Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Cance > TheRest]

hahaha, Ole never stops to amaze me. He will be 41 years old, at the end of the season, right?

42

 

[TomasC]

Soukalová looked sharp in the relay and is always a reliable shooter. I'm afraid I'll have to endure her presence at the press conferences quite a lot this season.
Hoping for an underdog today...in case that VV fails

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Soukalová looked sharp in the relay and is always a reliable shooter. I'm afraid I'll have to endure her presence at the press conferences quite a lot this season.
Hoping for an underdog today...in case that VV fails

Why??
I love the press conferences with Gabi - she brings so much energy into the press conference compared to other athletes

 

[TomasC]

I guess you're right that for the media purposes she is probably more useful than others in a sense that she seldom settles for the traditional "it was a hard race, the conditions were not so good, but yeah...mmm...I'm happy".
But, personally and subjectively, I just can't stand her. As a result, some jokes which would sound entertaining to me from, say, Tarjei Boe, in her interpretation just make me cringe. And don't get me started on her singing
To animate the press conferences, bring Wierer or Skardino any day for me.

Speaking of the press conferences - I got used to the magical "Welcome and congratulations zee winners" introduction so much that now in Ostersund I actually miss it! I guess the presenter now is Jerry Kokesh? His questions are more interesting but his "zee" is just not right.

 

[Singer01]

unless i'm mistaken Norway have won every XC/Biathlon race so far this year.

 

[Singer01]

Re:

unless i'm mistaken Norway have won every XC/Biathlon race so far this year.

jinxed it, however eckhoff looked very fast today, good news after last year when the norwegian women looked awful.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

unless i'm mistaken Norway have won every XC/Biathlon race so far this year.

jinxed it, however eckhoff looked very fast today, good news after last year when the norwegian women looked awful.

Don't forget Tiril had a very similar strong opening last year when she won the sprint in Östersund. Last year her season started to fall to pieces a bit after christmas, where, ironically, Fanny won a competition. She needs to prove that she can be more consistent when the pressure is on. I think that's what went wrong last year - the Norwegians expected too much of Tiril after the Berger-era and after her great 2013/14 season

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Tiril got ill during the Hochfilzen weekend last year. She was still good after Ruhpolding (where Horn got the surprise win) but the results were got more like the 2013-14 ones, by accumulating results without many spectacular outings. But yea, she started out super strong last season too, so it remains to be seen. Anyway, I'm with TomasC, I can't warm to Soukalová, but I'd like to add Dorin Habert to the list of people who can bring the fun to an interview.

 

[python]

Lillehammer in about 10 hours !! imo, one of the most interesting wc weekends: skiathlons and team relays.

the lil' hammer johaoug will surely win in lillehammer skiathlon...her fellow sundby will probably too, but the competition will be more engaging. if cologna, a bunch of other noregs, legkov and vyleg manage to keep up in a classic leg, martin will have to work to win...

the team relays start list not published yet, but to doubt norway should will prevail. interesting if any of the faves fade sunday b/c of skiathlon...well, probably not so - the distance of 7.5 k isn't long enough.

 

[John de Savage]

So Johaug just won a ~40 min race by 1½ minutes, jump skating up the last hill and looking fresh as a daisy when crossing the finish line.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Mirracles do happen
A men's skiathlon that is raced right from the beginning flat out
Why can't it alwys be like that?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, MJS is about to do the same.

Edit: I'm really rooting for Manificat to fail in his chase of Dyrhaug and Holund, mainly because Northug can f*** off.

 

[python]

eh, the skiathlon, at least the men's... was not about the expected, rather the unexpected performances of the non-norges favs. cologna's famous endurance is awful, legkov manages to lose almost 2 minutes in 'his' skate, poltoranin seen nowhere in the classic leg...

i was enjoying manificat being able to drop petter towards the end, but it is not very surprising from one of the best looking skaters of the sport. speaking of technique, sundby is close to perfection in both styles with his v2 visibly more efficient than anyone..

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sure, Marit Bjørgen isn't around this season, but Martin Fourcade is here to make sure at least one discipline is practically unwatchable.

 

[Singer01]

well that was very silly 7 in the first 8, they should finish 1st and 2nd in the relay if they enter 2 teams.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Sure, Marit Bjørgen isn't around this season, but Martin Fourcade is here to make sure at least one discipline is practically unwatchable.

