Discussion: 15K

I watched it this morning - the last lap was great. When Bulshonov (sp?) hit the gas on the last uphill and pulled away...it reminded me of when we went to the Olympics in Utah and saw some equally impressive skiing. And that Swedish guy who double poled the entire race was wacky. I guess he must have finished about 6h.

I didn't notice the Swede. Just the Aussie, 10 mins behind. He's probably still flying compared to us mortals.

The Russians are having all sorts of troubles. My recollection is that the Russian "team" can be somewhat dysfunctional because there are two competing national programs. That has led head knocking in the past, though I don't know if that had any bearing in this case.

Are you guys watching on Peacock? Sometimes it is nice not to have announcers but I miss getting background information.

I've been watching on YouTube with Swedish TV commentary. I think I searched "tour de ski 2021"

We just watched the women's pursuit - lots of fun.

Just caught up watching the men's and women's pursuit via the Svenska telecast on youtube. Lisa fills me in on the interesting background information and gossip. I wonder how long that will last. It is often the case that the broadcasters get these copies pulled down off of youtube. The British Eurosport broadcasts can be found here.. However, the postings are usually a little behind and sometimes the resolution is a little fuzzy. On the other hand, if you subscribe to Peacock you can get the raw feed (for both XC and biathlon) that shows a lot of before and after race scenes, which can be interesting sometimes. There's no commentary though.

Peacock. The thing I can't get my head around is how the Russians are allowed to compete under their flag? I would think Nordic is very much like Cycling when it comes to doping? I'm also guessing the athletes competing from the Nordic countries are based in the Alps. Surely the Norwegians would be dominating this and have stayed home?

That article...."the inmates" were all service people. I don't think I'd like to be a service person on the Russian team bus.

re: Russian ban. I don't understand that stuff. So much politics.

re: Doping. Unfortunately, Nordic skiing has a dark past and potentially even dark present as far as doping is concerned. My impression was that some would argue the fall of Sweden and Finland from the top tier is partly due to their crackdown (the resurgence of Sweden's women is quite recent). What's left is the dominant Norwegians and Russians and they both have poor reputations doping wise. And patriotism aside, one has to wonder about the American women. How do you beat known dopers if you aren't doping? Brennan's recent dominance is certainly raising eyebrows. How does a 32 yr old go from mid pack to World Cup leader? This is such an odd year though so it is hard to say. For now, I choose to believe these girls/women from small town Nordic America are clean. However, I'm sure there are many on the other side of pond who do not sure my naivete'.

re: Missing Norwegians. I don't know if they would dominate. The men would have a good battle with the Russians. The women would be fighting it out with the Americans and Swedes. They certainly be up fighting for the top spots though.

That's interesting stuff. I've not seen today's Pursuit, but yesterday's Russian dominance was ridiculous. I watched Brennan in the first sprint. Not seen Diggins' win. I thought the Russians could only compete as independents. No flags etc. Obviously that's not the case. Unless Lukoil has adopted a logo very similar to the Russian flag. But either way they're very impressive.