Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[DonAragona]

I didn't say that she needs to skip it to win gold but it certainly helps as these World Championships have been showing. Ultimately World Championships > Tour de Ski so she made the right call just like Sundling.

I think Niskanen's skis are not good enough today for him to do a solo (or his shape is not good enough). Golberg has been looking good so far, I think he might drop Klæbo and win this in a small sprint.

Who would have won Gold had they ridden the Tour?

 

[Bavarianrider]

That was pretty boring. Was expecting more from Niskanen to try and break it from early.

He did not have the skies to do that.

 

[DonAragona]

Golberg didn't ski in the lanes at the end, Klaebo did...another tactical error?

 

[Mayomaniac]

In the end a respectable results for the Italians and a really good one for the Swedes. Burman is one of those guys who'd have a lot more impressive results if we had more proper distance races...

 

[titan31]

He did not have the skies to do that.

Looked like he didn't have the condition to do it either imo.

 

[meat puppet]

Don't think it was only or even mostly about the skis, though they likely contributed as well. Niskanen had covid during the most important build phase. That's bound to affect his form quite a bit, which IMHO was visible throughout the games and the entire spring too.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Looked like he didn't have the condition to do it either imo.

Hard to tell, I am more on the side that he did what was possible with his skies. That being said, of course Niskanen is not excactly a warm weather specialists himself.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Hard to tell, I am more on the side that he did what was possible with his skies. That being said, of course Niskanen is not excactly a warm weather specialists himself.

Hard to tell who had worse skis, Finnland or Switzerland.

Musgrave over 8min down, at least his girlfriend just won Vasaloppet, so everything should be fine.

 

[KZD]

Who would have won Gold had they ridden the Tour?

I have no idea but that's besides the point, Andersson can do the Tour next year, this year the main goal World Championships and she was the stronger than Karlsson when it mattered the most.

Happy for Golberg, he looked good during the race and used his speed to win at the end as I predicted during the race.

 

[meat puppet]

Yeah, Golberg raced to his strengths and probably spent most kms at the front. Paced hard enough to lick Kläbo's plate clean before starting his own.

 

[Mayomaniac]

On a serious not, Vermeulen's result is really good. He was a NC athlete who switched over in the 2018/2019 season, so for him to up his classic skiing so much in just a few years is impressive. He also moved to Lillehammer before the start of the 2020/21 season to have better training conditions and training partners. His older brother Moran is a cyclist on an Austrian Conti-team, 11th on the gc in the Fleche du Sud last season and 6th in the Alpes-Isere Tour in 2021.

 

[meat puppet]

Niskanen said 1) he had good skis, 2) was arrogant thinking a short attack on the last lap would be enough when he should have attacked earlier and 3) is very disappointed in himself.

 

[BigCoward]

Niskanen said 1) he had good skis, 2) was arrogant thinking a short attack on the last lap would be enough when he should have attacked earlier and 3) is very disappointed in himself.

Isn't that just how everyone should behave when they lose? I hate whiners.

 

[meat puppet]

Isn't that just how everyone should behave when they lose? I hate whiners.

Indeed. I have not been a fan of his but applaud this kind of honesty.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Niskanen said 1) he had good skis, 2) was arrogant thinking a short attack on the last lap would be enough when he should have attacked earlier and 3) is very disappointed in himself.

That what makes a great sportsman. No excuses or blaming of others. that being said, it eas visible that his skies lacked gliding speed.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Isn't that just how everyone should behave when they lose? I hate whiners.

Swedish skiers .exe stopped working.

 

[Mayomaniac]

De Fabiani wasn't even sure that he'd actually start the race because he got a rather bad cold.

• Says that he's 90% sure that he wouldn't have gotten a medal even without breaking his pole, but of course it would have been better to be in the fight, the relay result was much worse for him (the Italians were one of the few to start that one with no-wax skis, they messed up, but you don't hear the athletes say a single bad word about the staff, take notes Sweden).
• Says that Poromaa broke his pole, but according to him it was a normal incident and stuff like this can always happen.
• Says that the conditions and the great skis probably helped him. Actually a pretty honest and classy interview shortly after the race.

In the next years he wants to focus more on the 50km and race until the Olympics, because the tracks in Val di Fiemme are his favourite ones in the whole World Cup.

 

[OJRvE]

So on the Cross Country mens side Norway won 12 out 14 possible medals and on the woman’s side Sweden won 11 out of 14 possible medals. Fairly sure both are records.

 

[BullsFan22]

So on the Cross Country mens side Norway won 12 out 14 possible medals and on the woman’s side Sweden won 11 out of 14 possible medals. Fairly sure both are records.

Hardly a surprise

 

[Lequack]

Niskanen said 1) he had good skis, 2) was arrogant thinking a short attack on the last lap would be enough when he should have attacked earlier and 3) is very disappointed in himself.

If only he had asked us, we would've told him to go on lap 1.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1632425740925915136

View: https://twitter.com/PlanicaNordic/status/1632425740925915136

 

[Lequack]

Some fun at the end

https://twitter.com/x/status/1632352525255884802

View: https://twitter.com/OutofContextXC/status/1632352525255884802?s=20

https://twitter.com/x/status/1632388173878706178

View: https://twitter.com/OutofContextXC/status/1632388173878706178?s=20

 

[Lequack]

Medal count

 

[Mayomaniac]

Some fun at the end

https://twitter.com/x/status/1632352525255884802

View: https://twitter.com/OutofContextXC/status/1632352525255884802?s=20

https://twitter.com/x/status/1632388173878706178

View: https://twitter.com/OutofContextXC/status/1632388173878706178?s=20

How Valnes managed to break that ski is still a mystery to me.

 

[DonAragona]

Where does this leave Klaebo?

The Norwegians can spin it as they like but that's a failure of a championship for him. I don't care how many golds he wins in sprint/team sprint and relay it's the distance medals that matter for his legacy.

Losing a sprint to Golberg and barely keeping Poromaa behind, he can NEVER undo that regardless of future success.

Today's 50k was the worst since probably Liberec in terms of field quality and he still can't win...what's the plan when Bolsh and Co come back?

 

[Mayomaniac]

So Pellegrino said that he's actually enjoying these long distance races more than sprints nowadays and that he wants to focus more on them.
He got cramps in his arms before dropping, apparently he always gets them in 50km races. Seems like something that could be fixed with training + nurition.