Holmenkollen races going on right now

Just watched the girls 30k race live on a crappy Ustream window showing
Eurosport 2 in Slovenian? I won't spoil it for you other to say there were
a bunch of women in the same "unnies" up at front. Don't expect
BasilBrush's mens 50k race video torrent to show the whole thing because
Eurosport 1 instead is showing the womens alpine slalom from Garmisch even
though I am hearing the 50k going on right now over Norwegian radio. I
hope Terje recorded the NRK version? Otherwise everybody's going to have to
settle for the shorten partial version :-(

watching the men's 50k right now, they're at the halfway point with a
Vittoz, Manificat, Northugg breakaway. eurosport 2 is showing through
fromsport.com !! tune in! The norwegian fans are cheering loudly.

JKal.

"shreddir" wrote in message
m...
Just watched the girls 30k race live on a crappy Ustream window showing
Eurosport 2 in Slovenian? I won't spoil it for you other to say there
were a bunch of women in the same "unnies" up at front. Don't expect
BasilBrush's mens 50k race video torrent to show the whole thing because
Eurosport 1 instead is showing the womens alpine slalom from Garmisch even
though I am hearing the 50k going on right now over Norwegian radio. I
hope Terje recorded the NRK version? Otherwise everybody's going to have
to settle for the shorten partial version :-(

outsideinmi wrote:
watching the men's 50k right now, they're at the halfway point with a
Vittoz, Manificat, Northugg breakaway. eurosport 2 is showing through
fromsport.com !! tune in! The norwegian fans are cheering loudly.

It was a magnificent race, even if Magnificat hit the was at the end and
lost 10-15 positions from what looked like a sure podium at 40K.

Petter needs just 17 more points to lock up the overall world cup
victory, NRK's commentators were dreaming about getting those on the
sprints tomorrow. :-)

(BTW, Petter gave away 15 of those points by stepping aside a couple of
times when passing the points sprint position up at the top of the
course near Frognerseteren. He said afterwards that Vittoz and
Magnificat deserved them for doing all that pulling on the uphills.)

Re. the next race after a 50K: Petter was slightly more realistic,
hoping he'd be OK to race on Wednesday.

Anyway, it sure looks like the first Norwegian overall victory since
Bjørn D in 1999.

wrote in message
m...
Just watched the girls 30k race live on a crappy Ustream window showing
Eurosport 2 in Slovenian? I won't spoil it for you other to say there
were a bunch of women in the same "unnies" up at front. Don't expect
BasilBrush's mens 50k race video torrent to show the whole thing because
Eurosport 1 instead is showing the womens alpine slalom from Garmisch even
though I am hearing the 50k going on right now over Norwegian radio. I
hope Terje recorded the NRK version? Otherwise everybody's going to have
to settle for the shorten partial version :-(

I'm not recording anything now, we're spending the weekend skiing in
absolutely gorgeous conditions at our mountain cabin: -1 to -6, bright
sun, but enough wind so that the sun doesn't get to melt the snow. :-)

Terje

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

On Mar 13, 5:13Â*pm, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

It was a magnificent race, even if Manificat hit the wall at the end and
lost 10-15 positions from what looked like a sure podium at 40K.

It must've hurt to lose a podium finish in Holmenkollen, but I don't
think it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him.

Piller Cottrer, of course, was the one who really made it a
magnificent race; he was my sentimental favourite for the day - I'm
not at all sure he won't continue his career for one more championship
year, though - and for one moment I actually believed that he'd be
able to drop the last of the breakaway threesome.

Pietro entered the top of the World Cup scene in a magnificent fashion
thirteen years by winning this very same race, i.e. the Holmenkollen
50-km, thirteen years ago - he beat the likes of Dæhlie, Mogren,
Prokourorov and Smirnov - and he went on to pick up race wins and
podium finishes every year of the 2000's. It was this and his yellow
trademark cap that gave him a special place in my spectator's heart.

Petter needs just 17 more points to lock up the overall world cup
victory, NRK's commentators were dreaming about getting those on the
sprints tomorrow. :-)

Well, if Marit could go on to win, surely Petter should've been able
to make it to the semis?:-)


(BTW, Petter gave away 15 of those points by stepping aside a couple of
times when passing the points sprint position up at the top of the
course near Frognerseteren. He said afterwards that Vittoz and
Manificat deserved them for doing all that pulling on the uphills.)

The last one certainly caught my eye: first he made his move and took
the lead, a little bit earlier and only to slow down in a
demonstrative fashion, just to show that he _could've_ taken full
bonus points, if he'd wanted. There is not much modesty even in his
generosity:-)

And Petter couldn't resist his usual false sprint/sprint-before the
sprint/"you can try to drop me here, but I can start my sprint here,
too, if you want"-trick with Piller Cottrer...

BTW the new Holmenkollen stadium finish is as if designed with Northug
in mind: a gentle downhill approach, a Å„ice flat, a steep but short
uphill, another one, and a straight of optimal length. It is hard to
imagine him losing there in any kind of race.

