Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BigCoward]

Looks like Krueger or Amundsen. Poromaa has a shot at the bronze.
Balls, looks like Poromaa is dropping off.
Klaebo and Holund very tight fight for bronze.

 

[BigCoward]

Amundsen had some weird pacing there. Closer than it looked half way through.
Klaebo missed out on bronze by 0.9 seconds.

 

[meat puppet]

Think it was about the track, really. Kruger gained in the climbs, Amundsen in the more technical parts including descents.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Hah, only a 4th place for Fluor Johannes, good!
Seriously, his skis were illegally fast on the final downhill section, even compared to the other Norwegians. I'd take a look at the products used in his private waxing team.
The again, he can apparently skate as much as he wants going downhill and cornering in classic races, while others get warnings for just trying to stay on their skis in really soft and deep conditions...

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ok, the Swedes really have bad skis for this conditions. All the team lost time to Krüger on the final part and he faded on that one.

The Italians pretty bad, I expected more from Graz and Daprà. Apparently the Italian men all prefer faster conditions and struggle a lot on softer ones, unlike the women (ok, Franchi is the main one who likes slow conditions, but the classic specialists like Comarella are also good in those conditions). Speaking of Franchi, she already said that she really wants to ski the Holmenkollen 50km race.

 

[Lequack]

Where is a "Jess Diggins" to crash the Nrwegian men's domination?

 

[BigCoward]

This NC relay is a lot better than I was expecting. Norway, Germany, Austria and France within 5 seconds of each other half way through 3rd leg.

 

[Mayomaniac]

This NC relay is a lot better than I was expecting. Norway, Germany, Austria and France within 5 seconds of each other half way through 3rd leg.

In the end Germany almost lost Silver to Austria, really strange tactics by them. Catch Norway, then do nothing but short accelerations and hope to beat freaking Riiber in a sprint without making the race hard before? At least Norway probably knew that Riiber's skiing form is on point.

 

[KZD]

Esteve Altimiras with a 7th place beating everyone from outside Scandinavia. Crazy result, the best ever for a skier from Andorra, I believe. Baba also good, just like Esteve he gets his best results usually in Alpe Cermis. The French were a bit disappointed, especially Lapierre that just like Claudel seems to have hit his peak too early. Antolla in 24th is not bad for a junior.

As for the Norwegians nothing much to say, Krüger is obviously in great shape and gets the gold that he missed two years ago. Amundsen is obviously in monster shape, 3 years from now he will likely be one of the biggest favourites in the Olympics. Klæbo missing the podium but fluor or not him coming so close to it and just 25 seconds back on Krüger means that he should be close to undroppable in the 50k, but will see.

 

[OJRvE]

Sweden and Norway just announced their realy team
Ribom-Andersson-Karlsson-Dahlqvist
Weng-Slind-Östberg-Kalvaa

Bit suprised Sundling is out, not seen any comments despite that Dahlqvist looked strong yesterday. But I guess she is not feeling well.

For Norway I think they choosed the correct team and order. Kalvaa is not going to beat any swede in the sprint but she has great opportunities to win it on the course even if she would be a few seconds back at the exchange.

If Ribom manages to drop Weng things look good for Sweden but if not, Andersson and Karlsson will have troubles getting away from the Norwegians.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Esteve Altimiras with a 7th place beating everyone from outside Scandinavia. Crazy result, the best ever for a skier from Andorra, I believe. Baba also good, just like Esteve he gets his best results usually in Alpe Cermis. The French were a bit disappointed, especially Lapierre that just like Claudel seems to have hit his peak too early. Antolla in 24th is not bad for a junior.

As for the Norwegians nothing much to say, Krüger is obviously in great shape and gets the gold that he missed two years ago. Amundsen is obviously in monster shape, 3 years from now he will likely be one of the biggest favourites in the Olympics. Klæbo missing the podium but fluor or not him coming so close to it and just 25 seconds back on Krüger means that he should be close to undroppable in the 50k, but will see.

Not that crazy, he was 15th 2 years ago, but behind 4 Russians and Cologna who are not here, so it's pretty close to what he did before, but yes, he is in the best form of his life. And a great result for sure!

On the other hand I don't see him beating any of Bolshunov, Chervotkin, Maltsev, Yakimushkin or Spitsov in a 15km here.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Not that crazy, he was 15th 2 years ago, but behind 4 Russians and Cologna who are not here, so it's pretty close to what he did before, but yes, he is in the best form of his life. And a great result for sure!

