sworks said:
Tore: Petter is a slow starter in sprint, live with it. What should the swedes have done? Get out off the track and took off their hats for Petter? You have great knowledge in skiing but now you are one-eyed.
This is bad sportsmanship:
http://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/har-aker-northug-over-bangransen/
And what is this? Who do Petter think he is? He must come down on earth.
http://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/svenska-stromstrulet---northug-fick-bast-plats/
Actually his starting has actually improved in the sprint. It's just that Emil is so much better so you don't notice it. Of course Petter is not as fast as the specialist sprinters. And of those Emil is numero uno.
As for the tactics, the situations that seemed suspect happened throughout the heat. But, you are right it was good tactics, and not unsportsmanship. I was trying to contrast this vs. the Steira situation that Tylers Twin brought up and amplified my dissapointment to contrast the viewpoints. Mind you my debt of feeling was not as intense as what the post indicates.
Having seen the race again, without a hangover and biased excitement the situations i noticed on first viewing seem like good racing by Emil and Halvarsson. Halvarsson has been impressive so far in this tour. The talent he showed last season in Sjursøen is beginning to show. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in a sprint after a distance race. Perhaps in sochi he will cause me a lot of stress if he goes up againts Northug in the relay.
sworks said:
I Disagree, and now Im sober and rested. That situation was amplified in the Swedish media because of the harsh penalty Daniel Richardsson received.
Northugs transgression in this situation is something no one would have brought up if it were not for the Richardsson case. What Northug did has been common througout races before, and is still common. It's just that no one has made anything out of it/noticed anything. If someone were to be disquallified for things like that there would have been a lot of disqualifications. Northug got a yellow card because of the Richardsson case, not because he did something that was unfair. Remember getting your ski outside of the marked area, carries a risk in itself. Something Cologna is a good illustration of in this years tour sprint. It's not something you want to do if you can avoid it.
As for what Daniel Richardsson did in last years tour. His transgression was much more severe than what Northug did. I think the reason he was penalized so harshly(much to harsh IMO) is that this was something that the team leaders were explicitly told was strictly forbidden in the pre race meeting the day before.
What Daniel did was not easily discernable in the broadcast, so did not get that much attention. Basicly what he did was advance past the field using about a 100 to 200 meters of forbidden area. Thereby bypassing maybe 20-30 skiers giving himself an unfair advantage. My impression is that Daniel forgot this was not allowed and got caught up in the rush of gaining so many places. Not any intension to cheat. I think part of the reason his punishment was so severe was that the rules only had two types of sanctions available. Last in the field or a yellow card. They figured that what he did deserved more than a yellow card, something I agree with, but the resulting last placing was totally over the top. But alas, those were the rules. A fair punishment in that situation would have in my opinion been a time penalty of maybe max 30 seconds. I hope this has been changed in the rules now so that penalties are no longer so unproportional.
Anyway Richardssons form meant he had no tour chances anyway, so the competition itself was not affected that much in the end. But that still doesn't make his harsh punishment right.
sworks said:
I don't think he drives the buss or parks it
The situation were his buss takes up a spot that is reserved for a team vehicle is obviously the organizers fault. The Northug express is obviously at the bottom of the list when it comes to choice of parking location.
As for Northug having a bus. Well he/his personal sponsors are responsible for that, so no economical burden on the Norwegian team. Northug is very professional in every aspect, especially the science of resting/sleeping. And previous tours have shown that this is something with room for improvement. So he tries something new to improve his ability to recover between the races, which has previously been one of his weak areas. He seems to need a very quiet environment around him when he is in competition and training and this might provide it for him.
As for the ethical/moral questions of him having a personal comamobil. It does leave a sour taste on my social democratic taste buds. But if he wins I will be able to handle the personal hypocracy and let this one slide.