Well, he was extremely lucky with the weather aswell
But this is just terrible . . . Atleast he won't take yellow bib after today

 

[python]

i thought garanichev fell asleep or froze up that was one of the longest shoots i have watched...

 

[John de Savage]

Here's a reminder that Sundby praised Lance after the USADA report because Lance was "the best of the dopers" and has done "amazing things" for cycling and for cancer awareness.

Sundby: "​​For me, Lance will always be a great hero"

Martin Johnsrud Sundby stamps doping pursuit of Lance Armstrong as a witch hunt, and believes the doping sentenced rider still is an amazing athlete.

https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrk.no%2Fsport%2Fsundby_-_-lance-er-fortsatt-stor-1.8356314&edit-text=

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

i thought garanichev fell asleep or froze up that was one of the longest shoots i have watched...

Yes, it was almost 2 minutes - 5 penalty laps would almost have made more sense
Edit: his range time was 1:38

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Start number race in the biathlon, just like a few years ago when Leguellec won the men's sprint, conditions getting really fast after the likes of Mäkäräinen, Gössner and Eckhoff are gone, and some relatively pedestrian skiers putting in big ski performances against them.

Oh, and now Soukalová 10/10 with half a minute and a lap to go. Piss off Soukalová. I hate this sport today.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

I love this, haha. Sure it would have been nice for Kaisa and Tiril to fight on equal terms with Dorin H and Gabi, but one cannot dismiss Gabi's race. 10/10 and no matter the conditions she'd have checked a top 5-10 ski time today - I'd call that the perfect race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I don't really care whether she deserved it (she did, she shot beautifully and set a time that would have been strong at any point in the race let alone in the optimal conditions that she got). I just didn't want to see her win because I really don't like her and don't understand what everybody else sees in her that makes her so popular. I'm not dismissing her race, I just want somebody - anybody - else to win. To the extent that I was happy that the Norwegians and Germans beat the Czechs in the Mixed Relay even despite that I don't care for the Bø brothers and I actually like Vitková and Moravec (Šlesingr I can take or leave).

 

[jsem94]

So. She's the Sagan of biathlon for you?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Nah, nothing like that bad. I really dislike her, but I don't despise her. I want her to never win again, but I don't care if she is still around as long as she's not getting shoved down my throat and isn't winning. With Sagan, I literally would only want to see his face again if somebody is giving it a well-deserved slap. I understand why people love Sagan, but cannot reconcile with them. I don't really understand why people love Soukalová. And on the same day as every race has been stupendously one-sided, and the men's race just angered me leaving a completely worthless and uninteresting pursuit, having her of all people win just threw fuel on the fire. I accepted Sanfilippo as an outlier, but when I saw the likes of Hauser and Abramova putting in the times they were putting in and realised that the trails were faster, I realised Soukalová had a late start number and prayed to the biathlon Gods that Marie Dorin Habert would hit 10/10. I obviously angered the biathlon Gods again, because they have punished me with Fourcade and Soukalová.

 

[Kokoso]

Re:

Nah, nothing like that bad. I really dislike her, but I don't despise her. I want her to never win again, but I don't care if she is still around as long as she's not getting shoved down my throat and isn't winning. With Sagan, I literally would only want to see his face again if somebody is giving it a well-deserved slap. I understand why people love Sagan, but cannot reconcile with them. I don't really understand why people love Soukalová. And on the same day as every race has been stupendously one-sided, and the men's race just angered me leaving a completely worthless and uninteresting pursuit, having her of all people win just threw fuel on the fire. I accepted Sanfilippo as an outlier, but when I saw the likes of Hauser and Abramova putting in the times they were putting in and realised that the trails were faster, I realised Soukalová had a late start number and prayed to the biathlon Gods that Marie Dorin Habert would hit 10/10. I obviously angered the biathlon Gods again, because they have punished me with Fourcade and Soukalová.

You are taking it to far Question is: do people really love Soukalova? It certainly doesn't seem so when looking at posts here. Quite on the contrary, actually, it looks like they hate her.
Maybe biathlon gods are angry on people who dislike somebody not without good reason.