Picking Sweden for gold in the Men's Relay in Liberec.

The Swedish mens team is really skiing well. Coach Gunde Svan has the
team back on track. It would be good to see Sweden back in the mix.
How about Sodergren, Olson, Fredrickson, and Hellner bringing in the
Gold. It would be awesome seeing Hellner and Northug coming down the
home stretch. If it comes to that Hellner better have a little cushion
because Northug is scary fast in a relay finish.

ADK Skier wrote:
The Swedish mens team is really skiing well. Coach Gunde Svan has the
team back on track. It would be good to see Sweden back in the mix.
How about Sodergren, Olson, Fredrickson, and Hellner bringing in the
Gold. It would be awesome seeing Hellner and Northug coming down the
home stretch. If it comes to that Hellner better have a little cushion
because Northug is scary fast in a relay finish.

Indeed.

Can anyone ever recall him losing in such a situation?

Terje

--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:19:31 +0100, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at
tmsw.no" wrote:

ADK Skier wrote:
The Swedish mens team is really skiing well. Coach Gunde Svan has the
team back on track. It would be good to see Sweden back in the mix.
How about Sodergren, Olson, Fredrickson, and Hellner bringing in the
Gold. It would be awesome seeing Hellner and Northug coming down the
home stretch. If it comes to that Hellner better have a little cushion
because Northug is scary fast in a relay finish.

Indeed.

Can anyone ever recall him losing in such a situation?

If he puts the poles between his legs he might :-)

On Feb 17, 11:19*am, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

Can anyone ever recall him losing in such a situation?

Well, while I must count myself among those who'd love to see Petter
get his, so to speak, I certainly hope that those who believe his
heroic but mad pursuit of Teichmann up Alpe Cermis cost him the rest
of the season aren't right.

As for the relay, Sweden does indeed look like the team with the most
balanced team: Olsson on the second leg, Södergren on the third and
Hellner on the fourth are dead certs and Rickardsson a very likely
opener (and sprinter Emil Jönsson a potential surprise entry). Norway
looks boring, as usual, and ready to pick up the gold medals if
everyone else manages to have someone on a bad day. Italy will take a
podium place, while Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Canada
and three more teams will finish ahead of Finland.

Yet, I will be shouting "Hopp Schwitz!" all day long!


Anders

anders wrote:
On Feb 17, 11:19 am, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

Can anyone ever recall him losing in such a situation?

Well, while I must count myself among those who'd love to see Petter
get his, so to speak, I certainly hope that those who believe his
heroic but mad pursuit of Teichmann up Alpe Cermis cost him the rest
of the season aren't right.

So do I and the Norwegian coach: He's been selected to start in the 15k.

As for the relay, Sweden does indeed look like the team with the most
balanced team: Olsson on the second leg, Södergren on the third and
Hellner on the fourth are dead certs and Rickardsson a very likely

Sweden does have a very strong team, they will not be left behind on the
initial legs this year, which means that Hellner will indeed have the
chance to win it, as long as he don't have to sprint against Petter N.

opener (and sprinter Emil Jönsson a potential surprise entry). Norway
looks boring, as usual, and ready to pick up the gold medals if

Norway boring??? :-)

everyone else manages to have someone on a bad day. Italy will take a

I really don't think our team needs everyone else to have a bad day, we
only need to avoid any of our racers to do so.

podium place, while Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Canada
and three more teams will finish ahead of Finland.

No way!

Yet, I will be shouting "Hopp Schwitz!" all day long!

:-)

Terje


Anders


--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

On Feb 18, 4:32*pm, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

Sweden does have a very strong team, they will not be left behind on the
initial legs this year, which means that Hellner will indeed have the
chance to win it, as long as he don't have to sprint against Petter N.

Which is just about possible, if it turns out that Rønning has a bad
day; Heikkinen, Novikov, Kershaw and possibly Filbrich, Rickardsson
and Mae could take turns to kill him. But, wait, that's too many guys
- there'll always be someone for Rønning to hang onto.



Norway boring??? :-)

Well, everyone knows that the game will be over for everyone else at
the third exchange!


I really don't think our team needs everyone else to have a bad day, we
only need to avoid any of our racers to do so.

Unfortunately this is so and the other teams have at least the same
potential of taking themselves out on one leg as Norway has. (I guess
I was engaging in a game of "Make something happen by saying the
completely opposite thing!"...)


podium place, while Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Canada
and three more teams will finish ahead of Finland.

No way!

Unfortunately here I was being absolutely straight; in a worst-case
scenario Heikkinen begins strongly and hits the wall (it is not for
nothing that his nickname is "Happo-Heikkinen", where "happo" means
"lactate"), Jauhojärvi tries bravely to save the day but doesn't
manage to catch the leading group, Kattilakoski (who is our skating
specialist, but these days very much a long-distance guy) ends up
losing time to the "weaker" teams ahead and Nousiainen has one of his
bad days (which he seems to have more than good days, given his patchy
training (back operation and lung inflammation).



