Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Salvarani]

This is worse than men's race yesterday, 5km of racing and 45km of nothing happening. I understand why FIS wants shorter races.

Its funny as they not too long ago changed it from 30km to 50km for the women. So both men and women have the same distances

 

[dobrien]

Diggins changing skis

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Diggins with a super early change and a horrendous reintroduction to the tracks too, with way too much grip.

Winterton suggests "we might have to say that Diggins' chances of the gold medal are gone" as though slipping on the way into the tracks was the thing that did it and she wasn't clearly struggling for a long time before that. I mean, hell, the fact she's changing skis after 15km is a sign that it's going very wrong...

...now he's talking about Alex Yee in the Paris triathlon to try to sell that she still has a chance, I don't know who he's trying to lie to more, us or himself...

 

[Salvarani]

Doesnt look good for Stadlober now

I think she will be caught

 

[Salvarani]

Nadja Kaelin doing well

 

[dobrien]

Bronze very much in play here it seems.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is worse than men's race yesterday, 5km of racing and 45km of nothing happening. I understand why FIS wants shorter races.

Problem is, it's the blue riband event so it comes at the end of the championships, and it's the most gruelling event so if you held it earlier it would adversely impact the other races, but especially with lots of illness and fatigue withdrawals, it's just an attrition-fest.

When they brought it in, no joke, it was the perfect time for it, probably a couple of years too late, because we were coming to the end of an era when distance racing for women was just Therese Johaug skiing away from everybody after a couple of kilometres and never being seen again. However, what we learned in the latter days of that was that Therese could do that because she knew for a fact she could keep that pace up for 15-20k, so any distance World Cup race was well within her remit, and though she'd tire at the end of a 30k, she'd have distanced everybody by enough to still comfortably hold on. But Frida Karlsson typically gets better the longer a race is in these distance races, and we'd see her being distanced but then chasing Johaug down but running out of time, and so a 50k was perfect to bring in at that point.

But there we're talking, like, the Holmenkollen 50 as a standalone event. Coming after two weeks of intense competition, and especially in these warmer, softer conditions where pure attrition will be more of a factor, this is more of a pure sufferfest to the line than a tactical race.

 

[dobrien]

This is worse than men's race yesterday, 5km of racing and 45km of nothing happening. I understand why FIS wants shorter races.

Don't think I agree with this; at the moment we have compelling battles for Gold and Bronze (which could of course change in an instant); for me, today feels much more interesting than the foregone conclusion of yesterday.

 

[search]

Did Nepryaeva just take Hennig's ski?

 

[dobrien]

Teresa looks like the wheels could come off at any moment unfortunately, at least to my eyes.

 

[Norbea]

Did Nepryaeva just take Hennig's ski?

Yes. She stole the wrong skis. Disaster for both

 

[dobrien]

Did Nepryaeva just take Hennig's ski?

She certainly looked like she was in the wrong lane to me?!?!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Nepryaeva and Matintalo the others of some level of significance to change skis before the halfway point. Mike Dixon makes a big deal of how Diggins' group didn't lose any more time that lap despite the disastrous change at the start of it, before logging that Andersson and Weng were 20" slower than the previous lap that time around.

 

[BullsFan22]

Typical Weng wheelsucking

 

[search]

looks like Kaelin may come back into medal contention as well

 

[Salvarani]

Diggins looking better now

Maybe could still get bronze

 

[dobrien]

Diggins not out of the medal fight at all.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Problem is going to be that those skis will be 35k old at the end and everybody else in that group still has to change theirs, so she's going to have to hope they keep gliding well.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Don‘t think Diggins can win a Medal here, she‘s still got fresher skis than everyone around her.

 

[dobrien]

Problem is going to be that those skis will be 35k old at the end and everybody else in that group still has to change theirs, so she's going to have to hope they keep gliding well.

Good point, especially with the harder conditions. She really has to make hay while the sun shines here, and if the others change that factors into the gap too. This is shaping up much more interestingly than yesterday for sure.

 

[BullsFan22]

Diggins not out of the medal fight at all.

A looooong way to go, bud. Also, she has a fresh pair of skis. Those around her don’t.

 

[dobrien]

Diggins missing a feed?

 

[dobrien]

A looooong way to go, bud. Also, she has a fresh pair of skis. Those around her don’t.

I revise my statement to read "Diggins not out of the medal fight AT THE MOMENT!"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Winterton has just picked up that "we've just heard that there's a problem with Hennig-Dotzler of Germany"... it was literally on screen, Patrick, she has no skis to change to because Nepryaeva's taken hers!

Edit, similarly poor change for Ebba, but now both her and Heidi are on new planks. Winterton believes that everybody behind has changed skis so this evens things out, seems not to realise that literally only Diggins of the chase group is on new skis.

 

[dobrien]

Andersson stumbling as well...