Not to mention that you already have the whole infrastructure in Antholz, that's the whole reasoning why their are hosting all those events so far away from eachother in 2026.
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Weng looked a lot better. Norway need her to be near her best to have a chance in the relay.
I hope they put Johaug in the 2nd classic leg to see if she can blow it apart, then watch them get slowly reeled back in.
I hope they put Johaug in the 2nd classic leg to see if she can blow it apart, then watch them get slowly reeled back in.
Diggins was only 9 seconds behind Andersson last year too, they should be starting fairly close to one another and a similar distance back from Nepryaeva to where they finished ahead of her last year on the final stage.
Well, Lago di Tesero did have the biathlon at the Universiade in 2013 and they are reprofiling Antholz for the Olympics, so it's not as simple as the old Munich bid from a few years ago which was like, the easiest cheapest Olympic bid ever (Alpine & ski jumping at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, biathlon and XC at Ruhpolding and Reit im Winkl, luge and bob at Königssee, long track speed skating at Inzell, then arena sports and ceremonies at the 1972 Olympic venues), but nevertheless much easier to use and expand the existing facilities for both than to convert one to cover both.
Also, isn't Weng like the 2nd best at the climb ever? I thought she was further back, she might even finish 2nd.
Yes.
Back to route changes, the one that would be really easy to do is Toblach. Just do the whole loop the other way around (clockwise instead of anti-clockwise). That way you have the longer climbs on the 2nd part of the lap and the long false flat downhill sections become an uphill false flat before the longer climbs.
Well, two seasons ago she locked straight to Østberg and Weng, and finished 4th, just behind those two. Beating Diggins by almost a minute on that stage, so there’s hope she can ski well. She looked economical today, while Andersson, Pärmakoski and Hennig were grinding away at the front, so hopefully that means she’s got a little extra for tomorrow. It’s not going to be easy, I could see it coming down to a few seconds. Nepryaeva seems to be in better shape at this TDS than last year’s, but is she at the same level she was two seasons ago? Not sure. In any case this is a great result for her. It bodes well for chances at the Olympics, both in the individual races and the relay, where I think the Russians will have two excellent chances in team events, team sprint and regular relay. Sorina was a bit disappointing today, but she’s still in with a chance at the podium.
What was de Fabiani trying to do there?!
Edit: Bolshunov looked like he had blown up pretty badly here but seems to have been having a bad spell only; Klæbo is hitching a ride on the Iivo train because it's distance in classic so just looking for Iivo and sitting behind him is never a bad idea.
Edit: Bolshunov looked like he had blown up pretty badly here but seems to have been having a bad spell only; Klæbo is hitching a ride on the Iivo train because it's distance in classic so just looking for Iivo and sitting behind him is never a bad idea.
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Niskanen with his usual go out hot, try to hang on while suffering visibly technique which always serves him better in individual start where people can't just ride his coattails and then drop him when he tires, Bolshunov is really struggling with his grip uphill, Klæbo has a pretty strong gap and was looking much more at ease uphill than Niskanen was before he dropped him, so unless he blows up completely he could put this out of sight today.
Pretty poor from the other Norwegians too. Toenseth is in the Bolshunov group and Valnes is behind them, so that's decent for Valnes, but rest are gone out the back really.
Bolshunov broke his pole going up the Zorzi climb. You could see a Russian coach running downhill to hand him a pole. He was more or less right there but you could see he all of a sudden lost positions.
Ok, who put a Klaebo mask on Sundby?
He cracked Ilvo on the double poling sections before that climb.
Bolshunov doesn't have great skis, but Klaebo is just demolishing everyone, by far his most impressive performance in a distance race.
Spitsov once again really strong in Val di Fiemme
He cracked Ilvo on the double poling sections before that climb.
Bolshunov doesn't have great skis, but Klaebo is just demolishing everyone, by far his most impressive performance in a distance race.
Spitsov once again really strong in Val di Fiemme
Klæbo with a superb performance, the Tour de Ski will be his unless he has a catastrophe tomorrow. Bolshunov clearly still has a bit to improve until the Olympics. Pleasently surprised with Spitsov he should be a good outsider pick for the Olympic skiathlon. Golberg was terrible today.
