Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[No Excuses]

This is the biggest choke i have seen in a while. You might think Karlsson and Andersson alone can gain a minute.

 

[search]

Teams for tomorrow are out as well. Another upset is probably too much to ask for, even if the Frenchmen are some kind of relay specialists.

Iversen instead of Amundsen looked like a minor risk when it was first announced, but he is mainly facing sprinters anyway.

NOR Iversen - Nyenget - Hedegart - Klaebo
SUI Grond - Wigger - Klee - Riebli
SWE Haeggstroem - Halfvarsson - Poromaa - Anger
FRA Schely - Lapalus - Desloges - Lovera
CAN McKeever - Cyr - Drolet - Stephen
ITA Graz - Barp - Carollo - Pellegrino
USA Ogden - Schumacher - Hagenbuch - Ketterson
GER Brugger - F Moch - Notz - Stölben
FIN Vuorinen - Niskanen - Ruuskanen - Anttola
CZE Tuz - Novak - Bauer - Ophoff

 

[BigCoward]

Maybe Hedegart messes up his pacing again and we get a race.

 

[kingjr]

Teams for tomorrow are out as well. Another upset is probably too much to ask for, even if the Frenchmen are some kind of relay specialists.

Iversen instead of Amundsen looked like a minor risk when it was first announced, but he is mainly facing sprinters anyway.

NOR Iversen - Nyenget - Hedegart - Klaebo
SUI Grond - Wigger - Klee - Riebli
SWE Haeggstroem - Halfvarsson - Poromaa - Anger
FRA Schely - Lapalus - Desloges - Lovera
CAN McKeever - Cyr - Drolet - Stephen
ITA Graz - Barp - Carollo - Pellegrino
USA Ogden - Schumacher - Hagenbuch - Ketterson
GER Brugger - F Moch - Notz - Stölben
FIN Vuorinen - Niskanen - Ruuskanen - Anttola
CZE Tuz - Novak - Bauer - Ophoff

This is so dire lol

 

[YavorD]

Gonna be iconic if we see another Jorgen Brink.
Perhaps we can see a Valnes or Amundsen (in the relay) climb?

Indeed we saw another disaster in Val Di Fiemme.
It wasn't Norwegian though, it was swedish..again. 23 years later.
Swedish women decided to do what Norway did in Sochi, though they at least got a medal.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Top 15 for Denmark, what the hell?
Edit: Top 16

Since we couldn't get Hedegart (yet) we have to be happy for for the Norwegians we can import

Joking aside, this is a huge result for De Besche, and it also made her good friend Tandrevold very excited. Having both a man and a woman qualified for the pursuit is a fantastic achievement for the Danish team.

Lucas Braathen wasn't available to us, but Danish-Austrian Christian Borgnæs finishing 20th in the men's Super G was also quite pleasing.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Teams for tomorrow are out as well. Another upset is probably too much to ask for, even if the Frenchmen are some kind of relay specialists.

Iversen instead of Amundsen looked like a minor risk when it was first announced, but he is mainly facing sprinters anyway.

NOR Iversen - Nyenget - Hedegart - Klaebo
SUI Grond - Wigger - Klee - Riebli
SWE Haeggstroem - Halfvarsson - Poromaa - Anger
FRA Schely - Lapalus - Desloges - Lovera
CAN McKeever - Cyr - Drolet - Stephen
ITA Graz - Barp - Carollo - Pellegrino
USA Ogden - Schumacher - Hagenbuch - Ketterson
GER Brugger - F Moch - Notz - Stölben
FIN Vuorinen - Niskanen - Ruuskanen - Anttola
CZE Tuz - Novak - Bauer - Ophoff

Graz is better in skating, I would have swapped first and 3rd leg.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Graz is better in skating, I would have swapped first and 3rd leg.

That makes like zero sense. Carollo was 7th in the 10km and has been twice top 10 in skating this year, while his best classic result has been almost constantly horrible. Graz have had some decent classic races, and was top 10 in Oberhof a couple of weeks ago for example.

If Graz was to do skating it should be Pellegrino doing classic.

