Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[dobrien]

Ebba attacks

 

[Norbea]

Wengs skis are icing

 

[Salvarani]

Ebba!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Interestingly, for all the performance Jess put in on that lap relative to the group she was in, she gained all of 1 second on Ebba and Heidi despite the fact they changed skis.

Ebba has now opened up a gap on Heidi, which definitely adds intrigue behind given that Heidi will have to work alone from now.

 

[Salvarani]

Gap increasing

Ebbas redemption!

 

[Norbea]

It is still a long way to go. This is a risky effort by Ebba

 

[dobrien]

Watching a replay of Ebba's stumble, she's lucky she didn't break a binding there.

 

[KZD]

If Andersson's skis don't fail her in the end, she has this.

 

[Salvarani]

Weng is in survival mode but doesnt look completely empty tbh

But if the gap keep increasing that is tough to take mentally

 

[Mayomaniac]

Watching a replay of Ebba's stumble, she's lucky she didn't break a binding there.

Or a pole.
A bit of a gamble by Stadlobrr, she should have changed skis alongside Fosnaes

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Weng is in survival mode but doesnt look completely empty tbh

But if the gap keep increasing that is tough to take mentally

Unfortunately for her, mental strength and Heidi Weng are not concepts that are close friends.

The pack are back with Diggins now, including those that changed. Still a few of them with a pair of fresh planks in the hutch though.

Edit: you can see how ferocious the pace from Andersson has been though - the pack were at 1'44 before this lap (despite Diggins' heroics on the previous lap, she only gained 1 second and Dixon pointed out it was the slowest laptime by those up front too), and now with Ebba forcing the pace on fresh skis, she's put over a further minute into them. It looks like she's breaking Heidi to pieces, but Heidi is still going over a minute faster than the pack battling over bronze this lap.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Why is Nepryaeva still in the race by the way?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why is Nepryaeva still in the race by the way?

Probably just keeping on going until the stadium? Or pulling a... which racing driver was it that just kept ignoring a disqualification? My mind is telling me Robby Gordon?

 

[jsem94]

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.

Thank Christ I am listening to Hård & Blomquist on Swedish TV.


I feel so bad for Hennig rn, I've never seen this happen before.

 

[BullsFan22]

It’s painful to watch Diggins ski. A lot of U14 skiers ski technically better than her.

 

[jsem94]

It’s painful to watch Diggins ski. A lot of U14 skiers ski technically better than her.

All engine and willpower. It's pretty incredible tbh, but it's such an eyesore.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cavalcades into the station, Kälin, Niskanen and Stadlober on brand new skis. Kälin just about keeps it on the island, nearly followed Andersson and Diggins' example. I wonder if the temperature is changing a bit which is making it slightly less perilous as the race goes on as each successive incident less of an issue.

 

[dobrien]

Honestly, I would not be surprised to see Kaelin take the bronze, she is looking as good as anyone here at the moment.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

All engine and willpower. It's pretty incredible tbh, but it's such an eyesore.

Idunno, definitely it's all reliance on an elite engine (and especially her Alpe Cermis climb is horrendous when her head starts to go, but that' always been just about survival), but I'd argue that she's Darya Domracheva compared to Brennan.

 

[Salvarani]

Well-deserved for Ebba this one

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Rucka-Michalek might still come back to the bronze group. Currently 33 seconds

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Diggins really suffering on this hill, has slowly crept further to the back. Going to be a tough last lap to hang in there for her.

The fact everybody here is settled on bronze works well though, as the pace is now quite cautious, they've lost another 2 minutes on Ebba, and are still losing a lot of time on Weng despite Heidi losing a minute to Ebba by this stage.

 

[dobrien]

Fascinating Bronze battle. Teresa is such a tough cookie, always enjoy watching her race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why is Winterton asking about which athletes here would be best suited to switching to biathlon in a race in classic technique which is more than twice the length of the longest biathlon World Cup race (Russian domestic scene has the Marathon, a 40k race with 8 shoots, but that doesn't exist on the World Cup)?

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Why is Winterton asking about which athletes here would be best suited to switching to biathlon in a race in classic technique which is more than twice the length of the longest biathlon World Cup race (Russian domestic scene has the Marathon, a 40k race with 8 shoots, but that doesn't exist on the World Cup)?

Because this race is long enough to ask all sorts of silly questions.