BTW2 apparently not everyone was happy with the way new snow was
brought in at a late date and how soft it made the course in absence
of cold temperature. Norwegian hosts have a certain reputation of
being like Davis Cup home teams:-)

BTW3 the Norwegian ladies' triple victory awakened the statistics buff
in me: when did we last see a triple victory in cross-country? I'm
pretty sure there hasn't been one since the Norwegians' magic wax and
rilling for wet conditions resulted in those 1-3...1-7 finishes?


Anyway, it sure looks like the first Norwegian overall victory since
Bjørn D in 1999.

Yeah, if we only look at male WC overall winners, it seems that the
Norwegians didn't have much of a success in the first decade of the
2000's:-)


Anders

Anders wrote:
On Mar 13, 5:13Â pm, Terje Mathisen"terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:

It was a magnificent race, even if Manificat hit the wall at the end and
lost 10-15 positions from what looked like a sure podium at 40K.

It must've hurt to lose a podium finish in Holmenkollen, but I don't
think it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him.

No, he'll be back.

Piller Cottrer, of course, was the one who really made it a
magnificent race; he was my sentimental favourite for the day - I'm
not at all sure he won't continue his career for one more championship
year, though - and for one moment I actually believed that he'd be
able to drop the last of the breakaway threesome.

I wasn't too worried, Petter seemed really awake all through the race,
staying with the front crowd for the first 7-8K, then immediately
joining the two French skiers when they broke away.

Petter was quite tired after the race, but I believe you're supposed to
be tired after 50K of continuous hillsides?

Pietro entered the top of the World Cup scene in a magnificent fashion
thirteen years by winning this very same race, i.e. the Holmenkollen
50-km, thirteen years ago - he beat the likes of Dæhlie, Mogren,
Prokourorov and Smirnov - and he went on to pick up race wins and
podium finishes every year of the 2000's. It was this and his yellow
trademark cap that gave him a special place in my spectator's heart.

I'd like him even without that cap which makes him so easy to track.

Petter needs just 17 more points to lock up the overall world cup
victory, NRK's commentators were dreaming about getting those on the
sprints tomorrow. :-)

Well, if Marit could go on to win, surely Petter should've been able
to make it to the semis?:-)

Turned out yesterday that FIS had changed their minds some time ago
without informing everyone: The final races are "only" worth 350 points,
not 400, so Petter has indeed won the crystal ball this season.


(BTW, Petter gave away 15 of those points by stepping aside a couple of
times when passing the points sprint position up at the top of the
course near Frognerseteren. He said afterwards that Vittoz and
Manificat deserved them for doing all that pulling on the uphills.)

The last one certainly caught my eye: first he made his move and took
the lead, a little bit earlier and only to slow down in a
demonstrative fashion, just to show that he _could've_ taken full
bonus points, if he'd wanted. There is not much modesty even in his
generosity:-)

Touché.

And Petter couldn't resist his usual false sprint/sprint-before the
sprint/"you can try to drop me here, but I can start my sprint here,
too, if you want"-trick with Piller Cottrer...

I don't think that's conscious, more the way he likes to prove to
himself that he's still got the edge.

BTW the new Holmenkollen stadium finish is as if designed with Northug
in mind: a gentle downhill approach, a Å„ice flat, a steep but short
uphill, another one, and a straight of optimal length. It is hard to
imagine him losing there in any kind of race.

That design was totally controlled by the need to fit the 50m biathlon
shooting range inside the stadium loop: They wanted to have the skiers
directly behind the targets, with a bullet-proof glass wall for
protection, but that wall turned out to be _far_ too expensive,so
instead they had to lift the skiers way up and above a concrete barrier.

BTW2 apparently not everyone was happy with the way new snow was
brought in at a late date and how soft it made the course in absence
of cold temperature. Norwegian hosts have a certain reputation of
being like Davis Cup home teams:-)

This was also totally dictated by this year's conditions: Due to all the
construction work the entire site had been kept snowfree all winter,
while they ran snowmaking gear down in Sørkedalen. Then during the last
two weeks or so that ran 5000+ truckloads of snow up into the arena,
leaving it very little time to pack and settle.

Next year will be totally different.

BTW3 the Norwegian ladies' triple victory awakened the statistics buff
in me: when did we last see a triple victory in cross-country? I'm
pretty sure there hasn't been one since the Norwegians' magic wax and
rilling for wet conditions resulted in those 1-3...1-7 finishes?

The girls were _really_ happy.:-)


Anyway, it sure looks like the first Norwegian overall victory since
Bjørn D in 1999.

Yeah, if we only look at male WC overall winners, it seems that the
Norwegians didn't have much of a success in the first decade of the
2000's:-)

Ooops! Yes I should have qualified that with 'male', since Marit won
before she started those last 3 years of overtraining and sickness.

This year she returned pretty much to what she did before.

Terje

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