Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BigCoward]

Norwegian (and Klaebo in particular) haters should probably turn away now.
Edit, NVM he ran out of energy.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Norwegian (and Klaebo in particular) haters should probably turn away now.
Edit, NVM he ran out of energy.

He ran out of Niskanen's draft.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Norwegian (and Klaebo in particular) haters should probably turn away now.
Edit, NVM he ran out of energy.

Nah, Iivo just crushed all life on earth on the final lap. If you compare Klaebo's performance to everyone else he didn't fade that much.
Great performance by Poromaa and Pellegrino inside the top 15 in a really stacked individual start.
Iversen once again so much worse than every other Norwegian, bringing him to the Olympics looks worse and worse in hinsight....

 

[KZD]

Nepryaeva and Poromaa were really impressive today, I think Klaebo is now neck and neck with Bolshunov in the distance world cup but the Russian should still take it (if allowed to compete ).

 

[BigCoward]

Separately, if Riiber doesn't win the overall after his dominance and terrible luck at the Olympics, it will be a great sporting tragedy.

 

[Norbea]

Riiber looks to be fully recovered from covid now so I don't think he'll drop many points in the rest of the WC.

 

[King Boonen]

Mod hat on:

Ok, this thread is getting closed until we can sort through it. Political discussion isn't allowed on the forum, as I am sure some of you are aware, and you all should be. Those who we know are aware of this rule may face long bans, please do no continue this conversation anywhere else on the forum.

Cheers,

KB.

 

[King Boonen]

Mod hat on:

Ok, I think everything has been cleared out. We are well aware of the emotions that people will be feeling regarding the current situation and we are acutely aware that there may well be forum members living in Ukraine/Russia/Belarus/etc. who are experiencing the consequences of this war. I won't make a political statement on this, I'll just say my heart goes out to anyone adversely affected by this war through no fault of their own and I, along with no-doubt everyone here, hope for a peaceful resolution as soon as possible.

Political discussion is banned on the forum so please do not start up this conversation again. Posting the current restrictions on athletes is fine, as long as no commentary about this is included. For example, posting "X athletes are banned from Y races/competitions/etc." is fine. posting "X athletes are banned from Y races/competitions/etc. and I agree/disagree with this because Z" is absolutely not and will likely result in a ban. Please try not to name specific athletes, as the bans are not on individuals but groups. Referring to individuals could easily be viewed as attempting to troll certain users.

Cheers,

KB.

 

[BigCoward]

Thank you. I'll be good, I promise.

Falla a blast from the past, especially when you consider how dominant Sundling has been recently.
I assume Klaebo not racing as he already has the World Cup sewn up and wants to be competing for the 50km?

Roiseland and Eckhoff 1 and 2, Interesting. I bet Eckhoff nails the shoot in a relay now it doesn't matter as much.

Wtf, Tandrevold is on the 4th leg?
Edit, don't know what I was worried about. All 10 down no problem. Good for her.

 

[OJRvE]

I assume Klaebo not racing as he already has the World Cup sewn up and wants to be competing for the 50km?

Klaebo and the other sprinters in the A-squad are covid-positive and out for the season. Most likely picked up from the skishow in Helsinki. Grate is also infected and so is his girlfriend Ribom.

Impressive by Falla today even if Drammen is her favorite event, and the course doesn’t suit Sundling at all.

 

[Mayomaniac]

