Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[roundabout]

shame about the last 2 for Rastorgujevs for the sheer hilarity of it all

Edit: a slim podium chance is still there

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Johaug skied 20s faster than Weng and Bjorgen on the flats and still managed to set the fastest climbing time by 3%. She's in a league of her own as a climber.

Also impressed by muscle Marit in cruise control outclimbing Stephen and only losing 12s to Weng.

 

[python]

Kowalczyk went unconscious / fainted 900 m from the finish and was taken to alocal hospital ...hope nothing serious

(not sure if it is 100% translation but seems serious)


http://eurosport.onet.pl/zimowe/biegi-narciarskie/tour-de-ski-justyna-kowalczyk-nie-ukonczyla-biegu-polka-odwieziona-karetka/tfm78#tw=sport

 

[MrRoboto]

Whoa. i wonder what happened. She seemed to absolutely nothing left in the last clip they showed of her.

 

[TomasC]

...
On more pressing matters, do you know if something happened to her (Vitková, not Soukalová) on the second lap today? She was skiing with Eckhoff after the first shoot, then she lost a bunch of time and wound up with the people who'd missed 2 shots. Her pace the rest of the race was absolutely fine, so it was a very sudden and unexpected loss of 15-20 seconds, did she have a technical problem or a fall or something do you know, because it just seemed odd on her current form and the cameras didn't pick anything up as they were busy with Mäkäräinen's chase.

In an interview she just mentioned that she wanted to keep her pace after the 1st shooting, not wanting to go full gas. She stood up almost together with Tiril Eckhoff (like 2-3 secs behind) but after the penalty loop she was already losing 7 secs. It is interesting that while Tiril blitzed to the front in no time and Veronika stayed visibly behind, in the end she just lost 4 secs to Tiril in that loop and began shooting almost with the front group. It was a result of the front group gradually slowing down.

 

[Kokoso]

I've never seen Eder so fast before. I think he was long time average skier, but that's no longer true.

 

[Flamin]

Usually it is. But if somebody Norwegian, Sweden or Germa won his first WC I'm almost sure it'd be discussed. I may be patriotic...but I'm sure about this one as well.

I'm waiting...

 

[Kokoso]

I'm waiting...

See Libertine? That's what I've told you.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

See Libertine? That's what I've told you.

Your sarcasm detector needs recalibrating, obviously.

 

[Kokoso]

Your sarcasm detector needs recalibrating, obviously.

I don't think so but you should check yours

 

[Lupetto]

That's a nice classic sprint in Otepää.

 

[Flamin]

I don't think so but you should check yours

It was sarcastic of course

 

[python]

the otepää sprint even by my generous measure (i mean i will watch ANYTHING xc ski) was quite boring...only ketelae and nilsson made any inroads...

i was both surprised and curious by the ustiugov classic showing. his finish double poling looks more powerful than ever..in fact so powerful that he moved his legs slower than his shoulders and stepped on a pole.

i really can not figure out justyna as far as i could see, she was the only one from the tds at the start.. clearly tired and/or not well she keeps busting herself all season w/o showing anything in return...why the hell is she doing this ? she seems headstrong but looks like stud headed..take some rest justyna and come back refreshed. oh almost forgot, another big surprise was kriukov not qualifying. the world and olympic champion in the discipline is another no show all season.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Justyna likes Otepää and that was why she wanted to come, having ended the TdS in miserable fashion, just to try and clear her mind of it. I agree she needs a rest, but as it was only a sprint in her preferred Classic in a venue she likes, and how badly the TdS ended for her, I can see her thinking.

 

[Erythropoietin]

On http://www.skisport365.com you can play manager games for most of the big winter sports
Also, the cycling manager season is starting in two days on its sister site.

 

[frenchfry]

Classic and long distances are dead. Soon there will only be skating sprints.

 

[Kokoso]

It was sarcastic of course

And I understood that of course but that didn't change the fact that you called it . That's why I was sarcastic in my reply but Libertine didn't catch it.

