Championships. Out of 22 teams starting, only 9 teams finished and it would likely have been 7 if Soerum had to push himself on that last lap. I know Norway had a really strong shooting score but that's still very odd to see.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Today I went skiing in Toblach with a friend.
-15 when we started and the snow was even colder. So cold that you could hear it make strange noises and it was past the breaking point when friction actually increases and cold snow actually makes the conditions slower.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ok, that's a hard course!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That climb up the side of the ski jump is brutal. It seems to me that Niskanen has the measure of Andersson everywhere but there, every lap Ebba opens up a slightly bigger gap on that climb and makes it harder and harder for Niskanen to get back.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Imagine a 50km race on that lap, just brutal!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Imagine a 50km race on that lap, just brutal!

Problem is it's only a 3.3km lap, they'd need a longer one for a 50, however looks like they have the scope for a properly challenging 6.25 or 7.5k loop, even if that would still be the hardest climb of the loop.

Even then, climbing that hill after 40k or so would just destroy the field.