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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Libertine Seguros said:
Gössner is almost certainly tired; the German press kind of ate her alive this season so Dahlmeier's emergence may take the heat off her (but put it onto Dahlmeier of course). However, if they destroy Dahlmeier, Franzi Preuß is about ready to come to the World Cup. As far as I can see Germany is going to be able to enter 8 at the final WC at Khanty thanks to their positions in the IBU-Cup, since Evi's already in the WC-kader, they should take Preuß and Karo Horchler. Karo's got a 100% starts to wins record in the IBU Cup and though she's not fast, you can't do better than that. Preuß is still a legit youth competitor but has won medals at the Junior Worlds and the Euros, and shoots in standing faster than Tora Berger.

Sachenbacher had a horrible skating performance once again today. She should call it a day imo. She simply doesn't have "It" anymore.
 
Bavarianrider said:
Sachenbacher had a horrible skating performance once again today. She should call it a day imo. She simply doesn't have "It" anymore.

While I don't disagree, this was her best WC performance yet. I'm not sure why they're persisting with Project Evi when there are quite a few young German talents they could be using - Dahlmeier, Preuß, Hinz, Deigentesch, the younger Horchler, even those that aren't all that young like Hennecke and Hammerschmidt are no worse than ESS and have much more gas left in the tank.
 
Great shooting performance by Berger (and hell, keep taking it to the bank whilst yr run lasts !!)but looking dispassionately at the results, she shot clear but only 12 sec ahead of Dasha who missed two, approx 24 ahead of Kuzmina who also missed two. Kaisa missed four (all on stand) but was still within approx 1.30.

Miri missed four ..... and looked "off her feed" on ski-times. VERY creditable outing by Dahlmeier .... agree with the previous poster who hoped she isn't loaded with premature expectations. Also agree that the Evi Sachenbacher experiment is frankly incomprehensible given her age and decreasing track-pace. If you're going to switch, mid-late 20's is a probably max (note to SWE, make big post Sochi push to yr XC women in that bracket)

Tora's "banking" results this season, and all credit to her, due to her steady ski-form and excellent shooting and her prime rivals poor shooting. Can she bank on such a repeat next season ?? I tend to think not. Whilst I'm not sure Gossner will discover the magic consistency pill; I suspect either Dasha or Kaisa (or both) will have the rear ends far more "into gear" shooting wise in the Olympic year.

The Ukrainian women were solid but maybe coming down off their peak as do the Poles. I disregard the RUS results as the WC team is currently in Sochi and they sent to IBU team to Oslo. The French still look Citroen powered on the tracks. Of the others who've emerged to pick up wins this season, Solemdal's pace looked quite good but sprayed a few. I suspect next season may be a progression on this with an incremental rise in consistency/regularity of results. Soukalova missed 2 but reasonable pace - would not surprise to see her consolidate next season as a regular contender.

Maybe I'm not the XC purist some of you are, but I frankly find minimal attraction in distance classic races (relay legs/skiathlon legs about my threshold re classic distance. Have had a look at the W30k start list and find a few puzzling entries.

Kylloenen is an excellent classic skater but her strength is more towards the shorter/sprint distances. Why the hell is Kalla entered ?? If it were 30k skate, not a problem but but her only real area of relative classic competitiveness is over sprint distances or at most skiathlon leg. I think she needs to reassess her future and where/what events she concentrates her energy on. Jess Diggens - 30k ???

This race looks Kowalczyk then daylight then raffle off the minors (most likely between the Norwegians). Agree Weng may be an interesting factor.
 
dirkprovin said:
Great shooting performance by Berger (and hell, keep taking it to the bank whilst yr run lasts !!)but looking dispassionately at the results, she shot clear but only 12 sec ahead of Dasha who missed two, approx 24 ahead of Kuzmina who also missed two. Kaisa missed four (all on stand) but was still within approx 1.30.

Miri missed four ..... and looked "off her feed" on ski-times. VERY creditable outing by Dahlmeier .... agree with the previous poster who hoped she isn't loaded with premature expectations. Also agree that the Evi Sachenbacher experiment is frankly incomprehensible given her age and decreasing track-pace. If you're going to switch, mid-late 20's is a probably max (note to SWE, make big post Sochi push to yr XC women in that bracket)

Tora's "banking" results this season, and all credit to her, due to her steady ski-form and excellent shooting and her prime rivals poor shooting. Can she bank on such a repeat next season ?? I tend to think not. Whilst I'm not sure Gossner will discover the magic consistency pill; I suspect either Dasha or Kaisa (or both) will have the rear ends far more "into gear" shooting wise in the Olympic year.

The Ukrainian women were solid but maybe coming down off their peak as do the Poles. I disregard the RUS results as the WC team is currently in Sochi and they sent to IBU team to Oslo. The French still look Citroen powered on the tracks. Of the others who've emerged to pick up wins this season, Solemdal's pace looked quite good but sprayed a few. I suspect next season may be a progression on this with an incremental rise in consistency/regularity of results. Soukalova missed 2 but reasonable pace - would not surprise to see her consolidate next season as a regular contender.

Maybe I'm not the XC purist some of you are, but I frankly find minimal attraction in distance classic races (relay legs/skiathlon legs about my threshold re classic distance. Have had a look at the W30k start list and find a few puzzling entries.