 

[python]

^^shouldn't we get back discussing the sport

anyway, it appears the first big surprises have been forming in the lady's team sprint qualifiers. (the following info is from the fis 'live results' server as no tv coverage has yet started)...

the quals were won by ......team POLAND that was lead by justyna. good knews. norway delegated 2 teams but only the second team made it. and most interestingly - both american teams are in the final !

something unusual must have happened in the men team qualifiers as my fis app kept referring to jury discussions...thankfully, it finally spit out some surprising results as well (it is still in progress) poland is leading among the men as well with 12 teams of 20 something already finishing....

 

[python]

ok, both men and women team sprints are over. unlike being blinded by the fis server, it is a world of difference watching the event on hd via nrk

yes, though it's a mild surprise, among the ladies poland was 3d with justyna doing the donkey work. i feel for her as it must be her 1st (if i am not mistaken) wc podium this year...and it was in skating where she aint a queen.
but the best thing was seeing the swedish girls beating norway 1. a lovely scene. i am even ready to forgive the swedish men missing the finals altogether..

speaking of men, a pair of russian bears did outfox a pair norge deers..they had all of their best deers there except petter himself..that petu is having one of his best seasons is a given, but the youngster wunderkind ustiugov, was so-so most of the season with one wc sprint (davos ?) he was almost the last in the quals...it is behind him. it is now almost a certainty that he and petu will go falun for a w. ch team sprint.

and i was very impressed with pellegrino again. this chap has springs in his ardse...

 

[roundabout]

Great finish in the MS in Ruhpolding with a 3-way tie (on time).
Svendsen must have had nothing left to finish 4 in a 5 man sprint.

Top-9 within 9 seconds as well.

 

[Kokoso]

Great finish in the MS in Ruhpolding with a 3-way tie (on time).
Svendsen must have had nothing left to finish 4 in a 5 man sprint.

Top-9 within 9 seconds as well.

That was really something special. Centimetres between top three and Svendsen two seconds behind in finish...times are changing. Martin Fourcade nowhere to be seen. Just in time for Libertine to start love him The fall of JTB over Fak was both really nasty and artistic, I've to say. In last round JTB totally bonked. ES comentators called him to catch with front again and again even when in front there was clearly slowing down because of some tactics and JTB was still nowhere to be seen and even overtaken by some... They really put their brains aside for a while. That's called love I think Anyway Norwegians in great skiing form, even Labee - Lund who I think never was quite fast? But ladies fuc*** it today completely. You can say it was disaster. Horn sucked in relay, then in sprint it had to be another Horn with same name taking place (and whole women's team you can say), than changing back to old herself for mass start.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Eckhoff and Horn were both disappointing with the rifle in hand today, and Ringen just didn't have the ski speed I though - 3 misses, but further back than the other two with 5.

It'll take more than a single race weekend of going badly for me to love Fourcade, but I did feel rather sorry for Fillon-Maillet at the end there. He should have won that, but either he thought he'd done enough or he timed his strides badly at the end there, because Schempp just stole it from him.

Don't know if maybe the commentators were calling JTB comig back to the lead group because they were all looking at each other? I mean, Shipulin made up a lot of time on that final lap. Also I guess on the hill the chasers might have looked closer than they actually were, so it could have looked like JTB was catching up. He definitely hit the wall on that climb though, seemed to be doing ok on the first part of the lap, but there was definitely nothing left in the tank once they started the last two climbs.

 

[Lupetto]

The race was lost for JTB because Schempp forced hard just moments after his crash. I don't know if Schempp saw what happened, but he definitely increased the pace.

 

[Kokoso]

It'll take more than a single race weekend of going badly for me to love Fourcade, but I did feel rather sorry for Fillon-Maillet at the end there. He should have won that, but either he thought he'd done enough or he timed his strides badly at the end there, because Schempp just stole it from him.

Why not Slesinger?

 

[Flamin]

Two enjoyable mass starts today. Domracheva flying again, but made it exciting because of a few misses. And happy for Schempp after being an unfortunate 2nd behind an out-of-this-world Boe in the sprint, but Fillon Maillet's finish was really terrible.