Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Kokoso]

de fabiani a surprizing winner ? several yet to finish but he''ll stay. yep, surprising for a 21 yo seldom heard from.

Not so surprising considering it's after WC and he was very good in 50 km. There are more surprising results, like Tonseth 26 th and Dyrhaug 36th - tehy had great form only week ago! Harvey... Nyenget (never heard about him) 4th.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Weng celebrating 2nd place in a random World Cup race as if it was an olympic gold medal.

It was a close, exciting and unpredictable race behind Marit who won comfortably. But the men's individual starts are turning into a joke. Krogh won in ?stersund because he ski sucked Manificat for a lap. Now De Fabiani got his first WC win thanks to being towed by Bauer for two laps. The purpose of the individual start is lost when a skier can Northug his way to the top of the podium.

 

[kingjr]

Individual starts suck anyway, you get to see way too little of the tracks. And way too often you can predict the winner long before the race is finished.

 

[Kokoso]

Michal ?lesinger answered fan's questions recently. Among them was question if there is one about whon others say is big-headed. He answered that it'd be Svendsen, but maybe any longer given his result misery Another question was who would he choose of trio Schempp, Shipulin, M. Fourcade - ?lesinger would choose Fourcade. That is how I percieve them and different from what Libertine (and lot others) say about Fourcade.

 

[tongclub60]

Individual starts suck anyway, goldenslot you get to see way too little of the tracks.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Michal ?lesinger answered fan's questions recently. Among them was question if there is one about whon others say is big-headed. He answered that it'd be Svendsen, but maybe any longer given his result misery Another question was who would he choose of trio Schempp, Shipulin, M. Fourcade - ?lesinger would choose Fourcade. That is how I percieve them and different from what Libertine (and lot others) say about Fourcade.

Svendsen being bigheaded really doesn't surprise me. Fourcade has never really bothered me away from the course, but on the course his attitude really bugs me, he's even admitted to it before, like in a Swedish TV piece where they showed him skiing up alongside a Malyshko who's clearly got nothing more to give, and casually chatting to him and dropping behind him and pulling alongside effortlessly before leaving him for dead on a climb, with Martin voice-overing that he finds playing games with his opposition helps him to focus.

From the question on ?lesingr picking Fourcade over Schempp and Shipulin, what's the context of that? I mean, if it's down to who would you back to win a race, or saying who the best biathlete is, I would expect 90% of the field (or at least the non-Russian or German field) to say Fourcade... unless maybe over a 50-100m final sprint where Shipulin could come into it.

 

[python]

though the drammen start lists have not been published by fis as of this very moment, it is pretty clear that not 2 but 3 northug bros will start tomorrow...

i say, that's another sign of the sport heading...well, pls disagree all you want..in the direction i personally dont appreciate.

the sport's participation rules and practice are so skewed that to fill the ranks, the world cup events organizers are given too many privileges. when these 'organizer' privileges fall to the already dominant nation, some truly ugly expressions may take hold. like the northug bros pony show tomorrow.

dont get me wrong, petter and thomas proved their class. just as the cologna bros did. but the sport's smallness is driving me off

 

[search]

the parcours was changed a bit in comparison to recent years by the way, apparently to reduce the advantages of using freestyle-ski

 

[Kokoso]

though the drammen start lists have not been published by fis as of this very moment, it is pretty clear that not 2 but 3 northug bros will start tomorrow...

i say, that's another sign of the sport heading...well, pls disagree all you want..in the direction i personally dont appreciate.

the sport's participation rules and practice are so skewed that to fill the ranks, the world cup events organizers are given too many privileges. when these 'organizer' privileges fall to the already dominant nation, some truly ugly expressions may take hold. like the northug bros pony show tomorrow.

dont get me wrong, petter and thomas proved their class. just as the cologna bros did. but the sport's smallness is driving me off

Youngest Northug sucks, doesn't he?

 

[python]

Youngest Northug sucks, doesn't he?

if he was compared to his older bro at the same age, or even to others considered the sports future, he has little to show...i mean he may have podioumed in the secondary races but i can't recall any wc podiums.

the quals started 10 min ago. of the 69 male entrants today, 20 are from norway of the top 10 to this minute - 8 are norges, another 35 to start

---
edit: the quals just ended...even and thomas finished outside top 30 (47th and 37th). 'only' 8 or 9 norges in the quarter finals.

 

[Kokoso]

Total Norwegian women fail today. Where is that guy who asked (in clinic) how can there be such big difference between biathletes and xc in one country? And wasn't he norwegian?

 

[python]

Re:

Total Norwegian women fail today. Where is that guy who asked (in clinic) how can there be such big difference between biathletes and xc in one country? And wasn't he norwegian?

perhaps their ladies are too thin, i mean not enough flab

 

[MrRoboto]

Re:

if he was compared to his older bro at the same age, or even to others considered the sports future, he has little to show...i mean he may have podioumed in the secondary races but i can't recall any wc podiums.

This was his WC debut. At age 19, just like his brothers.

 

[python]

anyone is watching the holmenkollen 50 ? quite a live and interesting beginning...

 

[roundabout]

Eurosport came on about 2 minutes ago.

Don't think the 3 are going anywhere though

 

[python]

the 1st burst (before the eurosport came on air) was understandable: belov and ustiugov went for the wc points.

the 2nd break away (sundby, belov, gaillard) i failed to understand tactically speaking...they never were more than 8 sec away and 4 norges chased down hard when sundby was at the front. perhaps they tried to make a select group early on.

 

[roundabout]

So it's just Harvey and Cologna vs the red suits now

 

[python]

cologna's presence is a sign him feeling good, not so harvey's imo... when alex was taking the front, he was (as is his usual) guarding the uphills against the excessive pace. it was during those period when the 'tail' was catching up. manificat is also featuring among the red suits now as is hellner. i still like sundby's chances better. another interesting observation i made was that when northug's gap reached 12 seconds, he when to personally chase.
meaning, he is ok as of now despite sundby clearly trying to shake him off

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Heia Sjur! Sundby is looking strong here, definitely trying to thin the group out.

 

[python]

5k or so to go...the good thing is that northug is gone, the crazy thing is that (i think) larkov is the only one of the 15 leaders who NEVER changed skis, the hopeful thing is that hellner, cologna and harvey are still there

holund and cologna just created a gap.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Røthe good value for it I thought. I thought Cologna would outsprint him at the end but ran out of snow.

In the women's race, Marit Bjørgen just puts another exclamation point on her most dominant season yet by sprinting away from Johaug on a steep uphill, the one terrain where Johaug SHOULD hold all the cards.

 

[Discgear]

Re:

Marit Bjørgen just puts another exclamation point on her most dominant season yet by sprinting away from Johaug on a steep uphill, the one terrain where Johaug SHOULD hold all the cards.

Apparently bumble-bees can fly, defying physics or not.

 

[Pazuzu]

This is what world (cup) domination looks like!

 

[TomasC]

I think I wouldn't be able to hold that massive crystal globe with just one hand

 

[meat puppet]

In retrospect, the biathlon worlds, especially the ladies' races, delivered a good bunch of surprises. Domracheva and Makarainen both scored one bronze medal each.