Kylloenen is an excellent classic skater but her strength is more towards the shorter/sprint distances. Why the hell is Kalla entered ?? If it were 30k skate, not a problem but but her only real area of relative classic competitiveness is over sprint distances or at most skiathlon leg. I think she needs to reassess her future and where/what events she concentrates her energy on. Jess Diggens - 30k ???

This race looks Kowalczyk then daylight then raffle off the minors (most likely between the Norwegians). Agree Weng may be an interesting factor.

Well it's the last race of the world championchips. So you don't have to lose anything really. There's probably a relatively vig crowd. So why not compete?
If everybody who hadn't a chance to win would skip the race there wouldn't be much racers left ;)
 
Bavarianrider said:
Well it's the last race of the world championchips. So you don't have to lose anything really. There's probably a relatively vig crowd. So why not compete?
If everybody who hadn't a chance to win would skip the race there wouldn't be much racers left ;)

It's not the end of the season though .... AND if you've got races coming up where you DO have reasonable expectations of good results then why spend the fuel tickets on meaningless "fly the flag" gestures ?

I can make a case for young one's who maybe yet haven't got the the full read on their capacities ..... and such outings early in your career are, indeed, worthwhile experience. IF you have a team mate who IS a leading competitor and you can play a part in the team strategy .... again, no worry

The likes of Kalla and Kylloenen ? Neither applies to them. Save the gas and look towards Falun.
 
dirkprovin said:
It's not the end of the season though .... AND if you've got races coming up where you DO have reasonable expectations of good results then why spend the fuel tickets on meaningless "fly the flag" gestures ?

I can make a case for young one's who maybe yet haven't got the the full read on their capacities ..... and such outings early in your career are, indeed, worthwhile experience. IF you have a team mate who IS a leading competitor and you can play a part in the team strategy .... again, no worry

The likes of Kalla and Kylloenen ? Neither applies to them. Save the gas and look towards Falun.

I don't think racing tomorrow will hurt their further season too much.
Yous houldn't also forget that the classic 30km race is the queen race of cross country skiing for women.
Having a Top 10 spot in that race in your palmares is certainly something everybody should aim ;)
 
Feb 4, 2012
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ToreBear said:
By the way, Johaug tipped Weng as an outsider tomorrow. Perhaps she can be there in the end and beat Justyna in the sprint for gold.:D
Not even. Marit is going crush the field like so many ants on the pavement.

maritbjorgen02.jpg
 
Sep 25, 2009
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i stall can not make sense of the men's 4x10km relay yesterday. everyone seemed to have been instructed to ski defensively. given the wet, warm conditions it is understandable in the first 2 classic stages but it seems no one had the legs or courage to break open the skating stages.

the norwegians should be blamed the least for that since everyone knew their tactic.

another interesting moment was - if i am not mistaken, for the first time - a match between the current best 'adult' distance skier with super finish kick and the best young distance talent with super finish kick. 26 yo northug vs 20 yo ustiugov...there was no contest. ustiogov said post-race, 'i had no legs to respond. my skis were fine and i did not miss the final acceleration'.
 
Looks like Gössner's going to have to drop out of the pursuit today. Thanks for nothing, women's relay. Mäkäräinen's woes were more to do with the shooting since she didn't make the Finnish relay team, whereas the demands of Gössner look to have been too high.

In other, more amusing news, Northug's saying he doesn't know what he's doing after 2014 led to some idle and silly speculation that he would have a go at biathlon, what with the World Championships in Oslo in 2016. "At least I wouldn't shoot worse than Lars Berger" was his response.
 
python said:
i stall can not make sense of the men's 4x10km relay yesterday. everyone seemed to have been instructed to ski defensively. given the wet, warm conditions it is understandable in the first 2 classic stages but it seems no one had the legs or courage to break open the skating stages.

the norwegians should be blamed the least for that since everyone knew their tactic.

another interesting moment was - if i am not mistaken, for the first time - a match between the current best 'adult' distance skier with super finish kick and the best young distance talent with super finish kick. 26 yo northug vs 20 yo ustiugov...there was no contest. ustiogov said post-race, 'i had no legs to respond. my skis were fine and i did not miss the final acceleration'.

It's actually pretty scary that Northug has just turned 27. He's only about to enter his prime:eek:
If you rthink about it. If Oslo gets the olympic games in 2022 Northug could still be around. :eek:
 
Martin Fourcade won the pursuit by 30 seconds after chilling for the entire last lap and shaking hands with the spectators. Had he gone max he'd probably have won by 1:30 or so!

His form is just incredible at the moment, he's so far ahead of everyone else it's ridiculous. Almost a shame that he didn't start the XC skiing 15 km.
 
Dec 3, 2012
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maltiv said:
Martin Fourcade won the pursuit by 30 seconds after chilling for the entire last lap and shaking hands with the spectators. Had he gone max he'd probably have won by 1:30 or so!

His form is just incredible at the moment, he's so far ahead of everyone else it's ridiculous. Almost a shame that he didn't start the XC skiing 15 km.

Irrelevant,somebody was missing his arch-rival Svendsen who beats him almost everywhere you witnessed the sprint and the pursuit in Nove Mesto.
 

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