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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Bavarianrider

Bavarianrider

Apr 7, 2011
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Things i would suggest

- Sprints have to be of 1.5 km and should include some difficulty. No totally flat city sprints!
- Especially Woman distances in general have to increase
- Mass starts should only be used on 30km or longer (or 20km or something for women)
- Tracks should be of a decent difficulty, especially during mass start races.
- Individual starts should not be totally ditched. At least a few times a season there should be individual starts on longer distances. That's simply what makes cross country skiing. Don't forget your history!
- If you make an event like the Tour de Ski it has to live up to the hype. This year's route is pathetic, especially the one for the women.

For world championchips(Olympic games i would suggest the following patterns.

15km individual start (free or classic)
30km individual start (free or classic)
50km skiathlon mass start
4 x 10km rleay (free, classic, free, classic)
1,5km Sprint (free or classic)
Team Sprint ( one classic, one free)

Women accordingly
Distance races 10km, 20km and 30km

Men
 
F

Ferminal

Jul 3, 2009
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Yesterday's stages seem the most pointless of the lot, oooh, a 15 minute effort! Should have been a 30km+ TT, at least on the mens side it would mean the GC is not just based on time bonuses. Stupid to have 7 stages and the only real gaps appear in the final 5km, Unipublic would love that.
 
hoerpi

hoerpi

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Bavarianrider said:
Things i would suggest

- Sprints have to be of 1.5 km and should include some difficulty. No totally flat city sprints!
- Especially Woman distances in general have to increase
- Mass starts should only be used on 30km or longer (or 20km or something for women)
- Tracks should be of a decent difficulty, especially during mass start races.
- Individual starts should not be totally ditched. At least a few times a season there should be individual starts on longer distances. That's simply what makes cross country skiing. Don't forget your history!
- If you make an event like the Tour de Ski it has to live up to the hype. This year's route is pathetic, especially the one for the women.

For world championchips(Olympic games i would suggest the following patterns.

15km individual start (free or classic)
30km individual start (free or classic)
50km skiathlon mass start
4 x 10km rleay (free, classic, free, classic)
1,5km Sprint (free or classic)
Team Sprint ( one classic, one free)

Women accordingly
Distance races 10km, 20km and 30km

Men
Click to expand...
no no no no NO!

Mass starts should only be for races up tom 10 km, because then it's not long enough to get thurn in to a big borefest. The last world champs and olympics has been sad moments for nordic skiing and I'm close to stop watching skiing if something does not change back to how it used to be. Skiing is a fight between real athletes, not a 49 km stare-out followed by a sprint-
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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Well, we got what we hoped for in that real skiers like Steira and Johaug can make a difference today. Still feel the stage should be longer, but still. Kowalczyk still able to utterly destroy the field. Johaug runs out of wax and energy at the end and Kowalczyk picks up maximum bonuses (which there are way too many of) to Johaug's none on the line, while Kalla has a jour sans, seemingly thanks to the ski prep, yet again.
 
Bavarianrider

Bavarianrider

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hoerpi said:
no no no no NO!

Mass starts should only be for races up tom 10 km, because then it's not long enough to get thurn in to a big borefest. The last world champs and olympics has been sad moments for nordic skiing and I'm close to stop watching skiing if something does not change back to how it used to be. Skiing is a fight between real athletes, not a 49 km stare-out followed by a sprint-
Click to expand...

That's why i sad routes have to be realy hard!! Of cours ei don't want to see those borefests, you are right. Oslo 50km was horrible for example.
That's why i would make the 50km the skiathlon, though. At least clasic specialsts would maybe do something and fire up the race.
 
meat puppet

meat puppet

May 29, 2011
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Bavarianrider said:
That's why i sad routes have to be realy hard!! Of cours ei don't want to see those borefests, you are right. Oslo 50km was horrible for example.
That's why i would make the 50km the skiathlon, though. At least clasic specialsts would maybe do something and fire up the race.
Click to expand...
Yet the Oslo 50k contains 1998m of climbing, so not exactly an easy route. Actually among the hardest, I reckon.

Hope they pop Northug. Didnt look too good. And man, Bauer and classic skiing, such an eyecandy.

The Russians are driving it, Petter almost through the door. Bad day? Too bad this isn't a TT.

Or bad skis? Maybe excessive grip, as he can seemingly run up the climbs but not glide.
 
meat puppet

meat puppet

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Also cheers to the fact that there were moments it looked as though they were racing and not just watching each other.

Will be interesting to hear the interviews. Quite surprised about Cologna being off the pace. Hellner did quite well, but I bet there is no way he can podium. Actually not a snowball's chance in hell.
 
jsem94

jsem94

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Will be interesting to see what Poltoranin will bring to the table tomorrow up the final climb, he's been absolutely brilliant these two days. Otherwise, this looks like a set up for Legkov.

