World of O News
Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli both showed that they will be very difficult to beat this season – with clear victories in very strong startfields at the Silva League Long distance race in Sweden today. Meanwhile Hans Gunnar Omdal/Mari Fasting and Topi Anjala/Minna Kauppi won the national races in Norway and Sweden.
Three men had the legs (and nearly the technique) to win at Silva League today
With GPS-tracking from all three races, there is a lot of interesting stuff to look at – and many interesting observations to be made. I have had a look at all the GPS tracking and split times, and pushed out some interesting illustrations. If you are a Facebook user, please comment on the illustrations.
I am sorry for only providing a very brief analysis and linking to Facebook for illustrations, but this is what was possible today. I hope it is still better than nothing.
Observations Silva League, Sweden
Some interesting observations from Silva League here:
- Three men had the legs (and nearly the technique) to win at Silva League today according to the performance index curves – Thierry Gueorgiou (the eventual winner), Fredrik Johansson and Gustav Bergman. All others were far away…
- Fredrik Johansson run fast in the start except for a wrong route choice on the long leg, lost a bit time on the butterfly (north / south) – and then sped up and kept getting closer and closer to Gueorgiou. It was all the way down to 18 seconds until he suddenly “completely lost it” a few controls before the finish.
- Gustav Bergman had an overall good race, but lost concentration a few times, costing 70 seconds on the northern butterfly, 90 seconds on the control before the spectator control and 30 seconds on a wrong route choice in the end.
- Oleksandr Kratov has had a strong spring in Sweden – beating the Swedes in their own night champs. He was good today again – but not quite the stability needed for a complete long distance. Good start, doing some mistakes in the butterfly, and then the speed just seems to not quite be there all the way (although the last loop is not bad)
- The Swiss were quite fast in the start, but they could not keep up concentration all the way and made mistakes. Kyburz was in the lead, but lost a lot of time in the butterfly when starting to get tired. Hubmann made several small and one big 3-minute mistake at 20.
- Bertuks had a quite good start, but “died” towards the middle of the race. Also Olav Lundanes seems to be out of shape
- Niggli won a clear victory in the women’s race, but her race was not as good as we are used to (not that surprising with the season preparations she has had). She is still a little bit faster, though. Eliasson was very fast in parts (as she often is) – but on the other hand had several big time losses– two in the order of 60 seconds and one around 90 seconds. Helena Jansson also had good speed, and looses the race mostly due to timelosses on the butterfly and on the last loop. Performance index
- Alexandersson did many small mistakes today and also lost a lot in the end. She really didn’t have the legs she has had lately (where she can do some mistakes and still be up there)
- Riabkina is the woman with the most stable race (see GPS compared to Niggli) – but it is a bit too slow compared to Niggli. Still early in the season, so Riabkina can be “dangerous” later on.
- Jurenikova does a stable race – but looses quite a lot of time in the butterfly. Not too far up to Niggli in terms of speed, but the technical performance must be 100% to be able to really fight with Niggli.
Lørdagskjappen, Norway
From Norway:
- DSQ for Nordberg who would have been up there just behind the winner Omdal. Now Omdal won ahead of Kinneberg. GPS comparison here – the races did not look exceptionally stable (this was “only” a middle distance – in Norway there is a long distance chasing start tomorrow. Lundanes and Dæhlie skipped this weekend in Norway to focus on more WOC relevant races at Silva League instead – getting a “proper” long distance race).
- Mari Fasting won ahead of Heidi Østlid Bagstevold (GPS comparison) – see also performance index
FinnSpring, Finland
GPS-tracking and results
Links to GPS-tracking and results:
Thank you for an interesting analysis. Lundanes a little mystery though. If he really not is in shape I guess he would gone training instead of Elitserien. Time will show.
Well, assuming that, I think this race would still be the best training for Lundanes as his main target this season is WOC gold in Finland. And looking at his technical performance, that looks more than solid enough (although I have not analyzed it in big detail).
E.Kinneberg is now ranked nr. 2 in Lördagskjappen, if the result list is right updated.
I see he is in there marked with a star, yes. Not sure why/how, though.