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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Just watched the 3 Zinnen Ski Marathon (It's still the Pustertaler Skimarathon to me) Ski Classics event on one of the hardest climbs early on. The uphill double poling is impressive. That said, in the women's field there's a big gap between the top athletes and the rest, you can pretty much see it when they go uphill.
 
Nov 28, 2021
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Finally Elvira Öberg remembers how to shoot. Sadly it took a pursuit race after she flunked the sprint, because that was a pretty insane race that in any other format would have won comfortably. In the format with the shortest skiing loops too.
This was the third straight weekend now when she completely wasted the sprint only to do a monster performance in the Puirsuit. Although I have to admit what she did today was probably her best race ever
 
From a French podium in the sprint to a Norwegian podium in the pursuit. Lægreid gains quite a few points on Johannes Bø this week which is good news for the sport.

Preuß can't afford to have another week like one otherwise she risks Jeanmonot or Öberg overtaking her.
 
Sorry, I thought you were talking about the pursuit standings, but that is of course the red bib.
The change from U25 to U23 doesn't seem to make any difference on the women's side, the highest ranked U25 that isn't also U23 that I can see is Hannah Auchentaller, who is over 200 points behind Richard.

Much bigger impact on the men's side, where Perrot and Uldal would both be eligible as U25 and are both well ahead of Wright who holds the blue bib, with Giacomel also eligible who is between Wright and second-placed Mandzyn in the ranks.
 
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It's quite interesting how Uldal is usually very fast in the sprints and so slow in pursuits. He "only" missed 4 and finished 30th more than 2 minutes back.

Meanwhile Dale-Skjevdal is destroying the IBU cup. He should be given a chance surely.
 
It's quite interesting how Uldal is usually very fast in the sprints and so slow in pursuits. He "only" missed 4 and finished 30th more than 2 minutes back.

Meanwhile Dale-Skjevdal is destroying the IBU cup. He should be given a chance surely.
Problem for Dale-Skjevdal is he started the season at the World Cup and got relegated for poor performance letting Uldal in, and then Uldal took the ball and ran with it. Remember that the team have rested Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen this week as well. Tarjei Bø was teetering on the edge of being the one in line to be dropped, but then he won the mass start at Annecy and got another podium today too so there's no slot available.

Dale-Skjevdal was in the top 5 of the crystal globe overall last year, but it's not the first time he's lost shooting form and been relegated to the IBU Cup either. Ruhpolding is probably the most skier-favouring venue on the calendar though, with a sheltered range and a fairly easy run to it meaning it often has the highest shooting percentages of the season, so it would be the ideal place to bring him back if they were planning on doing so, I suspect he's probably trapped where he is until the European Championships though.
 
Problem for Dale-Skjevdal is he started the season at the World Cup and got relegated for poor performance letting Uldal in, and then Uldal took the ball and ran with it. Remember that the team have rested Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen this week as well. Tarjei Bø was teetering on the edge of being the one in line to be dropped, but then he won the mass start at Annecy and got another podium today too so there's no slot available.

Dale-Skjevdal was in the top 5 of the crystal globe overall last year, but it's not the first time he's lost shooting form and been relegated to the IBU Cup either. Ruhpolding is probably the most skier-favouring venue on the calendar though, with a sheltered range and a fairly easy run to it meaning it often has the highest shooting percentages of the season, so it would be the ideal place to bring him back if they were planning on doing so, I suspect he's probably trapped where he is until the European Championships though.

You're right. Kinda forgot about Christiansen. And tough luck for Botn, who has been very solinld in his WC starts, but probably won't get a single opportunity this season.
 
Wang really needs some races. Yesterday he finished only 5th in an Italian national race classic sprint.
The race was won by Mocellini, ahead of Gabrielli and De Fabiani.
I didn't watch the race, so maybe he made a tactical mistake.
 
You're right. Kinda forgot about Christiansen. And tough luck for Botn, who has been very solinld in his WC starts, but probably won't get a single opportunity this season.
Isak Frey is more than ready for a WC debut too, but he's probably third in the queue from the current IBU Cup lot (he might be ahead of Botn actually, but the fact he can still go to the Junior Worlds and Botn has that previous WC experience means Botn's probably slightly ahead of him in line) and the current WC group numbers 7 with only 6 starts available anyway. Their depth is pretty scary when you consider how successful journeyman types like Aspenes are being on the IBU Cup too, and formerly star juniors like Sivert Bakken have to be factored in...

The French women are approaching that level. Simon, Braisaz-Bouchet and Jeanmonnot are all top talents obviously, but Michelon and Richard are settling in as regular top 10s in the WC, they've got Botet coming in and immediately winning (although that may turn out to be something of an anomaly, she's still fairly proven and just dropped back to the IBU Cup because there wasn't room for her) with Bondoux who was top 5 of the IBU Cup last year having to drop to the Junior Cup as there's no room for her, and Mengin stepping straight from the Junior Cup to the IBU Cup and winning too. Sophie Chauveau and Gilonne Guigonnat may not be quite as proven or as high level as Johannes Dale-Skjevdal and Vebjørn Sørum but they're basically fulfilling that role, being dropped to the IBU Cup not because they aren't clearly World Cup talent but just because somebody has to be as they have more worthy talent than they have starts available.
 
Finland winning the single mixed relay. First time they win a biathlon relay in many years for sure.
Would be a long, long, long time since a Finnish man stood on the top step of any podium. It's a good few years since anybody did for the women, other than Mäkäräinen. Laukkanen/Eder got 2 wins at the end of a season at once point, but that's the best part of a decade ago too.
 
Johannes Bø was lucky that Lægreid missed more than usual otherwise he could have lost the yellow bib already today. Its not looking good for him to win his 6th World Cup though.

Sørum is the six Norwegian to win a World Cup this season and Dale had a pretty decent return too.
 
Petter Northug also finished 8th, only 1sec behind Golberg and ahead of Valnes, Krüger, Tönseth and Andersen.
How was the course, did it favour the more powerful guys?
Yeah, not the hardest course (but neither is Trondheim..) and Northug went on blank skis and double poled the whole thing. All the others were on kick wax, and it did seem like the national team guys were struggling a bit with the skis.