Yet, I will be shouting "HoppSchwitz!" all day long!

:-)

Although now I'm not so sure. The Swiss service team hasn't exactly
shined in Liberec, but the guys haven't made a good impression,
either. I'm afraid I'll have to root for the Swedes (and, as the
underachievers, the Germans).

Apart from that, it would be nice to see four teams finish within 20s,
six within a minute and eight within 1.30.


Anders

PS In any case, there will be less tears than after the women's
relay...

Lustig wrote:
On Feb 18, 4:32 pm, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

Sweden does have a very strong team, they will not be left behind on the

The loss of Södergren on the third seemed to affect the first two racers
as well, and sweden did get left behind early.

initial legs this year, which means that Hellner will indeed have the
chance to win it, as long as he don't have to sprint against Petter N.

Which is just about possible, if it turns out that Rønning has a bad

Rønning had a quite bad wax job: He didn't have enough structure to last
10k in the very dirty snow, resulting in skis that according to him were
"very fast on the first half, and then it felt like they stopped"

day; Heikkinen, Novikov, Kershaw and possibly Filbrich, Rickardsson
and Mae could take turns to kill him. But, wait, that's too many guys
- there'll always be someone for Rønning to hang onto.

He lost 25 seconds, Oddbjørn Hjelmeseth gained just one second, but
Hofstad on the third leg reduced those 24 seconds to 15 before the last leg:


Well, everyone knows that the game will be over for everyone else at
the third exchange!

Not at all, at that point it was still _very_ exiting.

I really don't think our team needs everyone else to have a bad day, we
only need to avoid any of our racers to do so.

Unfortunately this is so and the other teams have at least the same
potential of taking themselves out on one leg as Norway has. (I guess
I was engaging in a game of "Make something happen by saying the
completely opposite thing!"...)

:-)

podium place, while Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Canada
and three more teams will finish ahead of Finland.

Remove all of those except Germany and you're absolutely correct.

No way!

Unfortunately here I was being absolutely straight; in a worst-case
scenario Heikkinen begins strongly and hits the wall (it is not for
nothing that his nickname is "Happo-Heikkinen", where "happo" means
"lactate"), Jauhojärvi tries bravely to save the day but doesn't
manage to catch the leading group, Kattilakoski (who is our skating

Kattilikoski did indeed lose some time to Norway, allowing Ruud Hofstad
to catch him, but he really didn't have any alternative to trying to
keep up with Germany.

Apart from that, it would be nice to see four teams finish within 20s,
six within a minute and eight within 1.30.

Double the times and you're approximately correct.
Anders

PS In any case, there will be less tears than after the women's
relay...

No way.

Possibly in Finland, but the Norwegian Junior who won a world cup relay
for Norway earlier this winter was caught early by Finland, then managed
to fall behind both Germany and Sweden on the final 100 m.

After this the Norwegian wax technicians wanted to take the
responsibility: They had tried all of Marthe's skis, plus all the spare
skis from the other girls with the same brand, but they never found a
good pair for her on this snow.

Terje
--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Teichmann must be thrilled, falling to Northug again.

From the results, it looks like there were quite a few bad wax jobs out
there.

Gene

On Feb 27, 5:36*pm, wrote:

Teichmann must be thrilled, falling to Northug again.

Crossing the finish line, the look on his face was indeed "We are not
amused."

Especially when Petter had demonstrated that not only could he win
without a basket but that he could win without poles:-)


From the results, it looks like there were quite a few bad wax jobs out
there.

The conditions during the men's relay were complicated to say the
least, but I'm not sure there were as many or as bad wax jobs as there
had been on the previous day. Some skiers simply did worse than usual
on the soft snow and some surprises in the results were due to
sickness, insufficient recovery and mental burnout after failures
earlier in the championships.


Anders

PS the tears in the women's relay came mostly from Jacobsen whose
collapse cost Norway a medal - it is IMHO seldom a good idea to give
the anchor leg to a junior - and Ruponen whose bad day on poor skis
could ultimately have cost Finland the gold, but also from team
members who tried to console them.

PPS in a post-race interview Saarinen commented that right before her
start she had said to herself: "I eat little girls like that for my
evening snack!". (She later approached Jacobsen and said she was sorry
she had put it like that.) When the Norwegian junior was told what the
older skier had said, she said: "Well, I'll eat her for breakfast next
time!"

Lustig wrote:

PPS in a post-race interview Saarinen commented that right before her
start she had said to herself: "I eat little girls like that for my
evening snack!". (She later approached Jacobsen and said she was sorry
she had put it like that.) When the Norwegian junior was told what the
older skier had said, she said: "Well, I'll eat her for breakfast next
time!"

One of those things that's never a good idea to say out loud, at least
to non teammates.