MEN'S World Cup 2021-2022

[dbostedo]

If there's anything to be learned from the FIS (or the UCI or any other international sports governing body based in the Old World™) they are extremely resistant to change.

In this case, it's a new day, different snow conditions, etc. The rules say there needs to be a new draw regardless and in this case it could be good.

So no good reason. Got it.

 

[S.H.]

So Vanna can spin the wheel again and you get a new chance to pick a better spot. Yeterday’s gone, those chances are done, too bad. Time for a new lottery.

No love for Zenhausern?
I fear he may be too big for the surface irregularities and softness. Seems like temps will barely be below freezing even tonight. Friday is the cold one.



Going to re-arrange.

Noel
Foss-Solevaag
Pinturault

Schwarz
Zenhausern

Zenhaeusern has been pretty bad so far this year.

22 in VDI and 18 in Madonna, and to my eye, it wasn't a case of "made a couple bad mistakes"

 

[Swede]

Tall guy had ligament injury and is fighting his way back this season. Still has pretty far to go to get to were he was pre injury. Appears to be a super nice guy. And tall.
If not for the previous injury, perhaps this presumably rowdy surface would fit/be dealt with by his long legs, also creating speed with those long things on the flats. I really hope that Ramon finds his way back.

 

[Rudi Riet]

Tall guy had ligament injury and is fighting his way back this season. Still has pretty far to go to get to were he was pre injury. Appears to be a super nice guy. And tall.

So you're trying to say he's tall, correct?

 

[4ster]

Hopefully minimum of snow, just enough to make it pretty.

Either that or paint the leaves

if they can re-draw then I can re-pick although I don’t really remember who I picked but I am going with…
NOEL
FOSS-SOLVAGG
FELLER

 

[geepers]

So resceduled for tomorrow afternoon.
View attachment 153985

Anyone playing FIS Predictor Challenge probably noticed the close date for predictions for the Zagreb Men's SL was 6th Jan. (Still showing that original close date.) Was that way ever since the Zagreb questions came out. Which seemed strange for an event that was supposed to be run on 5th Jan.

But here we are with race to actually be run on 6th. The Predictor ahead of us all? Twilight Zone?

 

[Moose32]

Markus will win.
Race will be cancelled agin.
Hope I’m wrong as it will be nice to have on for early meetings.

 

[Swede]

After 19 skiers, cancelled again. So next Adelboden for the guys.

 

[Moose32]

Here is a feed that may show how it progressed to being cancelled.
While checking the times (and delays) from bed on my phone, it was clear the course was not holding up well.

 

[Average Joe]

As I opined on the women's thread, the Zagreb surface was not ready for prime time, as we say. Clearly whatever preparation was done had long decayed by the time the women's race was run, and an overnight freeze was not enough to penetrate and solidify the base to re-establish a surface that meets FIS World Cup standards.
A predictable outcome, and a waste of the athlete's time.

 

[Average Joe]

Markus will win.
Race will be cancelled agin.
Hope I’m wrong as it will be nice to have on for early meetings.

You should get 100 points in the Predictor Challenge!

 

[James]

They needed one more day. Low temps should make it fine for tmrw.

Seemed obvious after 14Strasser went down that things were bad. Then the long delay where they were pounding in wooden stakes next to some gate bases.

Vinatzer and Jakobsen in the very first section seemed to get so far out in front of the skis they lost time. I guess the skis were just not hooking up as they expected.

HK nearly 3 secs back, Feller crashed out near bottom. Zenhaeusrn looked good, only 1/2 sec back.

After 14Strasser-

There’s some good slomo of the top placers at roughly 53:00-

 

[Swede]

The women’s race worked but looked ugly. I was surprised that it held so good. Men’s race a shit show as @Primoz predicted. Snow made things worse. After 3 skiers the course was a second slower. After 10 skiers it was shot.

 

[James]

Looks like Muffat-Jeandet broke his ankle in that fall in the Zagreb slalom.

https://www.eurosport.com/alpine-skiing/zagreb/2021-2022/victor-muffat-jeandet-set-to-miss-beijing-olympics-after-frenchman-injured-during-abandoned-zagreb-s_sto8695296/story.shtml

 

[Swede]

Looks like Muffat-Jeandet broke his ankle in that fall in the Zagreb slalom.

https://www.eurosport.com/alpine-skiing/zagreb/2021-2022/victor-muffat-jeandet-set-to-miss-beijing-olympics-after-frenchman-injured-during-abandoned-zagreb-s_sto8695296/story.shtml

He got up and looked alright .. that’s adrenaline for ya.

 

[Average Joe]

Looks like Muffat-Jeandet broke his ankle in that fall in the Zagreb slalom.

https://www.eurosport.com/alpine-skiing/zagreb/2021-2022/victor-muffat-jeandet-set-to-miss-beijing-olympics-after-frenchman-injured-during-abandoned-zagreb-s_sto8695296/story.shtml

Which is the predictable outcome when you try to race on shit conditions.
People get hurt. At least it was only a fracture and not a career ending injury.
It was obvious during the second run of the Women's race that the men's race would not be able to run. Who and why pressured the FIS to try to pull off that race? Maybe Primoz can shed some light?
Ante Kostelic is my first guess.

 

[James]

Yeah I would’ve predicted an mcl or lcl injury from that fall. It’s hard to get a sense of the impact on slomo when he caught the gate with his ankle as he spun.

 

[Primoz]

Ante has so little influence on FIS, that there's simply no way he could "force" them to do anything, not to mention Ante was never anything with the race (boss of the race is Vedran Pavlek). Main "person" who pressured FIS is Infront. That's where most of money is (tv rights). Local organizer has race insured, so they got their money anyway, and with no spectators ticket revenue is irrelevant. Infront has it too, but insurance money is smaller then what they get if race goes through. So surprise surprise it's about money, pretty strange in 2022 right?

 

[wnyskier]

Noticed that Foss-Solevaag took a gate across the face, knocking out his goggle lens and cutting his chin. Still won the run. I believe the same thing happened to him at a SL last year......It's all irrelevant given the near immediate decay of the course, but still a good run given the circumstances.

You could see the sugar coming off the skis as they just peeled the snow off course and there were piles of sugar just off the line at the outset so any miscues spelled disaster.

 

[Swede]

Adelboden together with Gran Risa and Val d’isere (la face) are some of the best GS hills there is.