Official xc skiing world cup thread

[Tyler'sTwin]

Ok that's true. But you know what i mean. Without Neuner, Germany future doesn't look good at all.

The men's team looks good with a late-blooming Andi Birnbacher, the promising Simon Schempp and "that north German jerk" Arnd Peiffer.

 

[goggalor]

It was painful to watch Bø's standing shoot today. He looked terrified!

 

[roundabout]

He was amazing last year in the stand. Seems the confidence is gone.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ok that's true. But you know what i mean. Without Neuner, Germany future doesn't look good at all.

Miri's Bavarian too, you know. You can root for her.

She was top 15 in the WC last year, but has stagnated this year. A bit of work and she can be back up there. You've got Hitzer to return next year as well, who has had some good results over the last few years. Sure, there's nothing that will replace the most successful athlete in the sport in the last few years, but you know, it's not apocalyptic unless you kind of assume the divine right to be at the front. The whole team has had to be restarted effectively after Wilhelm/Hauswald/Beck retired together. There's plenty of 'prospects' but the only finished articles the Germans have are the retiring Neuner and the soon-to-be-retiring Henkel... I'm sure Ricco Groß will whip some of the youngsters into shape in the offseason. I mean, if Synnøve Solemdal can go from 17th in last year's event with 0 misses to being an erratic shot who can put in ski times better than Neuner's at Östersund, and if Olga Vilukhina can come from nowhere to a regular in the WC top 10, then the Germans should be able to find somebody to build a team around.

 

[Nielsa]

---
Btw, Martin Fourcade is the man... but the girls kicked the boys' collective *** on the shooting range. Nothing new, statistically speaking. But Neuner just kills kills kills the top guys on the range.
What's wrong with Simon's shooting
Miri is so sweet!

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

It's such a shame Northug and Alsgaard wont start in Vasaloppet tomorrow. I was excited to see how they'd fare.

She complained about that article @ the press conference.

It's factual though.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

She complained about that article @ the press conference.

It's factual though.

Whilst true, the team still got a medal, and Arnd has to be at worst 2nd best shout for a medal among the German men (I think he's a more talented athlete than Birnbacher, but Andi has been riding high on a wave of confidence lately and is shooting like a dream and fast too); this can't be good for the confidence, to read headlines like that. It's not quite as bad as the Russians sending Svetlana Sleptsova home for a week and a half between the Mixed Relay and the Women's Relay last year, but it certainly isn't helpful, especially as it isn't the first time Arnd has bottled it at the last (I think it was Presque Isle last season when he won the sprint and was leading the pursuit before 3 misses at shooting 4).

 

[goggalor]

So Jörgen Brink won Vasaloppet for the third time in a row and also set a new course record. Daniel Richardsson was very impressive and came 3rd.

 

[python]

ufff, almost 4 hours of double poling !!...and still winning in a sprint. richardsson patient and impressive. terrific coverage.

 

[meat puppet]

bergmann, mesotitsch and m fourcade together in the 3rd shoot. 1 lap bergmann and meso, fourcade takes the lead.

bergmann seemed to have the best skis, fwiw.

 

[meat puppet]

4th shoot fourcade had this already, but missed two. bergmann and him together now. if fourcade drops bergmann, he wins, but i fancy bergmann's chances for the sprint.

impressive attack by fourcade, bejasus!

 

[Nielsa]

Martin Fourcade is the new cannibal.

Mesotitsch again #4...

 

[goggalor]

Another gold for Fourcade despite poor shooting, and another medal for Bergman. Bø was better today.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Good race from Shipulin, full value for his bronze. Fourcade seemed ever so keen to throw that away, but the others just couldn't shoot well enough to let him. One of the best victory celebrations I've seen in a while though.

 

[meat puppet]

Now, can Dasha put serious pressure on Lena? Sure hope so.

 

[goggalor]

Now, can Dasha put serious pressure on Lena? Sure hope so.