On the other hand I don't see him beating any of Bolshunov, Chervotkin, Maltsev, Yakimushkin or Spitsov in a 15km here.

I badly wanted him to fiinish ahead of Poromaa in the end after the later talked so much crap about him at the Olympics, but you can't have everything. Imo he's one of those guys who has a great engine (see his Alpe Cermis results), but not great technique. Krüger is what you get when someone has a great engine (apparently always the highest score in the Vo2 max tests on the Norwegian team) and textbook skating technique.

 

[BigCoward]

In the end Germany almost lost Silver to Austria, really strange tactics by them. Catch Norway, then do nothing but short accelerations and hope to beat freaking Riiber in a sprint without making the race hard before? At least Norway probably knew that Riiber's skiing form is on point.

Yeah, that was really lax concentration, I bet his teammates were losing their minds.

I'm pleased for Riiber, after he blew the Olympics with covid/getting lost.

Really hard to see him not winning the last race.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Sweden and Norway just announced their realy team
Ribom-Andersson-Karlsson-Dahlqvist
Weng-Slind-Östberg-Kalvaa

Bit suprised Sundling is out, not seen any comments despite that Dahlqvist looked strong yesterday. But I guess she is not feeling well.

For Norway I think they choosed the correct team and order. Kalvaa is not going to beat any swede in the sprint but she has great opportunities to win it on the course even if she would be a few seconds back at the exchange.

If Ribom manages to drop Weng things look good for Sweden but if not, Andersson and Karlsson will have troubles getting away from the Norwegians.

Yeah, after her recent world cup results you have to back Ribom in that one. No Sundling is a bit of a surprise, but I guess they know what they are doing.

I guess Anger won't be in the final leg in the men's race after today.

 

[search]

I guess Anger won't be in the final leg in the men's race after today.

yeah, probably not. He said that he doesn't feel in shape, and just wants to get home., Today was "incredibly tough" for him.

Vintersport: Edvin Anger räknar bort stafetten: ”Just nu kan jag inte tillföra något”

Edvin Anger, 20, slutade på 50:e plats i distansloppet. Nu räknar han bort sina möjligheter att tas ut i stafettlaget. – Det finns andra som kan göra det bättre, säger Anger till SVT Sport.

www.svt.se

 

[OJRvE]

yeah, probably not. He said that he doesn't feel in shape, and just wants to get home., Today was "incredibly tough" for him.

Vintersport: Edvin Anger räknar bort stafetten: ”Just nu kan jag inte tillföra något”

Edvin Anger, 20, slutade på 50:e plats i distansloppet. Nu räknar han bort sina möjligheter att tas ut i stafettlaget. – Det finns andra som kan göra det bättre, säger Anger till SVT Sport.

www.svt.se

Kind of expected the altitude experiment didn’t pan out. I couldn’t understand why the Swedish mens team without experience from high altitude training suddenly decided to have the pre camp in Livigno. Atleast Halfvarsson and Häggström were sensible enough to stay at medium altitude in Tobalch. Grate, Rosjö, Ilar and Anger have preformed horrendous this championship. Sundling, Ribom, Burman and Poromaa have more experience from high altitude so in their case I could understand why the choosed to go to Livigno.

Karlsson, Dahlqvist, Svahn, Andersson prepared at lower altitude and so did the Norwegian mens team.

 

[YavorD]

In the end Germany almost lost Silver to Austria, really strange tactics by them. Catch Norway, then do nothing but short accelerations and hope to beat freaking Riiber in a sprint without making the race hard before? At least Norway probably knew that Riiber's skiing form is on point.

Everyone should've known that already on Saturday. His skiing was close to the usual. If he wanted/had to push, he'd comfortably have a to 10 ski tome

 

[DonAragona]

The men's race today was, like the season so far, crap and completely interesting without the Russians. It always amuses me how the Swedes hype up Burman, if he wasn't Swedish nobody would notice and their next 'star' Anger is slower now than at Junior level.

Can't believe the Swedes have dropped Sundling...MADNESS.

