Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BigCoward]

Nope. Not making stuff up. And how arrogant and ignorant can you be, thinking you know more than someone that's raced at the Europa Cup level, when you've never put on a pair of xc skis in your life? Oh but wait, your sister lives near Holmenkollen! Typical arrogant Englishman and also a hypocrite to boot.

Analysing stats and success does not require having done something at the highest level. To suggest it does is absolutely absurd.

 

[BigCoward]

Honestly mate, did you even follow the sport before 2023? You have exposed yourself as totally ignorant of the facts. At the time of the russian expulsion, Bolshunov had nearly 3 times as many WC distance wins as Kläbo. He dominated the distance WC, winning the overall 3 years in a row from 2019-2021 and came in 2nd place (ahead of Kläbo) in 2022 despite being prevented from finishing the season. Everyone who actually followed XC skiing at the time knows that Bolshunov underperformed at the WCH relative to the WC.

I've been posting here for 9 years so yes. And what I stated was an objective fact. Klaebo has more distance victories than Bolshunov has total victories.
If we are assessing greatness we don't include what someone else might have done if circumstances were different.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The Americans really have major waxing issues. I always like to complain about the Germans‘ skis, but the Americans‘ are really horrible.

 

[DonAragona]

Diggins had absolutely no glide which was obvious at the start of the race yet Posy finally gets to celebrate her bad technique as the reason for being so far behind.

 

[DenisMenchov]

This race will take forever. 32 minutes for 11.1km. Wow

 

[Bavarianrider]

Damn, that are some tough ass conditions.😲😲😲 Absolutely terrible, i guess Lots of Girls will withdraw.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Diggins had absolutely no glide which was obvious at the start of the race yet Posy finally gets to celebrate her bad technique as the reason for being so far behind.

A certain irony. Although Ian has also mentioned that inefficiencies in her technique in general rather than specific to today can play an impact in these types of conditions.

It's clear to me given she was so uncompetitive so quickly and unable to catch her way back into things on the downhill as she so often can with her skill there (and this is usually where the American skis tend to be decent) that it's a combination here. She's not on great form (it's the end of a long championships and she hasn't been great in the individual races all told), the conditions are unfavourable to her, and her skis are horrible.

 

[Discgear]

Considering how inconsistent the swedish skis have been this season, the wax team truly nailed it in the championship. Rumours says they had a collaboration with a university research group going into the season, but dropped them before Trondheim and went back to basics.

 

[Discgear]

Karlsson clearly skiing most efficiently.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Karlsson struggled a bit earlier in the race but she has a bit of a history in these longer races of getting stronger as the race goes on and she looks in a good position here.

Of course, she's still Frida "Johnny Knoxville" Karlsson so she'll probably crash out like Nyenget yesterday on the last lap and take Andersson out with her.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Wow Frida Karlsson can use her brain

 

[DonAragona]

Karlsson islooking better and better. Johaug clearly stressed with Frida stamping over her skis.

When will they change skis?

 

[DenisMenchov]

Karlsson islooking better and better. Johaug clearly stressed with Frida stamping over her skis.

When will they change skis?

Men changed at end of lap 4.

 

[Salvarani]

Ski change bluff was an absolutely hilarious scene.

Bit desperate from Johaug/Weng.

 

[Salvarani]

Karlsson islooking better and better. Johaug clearly stressed with Frida stamping over her skis.

When will they change skis?

She has the best skis.

Was able to comeback at a critical moment and then Johaug/Weng doesnt seem to have it and are struggling to create separation.

They also spending more energy now, because their skis are worse of.

 

[Silhouette]

The Swedes are better both in terms of ski technique and preparation. Johaug and Weng need a ski change and hope for better skis, but Johaug really hasn't coped well with the conditions.

The ski change did not seem to help the Norwegians.

 

[DonAragona]

The Swedes really do have some incredible skis today and throughout the Championship, unprecedented.

Johaug is just hanging on, simply doesn't have anymore to give.

No room on the course, Ebba looks fresh

 

[DenisMenchov]

All that talk from Johaug about 50km at Trondheim and she shows up with this? Not a single meaningful attack over the whole race.

 

[dobrien]

All that talk from Johaug about 50km at Trondheim and she shows up with this? Not a single meaningful attack over the whole race.

Oh come on, everyone knows what a hard core racer she is; if she had had the juice to do it she most certainly would have. The Swedes have obviously better skis, and this has been a very hard grinder of a race. Pretty sure she is giving everything she has.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

All that talk from Johaug about 50km at Trondheim and she shows up with this? Not a single meaningful attack over the whole race.

She did do a meaningful attack on the first two laps, that‘s how we ended up with only four skiers. It was always a bit unrealistic to expect prime Johaug this year and the Swedes have the ski advantage.

 

[BigCoward]

Johaug might end up with 4 silvers by about a total of 2 seconds. I wonder if failure (relative) will inspire her for the Olympics, or make her decide not to bother.

 

[dobrien]

Frida's skis are insane.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

All that talk from Johaug about 50km at Trondheim and she shows up with this? Not a single meaningful attack over the whole race.

When does Therese make what we'd consider meaningful attacks? Usually she just sets a crazy high tempo either from the gun or out of a change or whatever and just skis everybody out of her wake. She definitely tried to do that today, and she did have it down to 3 earlier but couldn't sustain it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Karlsson struggled a bit earlier in the race but she has a bit of a history in these longer races of getting stronger as the race goes on and she looks in a good position here.

Of course, she's still Frida "Johnny Knoxville" Karlsson so she'll probably crash out like Nyenget yesterday on the last lap and take Andersson out with her.

50% correct

 

[Orcs]

Wow Frida deserved this so much. What a race.