Yup! ...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Proper déjà vu for Lena there, going into the World Championships Pursuit wearing bib #1, having a comfortable lead coming into shooting 4 and missing 2 to give away the victory. That time it was Mäkäräinen to profit, this time Domracheva. A well deserved win, and what about Henkel from 34th to 11th?

I also was really happy for Vilukhina. This time last year I don't think she'd even entered a WC event, but she's 8th in the overall WC and the medal obviously meant so much to her from her reaction at the line and her excited leaping up and down on the podium.

 

[jsem94]

Great day for Emil Jönsson. He owned that sprint in Lahti. Hope he gets to start in the Stockholm sprint, he's easily one of the most likable guys in the world.

I can't believe Fourcade does so well despite bad shooting. He won that beautifully, as did Darya. I was really surprised to see Lena miss those first two so badly.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Great day for Emil Jönsson. He owned that sprint in Lahti. Hope he gets to start in the Stockholm sprint, he's easily one of the most likable guys in the world.

I can't believe Fourcade does so well despite bad shooting. He won that beautifully, as did Darya. I was really surprised to see Lena miss those first two so badly.

Yea, those were crazy, they weren't even remotely close. I started to fear flashbacks to Antholz '09. I'm glad Darya got gold, she deserves it, but I can't wish 5 misses with a gold medal on the line on anyone, especially not a popular and likable retiring star in front of their home crowd.

 

[meandmygitane]

Allow me to talk briefly about Sunday's Vasaloppet for those who are not familiar with the sports' history.

Back in the days there were three, four big races.

Norway:Holmenkollen (XC since 1900)
Finland: Lahti (since 1923) also known as Lahti Ski Games)
Sweden: Vasaloppet (since 1922, televised since 1966) and/or Svenska Skidspelen, english: Swedish Ski Games (from 1947 but not always in Falun).

If you don't count Worlds or Olympics then these are then only races with history, prestige, media coverage and and reoccurring venue (-1p for Svenska Skidspelen) enough to be called classics.

Major changes to the races:
Holmenkollen: Shorter and shorter rounds, from interval to masstart, alternating between skate and classic.
Lahti: If don't misremember it has been both 30 and 50km historically, nowadays it is skiathlon.
Svenska Skidspelen: changing venues, from the start 30km, now it is a mini-tour.
Vasaloppet: Pretty much the same tracks as in year 1922, classic mandatory.

If I would "translate" it to cycling races, for fun, at least how they used to be:
Holmenkollen: LBL (the oldest, also much climbing)
Lahti: RvV (the course used to have very steep but short climbs)
Vasaloppet: MSR (length, some strategical climbs)
Sv. Skidspelen: Fléche Wallonne maybe? I don't know



(A precursor to the Swedish Ski Games can be said to be the Nordic Ski Games, first held 1901 in Stockholm, so between 1901-1922 Holmenkollen and the Nordic Ski Games were the only two really "international" competitions.)

There were some other fun historical races, maybe I will write some about them. And the history of skiing in Russia I know almost nothing about.

 

[Nielsa]

I applaud your initiative, unfortunately I suspect most people who click this thread are already familiar with the sport.

Btw what do you think of Tour de Ski? Did it make the season better or worse for the audience and/or athletes? I'm ambiguous about it. It's kind of nice to have a center point to a championship-less season.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

No Shipulin, Makoveev or Garanichev in the russian line-up...
Unbelievable.

 

[Fetisoff]

No Shipulin, Makoveev or Garanichev in the russian line-up...
Unbelievable.

Probably decided that their only chance for a gold is a relay.

LOL, Ustyugov slower than the Bulgarian dude

Pretty pathetic stuff, really.

 

[Fetisoff]

..... and the Germans **** up the last shoot... again...

It's gonna be Fourcade, FFS, and not even the good one

 

[python]

nope, fourcade did not get it for fak's sake