 

[Silhouette]

Iversen instead of Amundsen looked like a minor risk when it was first announced, but he is mainly facing sprinters anyway.

I don't understand why we (Norway) keep putting in guys who haven't competed yet in the relay. We've done this too many times and I don't see why we need to do that this year unless Amundsen is sick again. It's always a risk even with athletes who have had a good season and we seem to prefer to take that risk instead of going with reasonably safe choices.

 

[BigCoward]

Would Russia be able to drop the first 3 to stop Klaebo just following Bolshunov, and kicking his a$$ in the last 500m is the question.

 

[BullsFan22]

Would Russia be able to drop the first 3 to stop Klaebo just following Bolshunov, and kicking his a$$ in the last 500m is the question.

They did it comfortably in the 2022 Olympic relay.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I don't understand why we (Norway) keep putting in guys who haven't competed yet in the relay. We've done this too many times and I don't see why we need to do that this year unless Amundsen is sick again. It's always a risk even with athletes who have had a good season and we seem to prefer to take that risk instead of going with reasonably safe choices.

Because it's Emil co-pilot Iversen's god given right to be in the relay after they select him, apparently.
Honestly, I was kinda surprised he didn't get to start in the skiathlon.

 

[No Excuses]

Maybe Hedegart messes up his pacing again and we get a race.

Not gonna happen. And Hede still did good. It's not like he blew up big time.

 

[BigCoward]

They did it comfortably in the 2022 Olympic relay.

Norway won in 2002 and Russia were 6th, what's your point?

 

[BullsFan22]

Norway won in 2002 and Russia were 6th, what's your point?

Did you read your own question? What do Klæbo and Bolshunov have to do with the 2002 Olympics?

 

[Salvarani]

Ebba fell 3 years ago in the Planica Skiathlon (which she won…) in similar conditions and similar type of downhill. She is obviously a world class athlete, one of the best in the world for years now, but I think she is not the best downhill skier. It’s also bad luck, anything can happen in soft conditions on a faster, more technical downhill. Unfortunately it is part of the game, as they say. For her to crash a second time and a lose a ski, is something else.

She has a history of crashing a lot and she has had a problem with a knee that affects descending.

It very much feels like a skill-issue and it has taken a hold of her mentally imo.

Her first fall here was a nothing-burger, but typical, and made her stressed naturally. Then she had a couple of scares on the descents before her big fall today. This feels like it was destined to happen. Like even the commentators in my country (Sweden) was manifesting it, because it felt like it was bound to happen to her.

Then when you start crossing the skis like that in these conditions to brake and you have glue/paste under the skis to be able to make them stick in these conditions... you can get stuck like she did there and just flip over. Her body-weight and position was just bad as well. Made for a perfect disaster.

 

[Sciatic]

Gotta remember to turn the sound off before Weng starts screaming in my ear.

Wow, she had some serious volume crossing the finish line!

 

[search]

I see those Canadians Stephen and Drolet somehow finished 9th and 19th* in the 10k. May be a team to watch out for, with McKeever and Cyr as good classic runners to start with.

*edit: although thinking about it, they probably benefitted from their early number quite a bit

 

[Sciatic]

Ryytty did so well that not even Joensuu could blow it. She was obviously overpowered by Sundling, but for a sprinter that was some sucking appallingly on the downhills.

I also thought (at the time) that Niskanen did a great second leg to bring Finland back into contact with leaders but I see her split time wasn't that special?

 

[BullsFan22]

Wow, she had some serious volume crossing the finish line!

Oh that was pretty tame for her standards. Back in 2017, when she won the TDS overall, she was screaming at the top of her lungs for Østberg to overtake Nilsson on the final meters of the Alpe Cermis. You could hear it, even when the commentators were talking, even with the finish area talking, even with the crowd cheering.

 

[BigCoward]

Did you read your own question? What do Klæbo and Bolshunov have to do with the 2002 Olympics?

What do the performances from 4 years ago have to do with tomorrow?

 

[BullsFan22]

What do the performances from 4 years ago have to do with tomorrow?

