Men's Relay

http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:37:17 -0700
wrote:

http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Terje, just before the final downhill into the stadium was Petter
playing Thomas, trying to get Jonnier and Koukal to take the lead?
Looked like he gave them the 'Thomas look' just before the finish
line. Or was it mocking, that he was able to catch them from nearly 40
seconds back in the final 10k?

In any case, another big day for Sweden.

Gene

wrote:
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:37:17 -0700 wrote:

http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Terje, just before the final downhill into the stadium was Petter
playing Thomas, trying to get Jonnier and Koukal to take the lead?
Looked like he gave them the 'Thomas look' just before the finish
line. Or was it mocking, that he was able to catch them from nearly
40 seconds back in the final 10k?

He was almost certainly _very_ tired at that point, he sprinted past
them on the very last uphill just so he could slow down again, then he
stayed in front as a speed reducer as long as possible in order to make
the needed finish sprint as short as possible.

In any case, another big day for Sweden.

Indeed.

Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset looked very strong on the 2nd leg the first time
Sweden pulled in front, but by the third lap his skis (rubbed, but not
sufficiently water-repellent) started icing up seriously.

With 10-15 seconds instead of 35 behind Lars Berger wouldn't have had to
pull in front of the followers as much as he now had to (but he still
more or less kept up with the three leaders), and would have given
Petter a much better starting position.

It seems (in retrospect) quite obvious that the same ca 15 seconds which
he needed to catch up to Germany last year would have been doable here
as well, but 35-40 seconds was just too much.

OTOH, this time Norway won a Silver instead of losing a Gold!

Congratulations to Sweden on a great team effort.

Terje

Gene


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

Somebody has to tell Odd Bjorn Hjelmesett that it's time to retire. I was
watching Framesport Eurosport in either Russian or Slovakian ( it keep
stopping and switching back in forth maybe it wasn't this particular link?)
anyway they broke away for a commercial and when they came back Odd Bjorn
was completely dropped. He really looked arthritic with absolutely no snap
in his technique! It was really painfull to see him seize up it that way.
Petter Northug skied an incredible last leg to catch the Koukal? and Jaunier
to grab the silver but there was absolutely no chance of catching Hellner
from that far behind. Did anybody think the Lars Berger experiment for
Norway's 3rd leg was the right way to go? What ever happened to the depth
of Norwegian squad? Wasn't there that guy Simonsen(sp?) that was on fire
last year at the Tour de Ski?. I didn't even see him ski at this year's
Norwegian Nationals at Stokke a couple of weeks ago?

wrote in message
...
http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Lay off Odd-Bjorn's skiing! If you want to criticize, try his choice
of skis:
http://blogs.fasterskier.com/patrick...ed-up-hairies/

Gene

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:34:16 -0800
"shreddir" wrote:

Somebody has to tell Odd Bjorn Hjelmesett that it's time to retire.
I was watching Framesport Eurosport in either Russian or Slovakian
( it keep stopping and switching back in forth maybe it wasn't this
particular link?) anyway they broke away for a commercial and when
they came back Odd Bjorn was completely dropped. He really looked
arthritic with absolutely no snap in his technique! It was really
painfull to see him seize up it that way. Petter Northug skied an
incredible last leg to catch the Koukal? and Jaunier to grab the
silver but there was absolutely no chance of catching Hellner from
that far behind. Did anybody think the Lars Berger experiment for
Norway's 3rd leg was the right way to go? What ever happened to the
depth of Norwegian squad? Wasn't there that guy Simonsen(sp?) that
was on fire last year at the Tour de Ski?. I didn't even see him
ski at this year's Norwegian Nationals at Stokke a couple of weeks
ago?

wrote in message
...
http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Yeah , I read stinsons blog after I made this post. However, I still stick
with my opinion that Odd Bjorn's ability to quickly accelerate and stay with
break-away style attacks that are common in top level relays isn't what it
use to be. That's why you often see him doing better in steady pace
interval start long distance events like the upcoming 50k. So I really
didn't mean he should stop skiing all together. Good luck to OBH this
weekend!

wrote in message
...
Lay off Odd-Bjorn's skiing! If you want to criticize, try his choice
of skis:
http://blogs.fasterskier.com/patrick...ed-up-hairies/

Gene

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:34:16 -0800
"shreddir" wrote:

Somebody has to tell Odd Bjorn Hjelmesett that it's time to retire.
I was watching Framesport Eurosport in either Russian or Slovakian
( it keep stopping and switching back in forth maybe it wasn't this
particular link?) anyway they broke away for a commercial and when
they came back Odd Bjorn was completely dropped. He really looked
arthritic with absolutely no snap in his technique! It was really
painfull to see him seize up it that way. Petter Northug skied an
incredible last leg to catch the Koukal? and Jaunier to grab the
silver but there was absolutely no chance of catching Hellner from
that far behind. Did anybody think the Lars Berger experiment for
Norway's 3rd leg was the right way to go? What ever happened to the
depth of Norwegian squad? Wasn't there that guy Simonsen(sp?) that
was on fire last year at the Tour de Ski?. I didn't even see him
ski at this year's Norwegian Nationals at Stokke a couple of weeks
ago?

wrote in message
...
http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Shreddir, Odd-Bjorn H is an absolute stud. His classic skills and technique
are without reproach! He's the MAN. His skis iced up and to quote him "it
wasn't the fitness, it was the iced up skis." What a shame to lose the gold
on that note. He also said "I've never skied poorly in a relay. Millions
of Norwegians will be mad at me, but its my relay teammates I really feel
bad for."

well said OBH.

JKal.

"shreddir" wrote in message
...
Somebody has to tell Odd Bjorn Hjelmesett that it's time to retire. I
was watching Framesport Eurosport in either Russian or Slovakian ( it keep
stopping and switching back in forth maybe it wasn't this particular
link?) anyway they broke away for a commercial and when they came back Odd
Bjorn was completely dropped. He really looked arthritic with absolutely
no snap in his technique! It was really painfull to see him seize up it
that way. Petter Northug skied an incredible last leg to catch the Koukal?
and Jaunier to grab the silver but there was absolutely no chance of
catching Hellner from that far behind. Did anybody think the Lars Berger
experiment for Norway's 3rd leg was the right way to go? What ever
happened to the depth of Norwegian squad? Wasn't there that guy
Simonsen(sp?) that was on fire last year at the Tour de Ski?. I didn't
even see him ski at this year's Norwegian Nationals at Stokke a couple of
weeks ago?

wrote in message
...
http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

GREAT LINK GENE, watched today at work!!! Wahoo!!
JKal.

wrote in message
...
http://www.fromsport.com/video-185684.html

Shreddir, I thought the upcoming 50K was a mass start, no?

Well l really didn't pay attention to the official event schedule, I was
just assuming it was going to be run like traditional 50ks like the one at
Holmenkollen. Now come to think about it, the Freestyle one at Torino was
mass start too. So I will now predict that OBH and other old guys like
Veerpulu will not win the 50k which I think will be a big long train plowing
their way thru a heavy sloppy wet snowstorm until the last kilometer when a
group of 3 or 4 guys will sprint away. Uggh!

"MT Nordic" wrote in message
...
Shreddir, I thought the upcoming 50K was a mass start, no?