A lot of people will crap on Wang's parade because so many good sprinters were absent when he podiumed for the fist time. He still finished ahead of great skiers like Chanavat and Pellegrino, that's impressive.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Winterton spends an entire lap wondering why Susan Dunklee hasn't been at her peak performance in the last season or so. I suspect being 36 years old probably has something to do with it. He does however think back wistfully to "all the championships she has won". Although 2/6 of her career podiums - and 2/3 of her 2nd places - have been at major championships where she always seemed to go best, and a career best of 10th overall in the World Cup season-long, she never actually managed to win an international race, which is quite surprising. She's running out of time, and more concerningly for her, pretty much every competitive performance she's had this year has been in a relay format, where the strength in depth of the US team has never been enough to threaten the front. Her 27th in the sprint in Zhangjiakou was her best of the season individually so you'd say that unless she and Sean Doherty get put forward for the Single Mixed Relay in Otepää and have a career day, the window has closed on that. Egan is going as well, so the American biathlon team is going to be completely gutted ahead of next season. Geraghty-Moats has not really got back into the swing of the shooting on the IBU Cup, and Chloe Levins has progressed little and remains a name most fans, if they know of her at all, know solely for her relationship with Sturla Holm Lægreid.

 

[search]

A lot of people will crap on Wang's parade because so many good sprinters were absent when he podiumed for the fist time. He still finished ahead of great skiers like Chanavat and Pellegrino, that's impressive.

well, yeah, and going by your post, he still got way more recognition for it than Jouve for his first ever victory

 

[BigCoward]

Conditions are absolutely lovely. It's making my office/dungeon seem even more oppressive than normal.

 

[Silhouette]

Not unexpectedly, Johaug will retire after the season.

 

[BigCoward]

Not unexpectedly, Johaug will retire after the season.

Norways women's coach sat with his head in his hands going 'fuuuuuuuuuuck'.
Weng needs to step up next year.

Cracking relay. Top 5 will be handing over within seconds of each other for the last leg.

 

[frenchfry]

well, yeah, and going by your post, he still got way more recognition for it than Jouve for his first ever victory

Jouve is now 5th overall and 2nd in sprint in the WC points standings, his victory was well merited. I have always questioned the French team's separation of sprinters from the distancers as the top sprinters are often all around skiers. Jouve has been doing more distance races and his sprinting results have never been better. Not a scientific study, but kind of proves my point. Chanavat does great in qualifying but often fades towards the final.

 

[BigCoward]

Looking forward to next year when a 30km isn't a procession.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jonna Sundling is still there

 

[KZD]

Jonna Sundling is still there

She has become like Stina Nilsson back in 2017/2018 when she got bronze in the Olympic mass-start quite difficult to drop. Skånes is the surprise today, hanging on with the front group when she barely has any World Cup experience

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's all about distance classic, so we have Finland on the charge. Praise be to Finland!

Edit: great finish from Jonna, but Kerttu was away. Poor Ebba Andersson got an ill-timed broken pole when racing began, got absolutely no help from Brennan as she tried to chase back into the mix on her own for over 20km and then gets outsprinted by the American at the line.

 

[Norbea]

Now that the Johaug era is over I want a 50km woman's race in Holmenkollen next year.

 

[Silhouette]

I would rather have a 70km for the men. 30km for women in this course is enough for the strongest to win.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Now that the Johaug era is over I want a 50km woman's race in Holmenkollen next year.

TBH a 50km women's race might well have been fine during the Johaug era, she'd have had to think a bit more about her pacing then, if Oberstdorf and Storlien-Meråker are anything to go by, Karlsson had the measure of her the longer the race got and getting up to 30k and beyond the balance tipped towards the Swede.

I would like some 30/20 (instead of 30/15) distance races like the old Davos one they got rid of as a staging point between the 15/10ks that the more durable sprinters can manage (thinking of Linn Svahn winning a few of them a couple of years ago) and the only occasionally-run 50/30ks.

Elvira Öberg needs to pace herself better, she obliterated everybody on the first 2 laps, such that 12" over Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet - who also has a tendency to not be able to raise the pace on the last lap - seemed an inevitable win, but she fell short and she was looking extremely red of face at the line.

 

[Mayomaniac]

So tomorrow Iivo will be the big favourite. Kinda sucks that we won't see a big fight between him, Klaebo and Bolshunov in a 50km classic race, but it can't be helped. Let's hope that Poromaa and the Norwegian distance specialists will be able to challenge him.
At this point I have more faith in Pellegrino finishing inside the top 10 than I have in De Fabiani...