You asked if the Russians could break away from the Norwegians before the anchor leg. I told you it has happened before, and they could have done it again had they had a full team that was allowed to compete here without restrictions. They arguably have a deeper team now than they did 4 years ago. The problem is being away from the WC scene and adjusting to the different conditions. On ability, they are right there.

The Russians are the only team that could beat the Norwegians right now. That is a fact. Where are the Swedes, Germans, Finns, Swiss, Italians? The only men’s team that has had ok results by more than one skier is France. The French won’t be able to pull away in the classic legs, unless there is a Ebba Andersson like crash and bad luck.

 

[kingjr]

Why do you belive Ardashev is clearly better than Korostelev?

This season Korostelev raced 6 distance races in Kirovsk and Tyumen before he entered the world cup.
19/11 - 10 km (classic?): Korostelev won, Ardashev 2nd 6s behind
22/11 - 15 km (skate?): Spitsov won, Korostelev 2nd +14s. Ardashev 3rd +24.
26/11 - 15 km (skate?). Korostelev won, Spitsov 2nd, Ardashev 3rd +21
29/11 - 15 km (classic?): Ardashev won, Korostelev DNF. No idea why.
3/12 - 10 km (skate?): Korostelev won, Ardashev 2nd +17.
6/12 - 20 km masstart (classic?): Korostelev won, Bolshunov 2nd, Ardashev 3rd +2s.

That means from 5 distance races Ardashev only beat Korostelev in the one race where Korostelev didnt finish, and Spitsov was the only one beating Korostelev in one single race. In distance races Korostelev therefore seems clearly better.

In the same period Korostelev have also raced 2 sprint races. The first one I think was skating (28/11) and Korostelev was 3rd in the prologue and then knocked out in semi final and finished 9th. Ardashev was 24th in the prologue, but made it to the final and was 4th. Egor Mitroshin won that race. The second sprint was classic (5/12) and Korostelev won the prologue 1.7s ahead of Ardashev. In the final Ardashev won, ahead of Terentiev and Korostelev in 3rd. So in sprint Ardashev seems clearly better, but his prologues seems week (also in the races since Korostelev went to the World Cup Ardashev have been doing very mediocre prologues).

Of course, since Korostelev went to the World Cup Ardashev have been winning almost every race, but I do find it strange to make this mean that Ardashev IS the best as he was beaten by Korostelev almost every distance race they raced together in the first part of the season.

And its not like Ardashew was clearly better than Korostelev last season either. In the Russian Championships (Ardashev - Korostelev), Ardashev was only better in the 50km where he won the sprint 0,2s ahead of Korostelev.
Sprint Classic: 5 - 3
Skiathlon: 7 - 5
10km Skate: 5 - 2
50 km Classic: 1 - 2
And in the regular Russian Cup Korostelev won 5 races and podiumed 3 more times, while Ardashev won 4 and podiumed 5 more times. And then in the final Korostelev podiumed 5 races and finished 2nd behind Bolshunov in the minitour, while Ardashev podiumed 2 races and finished 8th in the minitour.

So to summarize it:
Why do you belive Ardashev is clearly better than Korostelev?

Have you responded to this yet, @BullsFan22?

 

[BullsFan22]

Have you responded to this yet, @BullsFan22?

No, but I will now. It took Korostelev a few races to get going. Had there not been a ban, and the Russians didn’t miss any time in international competitions, they would have challenged the Norwegians and beat them in races, particularly distance races.

Korostelev has been more or less the top man on the Russian circuit before heading over to Europe, that is true. That said, you think that would have been permanent?

 

[kingjr]

No, but I will now. It took Korostelev a few races to get going. Had there not been a ban, and the Russians didn’t miss any time in international competitions, they would have challenged the Norwegians and beat them in races, particularly distance races.

Korostelev has been more or less the top man on the Russian circuit before heading over to Europe, that is true. That said, you think that would have been permanent?

That's not really a response to Eddy's question though, is it. Why did you originally claim that Korostolev wasn't even the best the Russians had to offer? And what does "permanent" even mean, in this context?