Also will be interesting to see if Johaug can do something miraculous tomorrow, probably not, but one can dream. It was a shame she lost so much today.
 
ToreBear

ToreBear

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Bavarianrider said:
Lekhov clearly blocked Angerer. He will get sanctioned, i guess.
Click to expand...

Question is what sanction.

He blocked angerer and it looks like he used skating moves. Also there is a question of the right of way in the final meters.I'm not up to date on the rules. The Germans are usully not shy of complaining, so time will show.

The least he should get is a yellow card.

The big sin is breaking the style rules and skating IMHO. Then again it doesn't look like it gained him that much. Had this been a single race I think he could risk disqualification. With the tour and he being among the top contenders, I don't think such a severe punishment is likely.
 
ToreBear

ToreBear

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As for the races.

The womens race looked as expected. Not the best skiis for the Norwegians, but not the worst either. Impressive race by Wiken, and I'm happy to see Haag is beginning to find her form. Johaug and Weng have not been sparkling as I had hoped this tour. They were following the Marit pre tour program, and that might not be what's best for them. Steira has been following a different program, and seems to have found a good shape.

Hmm, things to think about later I guess.

Tomorrow I don't see anyone threatening Justyna unless her technique up the hill is even worse than her skating technique looks this year.

One interesting among the many interesting things to watch is the Johaug vs Steira climb. I see Steira catching Johaug on the flat before the climb. With Johaug not sparkling, while Steira looks to be in great shape, that looks like an open competition.


For the mens races I'm a sad Panda.

The Norwegian skiis seemed not too bad. But Northug seemed totally out of it regarding glide. It could be he was so tired today that he couldn't even double poll to gain the usual speed. I'm thinking a combination of Northug having a real bad day, the Norwegian waxers not being in top shape, and Northug totally blundering when he chose the skis.

Tomorrow anything can happen in theory, but I see a Legkov vs Cologna duel. And we might finally see how fast Dario is up the final climb.

I go to cry now.:( Norway still not managing to win the Tour de ski is.....
014.gif
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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meat puppet said:
A yellow card and a nominal (slap on the wrist) time penalty, 15 sec or so would be fine. DQing would be over the top imo.

And as I write this, Gössner drops all 5. Gee.
Click to expand...

She dropped all 5 in prone in the relay too. She did miss 2 in standing to return the universe to normalcy, however, and although her times on the first two laps seemed bionic she only took 7 seconds out of Berger on lap 3.

Domracheva may well be back to something approaching top skiing form though - with 4 penalties she's ahead of Skardino with none, and Semerenko with 2.

Then again, take 2 penalty loops off that time and it's still some way of Gößner's time, and Gößner, though better than she used to be, isn't exactly fast in the range.
 
T

Tyler'sTwin

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Libertine Seguros said:
She dropped all 5 in prone in the relay too. She did miss 2 in standing to return the universe to normalcy, however, and although her times on the first two laps seemed bionic she only took 7 seconds out of Berger on lap 3.

Domracheva may well be back to something approaching top skiing form though - with 4 penalties she's ahead of Skardino with none, and Semerenko with 2.

Then again, take 2 penalty loops off that time and it's still some way of Gößner's time, and Gößner, though better than she used to be, isn't exactly fast in the range.
Click to expand...

Range time

1. Mali 1.35.0

5. Gößner +3.9

45. Domracheva +28.2

Course time

1. Gößner 18.43.4
2. Domracheva +4.1
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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Tyler'sTwin said:
Range time

1. Mali 1.35.0

5. Gößner +3.9

45. Domracheva +28.2

Course time

1. Gößner 18.43.4
2. Domracheva +4.1
Click to expand...
Impressed. She had improved range time, especially in prone, and that has been obvious, but I didn't think she'd have got that fast, but then again TV coverage didn't show her standing shoot as it was looking at Berger setting the time out of the range (before Miri did her penalty loops obviously) so I just guessed based on history; her typical range time is still not among the best - average range time 2012 season up until the relay was 56,1 to Domracheva's 54,9, so even on a good day I didn't think she'd take that much time out of Darya on the range.
 
T

Tyler'sTwin

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Darya has also been shooting faster this season (about 3s), but she took forever adjusting her aim in the prone today.

I'm glad Legkov only lost 15s. Hopefully it wont affect the outcome of the Tour.
 
M

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jsem94 said:
Will be interesting to see what Poltoranin will bring to the table tomorrow up the final climb, he's been absolutely brilliant these two days. Otherwise, this looks like a set up for Legkov.

Also will be interesting to see if Johaug can do something miraculous tomorrow, probably not, but one can dream. It was a shame she lost so much today.
Click to expand...
A bit disappointed that Poltarinin didn't try something earlier today. Considering how bad all the favourites looked, with the exception of Legkov, they definitely could've put a lot of time on them if they had started attacking earlier.

Too bad this stage has been shortened to 15, now even Valjas, a pure sprinter, can be second on this course...
 
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