Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[No Excuses]

Anger and Vermeulen really strong, thaught they make it. In the end Amundsen still winning quite comfortable.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Amundsen is a real beast, Norway's closest skier to Bolshunov. Hedegart with a great second place, hopefully he focuses more on cross-country skiing because he may have a shot of getting himself selected to the Olympics for the 10k and relay.

Anger super strong today and the Italians looked really good as well.

I think for this year at least it's a no-brainer. He's too far down the pecking order with rifle in hand to even make the World Cup whereas he has shown the ability to more than just hang at the World Cup level in XC. I anticipate he's just better at the longer stretches of skiing without the brief recoveries of the shooting, because he wasn't even especially spectacular at the IBU Cup level for ski speed (I mean, he was quick, but nothing like 'yea, this guy could podium on the XC World Cup' quick), yet he seems very much at home here.

Looks like the annual situation is developing, where Diggins hangs onto the back of the front group looking exhausted throughout, then gets herself well-placed at the bottom of the last ramp and sprints her way to at least the podium. She's been looking shot for several kilometres but never letting go and now fighting her way to the front in the final kilometre. It happens every year at Ruka and you'd think some of the others might have learned by now.

Lol, Karlsson even had her boxed in at the base of the climb, and then opened the door for her in what I can only assume was a completely ill-advised attempt to challenge Sundling's burst to the top of the hill. Sundling was just way too strong though and that was every bit as comprehensive as Amundsen's finish earlier.

In the tensest and most closely-fought battle in cross-country, however, Keidy Kaasiku outsprints Kaidy Kaasiku for 37th by barely half a second to take a 2-1 lead in the battle of the Kaasikus. Over three races the difference between the two has been about 2 seconds total.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Spectacular blow up by Gismondi after being top 15 on the first 2 laps