Well that was a statement win by Klaebo. I would d say the most impressive win of his career. Cracking the field on the Val die Fiemme course like that is a suprise really. Bulshounovs form seems to regress instead of getting better. I don`t think he can be at 100% in the olympics. He is paying the price for his stupid " I race everything" attitude.
The whole 2026 Olympics is totally pointless in my opinion. It is just a number of world championchips held at the same time hundreds and hundreds of kilometres apart. But really there is no olympic feel to it any more when venues are that far apart.
Yeah, but the Olympics have also become waaay to expensive, so something like this is the only way to keep the expenses somewhat managable.
Bolshunov will get better, but as I wrote a bit earlier, his pole broke going up the Zorzi climb, just before the downhill into the stadium at 7.5km. A Russian coach can be seen running fast to hand him a spare. On the live timing you’ll notice he went from too 5 at 6.4km to 17th at the 7.5km mark in the stadium. He then made up places but that took its toll, not surprisingly. If this was least season’s Bolshunov he likely would have caught the leaders, but he’s clearly not in that form. His skis were also not optimal, that can happen. Klæbo is in top form at the moment, so Bolshunov would have had a tough time beating him even with a good pair of skis and no pole trouble. I though Niskanen would hang on relatively easily, but that didn’t happen. You could see him grimacing for much of the second half of the race, while Klæbo was stone faced. Surely he can’t keep that form at the Olympics?
Chervotkin had a storming last 5km’s, it looked like he was heading down the standings, but found something and then some to catch Bolshunov, Tønseth and Spitsov. And then passed them and actually helped those guys limit the damage to Klæbo and Niskanen, and they ran out of snow to catch the Finn. Spitsov had one of classic races of his life. If he skis classic like this in China, he could be extremely dangerous in the skiathlon.
What a shame for De Fabiani. He was gaining form, looking as possible podium threat in the overall, then his ski got a bit stuck in the tracks and then behind Even Northug and those two and a few others crashed on that roller into the stadium. Now he’s outside the top 10 and has no chance, perhaps even a top 10 is out of reach. That’s really unlucky. I was looking forward in him challenging today and tomorrow. Cramer’s guys are getting better by the race. I hope it continues for the next month and a half.
Chervotkin had a storming last 5km’s, it looked like he was heading down the standings, but found something and then some to catch Bolshunov, Tønseth and Spitsov. And then passed them and actually helped those guys limit the damage to Klæbo and Niskanen, and they ran out of snow to catch the Finn. Spitsov had one of classic races of his life. If he skis classic like this in China, he could be extremely dangerous in the skiathlon.
What a shame for De Fabiani. He was gaining form, looking as possible podium threat in the overall, then his ski got a bit stuck in the tracks and then behind Even Northug and those two and a few others crashed on that roller into the stadium. Now he’s outside the top 10 and has no chance, perhaps even a top 10 is out of reach. That’s really unlucky. I was looking forward in him challenging today and tomorrow. Cramer’s guys are getting better by the race. I hope it continues for the next month and a half.
Going to be interesting can Klaebo hold this sort of form to the Olympics or has he just peaked way too early. You'd give him a strong chance in any race on this form
I was just thinking that, on this form you would say he had a decent chance of 5 golds.
I don't think Klæbo cares much at all about the tour this year so I'd be surprised if he didn't show up at the olympics in as good or better form than now. He improved a lot before the world championships last year, and I think he has been highly motivated to improve his capacity more after what happened there.
Also, it's pretty clear that he's had some crazy good skis in the last races.
Also, it's pretty clear that he's had some crazy good skis in the last races.
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So for the 15km classic at the olympics Norway will probably select Klaebo, Golberg, Valnes and Iversen? At least that would be my guess, looks like the most plausible selection to me.
You can have two smaller peaks and one big peak. It’s physically impossible to have the same form the whole season. Last season was a perfect example of that.
Iversen? Based on what result? He was 7th in Ruka. The only other 15km classic he did was in Lenzerheide. He finished 59th there. He also struggles at altitude. He has either taken sandbagging to a whole other level or he’s expecting miracles next month.
I never expected Valnes to ski this well in distance races. A top 30 here and there, but not solidly in the top 10, especially not on a tough course like this.
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