Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Nyenget thinks Johan Olsson here in 2013 was pure cowardice. Only 41k solo?

 

[Squire]

Bring back individual start. These mass starts are like backloading a GT and having no mountains in the first two weeks, in order to just postpone the suspense.

 

[No Excuses]

Wtf Niskanen. Why did he make the pace

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Iivo out! Amundsen out!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Wtf Niskanen. Why did he make the pace

It is the most time-honoured Iivo Niskanen strategy. Drop everybody and then drop yourself.

It's just that with his illness he does not have the level to do the first part today.

 

[Salvarani]

Wow Niskanen as well

 

[Salvarani]

Has to be sickness with so many others being sick atm

 

[dobrien]

Iivo out! Amundsen out!

Virtually simultaneously, crazy. When it's lights out it's lights out I guess.

 

[Salvarani]

Impressive from Iversen to come back after struggling for the past couple of seasons

 

[kingjr]

I just read that he was promised a 16 hour sex marathon by a Russian porn actress if he takes a medal today.

No clue if this really adds to his motivation or not, but apparently the expectations in Russia are high. Unlike others he is fit, and Panzhinskiy also said that he expects him on the podium.

Doesn't look very promising

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Desloges dying on his skis too now. This is pure attrition as you might expect from the last race of the schedule and being the longest and most gruelling (plus being in Classic).

Obviously it's less significant given most of these didn't do the Team Sprint, but it might also be worth noting the men went after the women on alternating days through the first week while they are before them here, so there have been fewer recovery days for them. It's also of course largely exacerbated by the illnesses going around.

Korostelëv distanced now, Lovera struggling to hold on, it's going to be a cavalcade to escort Klæbo to the line isn't it...

 

[No Excuses]

Norwegian NC now

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Wtf Niskanen. Why did he make the pace

Niskanen has apparently been sick the whole week and was unsure to even start. He said he wanted to test the first two loops to see if it was possible. Obviously it wasn’t.

 

[BullsFan22]

Norwegians have crazy good skis compared to everyone else. To be expected.

 

[KZD]

Lovera done now, Korostelev is the last hope against a full Norwegian podium but his skis are not helping.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The Norwegian Skis are just ridiculous. You could probably give Florian Notz or Joe Davies those skis and they‘d compete for a medal.

 

[No Excuses]

Niskanen has apparently been sick the whole week and was unsure to even start. He said he wanted to test the first two loops to see if it was possible. Obviously it wasn’t.

I know he has been sick, but then stay with the pack and let Nyenget make the pace.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Norwegian Skis are just ridiculous. You could probably give Florian Notz or Joe Davies those skis and they‘d compete for a medal.

This is why you get out on the course when it's supposed to be parc fermé and take the yellow card...

 

[kingjr]

This is why you get out on the course when it's supposed to be parc fermé and take the yellow card...

Like the Swedes, most recently?

 

[kingjr]

Korostelev's best chance is Klæbo doing an Evenepoel

 

[No Excuses]

Notz only 1:30 down. Watch out, Norway!

 

[Silhouette]

Impressive from Iversen to come back after struggling for the past couple of seasons

He has been training with Klæbo this season.
Makes you wonder what could have been if he had made those changes before.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

The Norwegian Skis are just ridiculous. You could probably give Florian Notz or Joe Davies those skis and they‘d compete for a medal.

If you give Notz or Davies the skis of Klæbo (even adjusted for the weight difference) they would struggle to even get up the hills. Klæbo is, because of his outstanding technique, skiing with much less kick wax/klister then the average world cup skier.

 

[Salvarani]

He has been training with Klæbo this season.
Makes you wonder what could have been if he had made those changes before.

Who knows, but at one point he was one of their best before going through a tough spell. Probably many reasons for that.

They are great friends apparently, so maybe finding motivation and having more fun was really important to get back to this form.

He just seems to be in a greater space in his personal life as well. That is important too.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Everybody changing skis except the Norwegians serenely strolling around at the front, they've only just had their first slips while the others appeared to be really struggling with theirs of late. And if ever there was a team that didn't need a ski performance advantage!