Germany is dark, dark horses and ski very well, woman to woman. All about Victoria Carl for me which medal Germany win.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In men's races, the only hope we have is that it's in Classic and Iivo Niskanen just blows everybody to smithereens. He will invariably try to, it's just whether he succeeds. But aside from that? You're just reliant on some demolition derby sprints to vary the fields a bit. I mean, we can hope for the likes of Moch to do well, but in terms of actually contesting the medals that's no more likely than my cheering for Eiduka in the women's skiathlon.

 

[Lequack]

Finnish relay

Fans are cheerful inside the warm tents

https://twitter.com/x/status/1630985389681901569

View: https://twitter.com/TinaHacler/status/1630985389681901569

 

[Mayomaniac]

The other notable teams for the women's relay are:

USA with Hailey Swirbul, Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern
Germany with Laura Gimmler, Katharina Hennig, Pia Fink, Victoria Carl
Finnland with Johanna Matintalo, Kerttu Niskanen, Evelina Piippo, Krista Pärmäkoski
Switzerland with Weber, Fähndrich, Fischer, Meier
France with Ducordeau, Claudel, Dolci, Quentin
Italy with Comarella, Pittin, Franchi, Sanfilippo
Czech Rep. with Novakova, Razymova, Janatova, Havlickova

Imo Germany is pretty much the only one that can put up a fight against Sweden and Norway.

 

[KZD]

Not that crazy, he was 15th 2 years ago, but behind 4 Russians and Cologna who are not here, so it's pretty close to what he did before, but yes, he is in the best form of his life. And a great result for sure!

On the other hand I don't see him beating any of Bolshunov, Chervotkin, Maltsev, Yakimushkin or Spitsov in a 15km here.

To clarify, I used the word crazy more in the context of the country than his own, I mean a skier from Andorra beating all skiers from France, Finland, Germany and Italy plus three Swedish in a WC race is pretty wild even though a top10 would have always been a distinct possibility with this field. Still, even with the Russians racing he would have likely finished 11th, which would have been an improvement compared with 2 years ago, so a great result indeed.

 

[Lequack]

Also what is it with Norwegian skiers all being clean shaven and looking like kids? I miss Sundby.

 

[BullsFan22]

The other notable teams for the women's relay are:

USA with Hailey Swirbul, Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern
Germany with Laura Gimmler, Katharina Hennig, Pia Fink, Victoria Carl
Finnland with Johanna Matintalo, Kerttu Niskanen, Evelina Piippo, Krista Pärmäkoski
Switzerland with Weber, Fähndrich, Fischer, Meier
France with Ducordeau, Claudel, Dolci, Quentin
Italy with Comarella, Pittin, Franchi, Sanfilippo
Czech Rep. with Novakova, Razymova, Janatova, Havlickova

Imo Germany is pretty much the only one that can put up a fight against Sweden and Norway.

The classic legs will be easier, so I expect Gimmler to hang on with the leaders. If she does, then Carl will be the one that makes or breaks their medal aspirations. She was in a battle for bronze two years ago, but couldn’t quite hang on on the 2nd lap, the Burgstall hill was tough. Just like two years ago, the skate legs will be harder, so we’ll see how she’ll cope this time round.

I am not too high on the Finns. Matintalo isn’t in form. If she can hang and give Niskanen a chance to ski with the leaders or doesn’t lose too much time, they could fight for the medals.

For the Americans it’s simple, don’t lose too much in the classic legs. Also I am not convinced Kern will have the strength to respond to pace changes on the harder lap.

Last year Stupak pushed the pace early in the opening leg and only Germany was able to stay close. That proved to be decisive. Wonder if anyone will try something similar. I hope so.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

The classic legs will be easier, so I expect Gimmler to hang on with the leaders. If she does, then Carl will be the one that makes or breaks their medal aspirations. She was in a battle for bronze two years ago, but couldn’t quite hang on on the 2nd lap, the Burgstall hill was tough. Just like two years ago, the skate legs will be harder, so we’ll see how she’ll cope this time round.

According to the official course maps it's the same course for both classic and skate. Look at page 9 here: https://www.planica2023.si/uploads/Dokumenti/Nordic_WSC_Planica_2023_-_Course_Map_v22_01_2023.pdf

I think it's a very strange decision to drop Sundling. From about 1,1 km to 3,0 km there is almost continuously upphill. Dahlqvist, which is generally a lot better in easier terrain, might struggle a lot to keep up with Kalvå here.