Explain this to me please (Biathlon vs XC)

Hi all,

This is Jan Gerrit (call me J) from the Netherlands, in love with the sports
for ages but only now starting to work on the very principles of skating on
the Crosskates I acquired years ago. We don't get snow to mention here, and
I've never travelled to the snow.
I've been catching up with a lot of great info on this list, but have a
question I can't get answered.

Lots of live tv coverage here of both XC and biathlon via Eurosport, yes I'm
blessed.
I just say Bjorndalen win a biathlon, 2 and 3 penaltly laps more than #2 and
#3, so he was about a minute faster on the ski's, on a rather short race.
HUGE difference, is it not? It seemed to be similar in the Olympics,
Bjorndalen coming close, despite a couple extra laps. Pretty much impossible
a speed difference to overcome with training for athletes so near their
optimum fitness, there hardly is any competition for him in his sport on the
skis, too bad about the shooting that keeps him from winning everything.

It would seem to me if he left the rifle(sp?) at home, he should be able to
keep up with the very best XC racers just fine? I can't imagine that a
biathlete's time spent on the shooting training would make the ski training
less effective? For one, he doesn't have to "waste" any time on training his
classical, as it doesn't happen much in his races, most XC racers do contend
in both types of racing, right?
If it were me, I'd love to be a biathlete even more than xc only, but at
Bjondalen's level, why not rob the XC world of a couple gold medals here and
there? Has it got to do with biathlon being under it's own union?

Kind regards,

J

Biathlon racers do indeed compete in XC races, and have done well.

Bjoerndalen competed in XC in the SLC olympics. Lars Berger and
Bjoerndalen competed in the XC world champs last year at Val Di Fiemme.


The most practical reason why biathletes probably dont race XC is that
their World cup schedules are pretty much the same, and it would be
hard to accumulate points in both, theres the effort involved,etc.

The problem with the Olympics and WCs is that a biathlete is only gonna
go for a skating event. The 30K has been replaced with the "double
pursuit" which has classic. the techniques for the 15K and the 50K
alternate between each World Championship and Olympics. Since the 50K
is pretty long depending on a biathletes' schedule, the only races a
biathlete would try out for now would be the 15K in skate and the
relay. this isnt really many chances to compete in XC.

"shane" wrote in message
oups.com...
Biathlon racers do indeed compete in XC races, and have done well.

USA Biathlete Jay Hakinen has times that would make him competative or
faster than some USA XC Team members.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

Jan Gerrit Klok wrote:
I just say Bjorndalen win a biathlon, 2 and 3 penaltly laps more than #2 and
#3, so he was about a minute faster on the ski's, on a rather short race.

He did start in front of them, since he won the previous race, but
otherwise you're correct.

HUGE difference, is it not? It seemed to be similar in the Olympics,
Bjorndalen coming close, despite a couple extra laps. Pretty much impossible
a speed difference to overcome with training for athletes so near their
optimum fitness, there hardly is any competition for him in his sport on the
skis, too bad about the shooting that keeps him from winning everything.

You might not have noticed that he also shoots faster than pretty much
everyone else in the world, particularly when standing?

Gaining 4-5 seconds on each of 4 shoots equal almost one penalty lap.

It would seem to me if he left the rifle(sp?) at home, he should be able to
keep up with the very best XC racers just fine? I can't imagine that a
biathlete's time spent on the shooting training would make the ski training
less effective? For one, he doesn't have to "waste" any time on training his
classical, as it doesn't happen much in his races, most XC racers do contend
in both types of racing, right?

This is indeed correct, and the best skiers among the norwegian biathlon
team have been on our world cup team in several skating races, as well
as skating legs in the relays.

However, even Lars Berger, who when healthy is among the fastest skaters
in the world, (significantly faster than Ole Einar and Frode Andresen)
have never (afaik) managed to win a regular xc skating race.

If it were me, I'd love to be a biathlete even more than xc only, but at
Bjondalen's level, why not rob the XC world of a couple gold medals here and
there? Has it got to do with biathlon being under it's own union?

See above: The competition among the best xc skaters is _really_ brutal. :-)

Terje

PS. Before the olympics NRK had a segment on how OE is experimenting
with the ultimate in shooting speed: Stop breathing!

I.e. he'd like to spend maybe 5-6 seconds to get ready, then fire off
the 5 shots in less than 5 seconds, while still having a pulse around 180.

Have you ever tried to hold your breath a few seconds after a
near-maximum effort? :-)
--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Great info Terje, thanks!

Yes I did see him starting a bit earlier, but not by a lot, was it? To be
honest, I dialed in seconds after the winner's finish, and saw some
flashbacks of the race.

At times I've tried to hold my breath, and I know it's hard. Some cycling
fitness training involves holding your breath between roadside lightmasts,
or sets of them. It's good to train that anyway, to get more effective
what-not, but I don't ever do that anymore, as well, it sucks.
I'm still working on getting my skating/poling efficient enough and building
my arm muscles to actually reach higher heartrates. I can do maximum efforts
now and chat to a friend all through it :-)

Small anecdote, not that I'm writing anyways. This afternoon I went to a
local closed cycling circuit where I always went for cycling training at
speed, time myself, etc. Found myself crosskating in our moderate winter
climate, in the SNOW. Well, it was above freesing and quite windy so the dry
stuff never stuck to the asphalt so I never really noticed anything, track
stayed dry. It give give me a small glipse of what xc skiing one day might
be, I already know I'm going to love it. That is, when I get good enough to
not look like a total goof. So fast, graceful and precise on my
mountainbike, so slow, inefficient and clumsy with the skates and poles... A
10ft tall asphalt bridge, pretty steep, was a real proof that I have lots to
learn, I would have gotten up it faster on my knees :-(

PS. Before the olympics NRK had a segment on how OE is experimenting
with the ultimate in shooting speed: Stop breathing!

I.e. he'd like to spend maybe 5-6 seconds to get ready, then fire off
the 5 shots in less than 5 seconds, while still having a pulse around 180.

Have you ever tried to hold your breath a few seconds after a
near-maximum effort? :-)
--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"