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M GS ÅRE 2019

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Start in a few hours. Very windy in Åre -- the reason for the "wierd" start time. Wind is excepted to die down during the afternoon. Have no intel on the surface as of now. Will chime in later. Mats Olsson is the only Swedish skier with a real chance of podium, but he needs to bring out his best skiing more consistently than before. He was on a good streak but suffered a concussion a couple of weeks ago and has his prepearation ruined. So does not look that promising.
 
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TS
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Start in 60 minutes. Weather looks GOOD!
 

Primoz

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Just checked my favorite weather forecast and it says +6c for Are... it's really that warm upthere? Not saying anything as we have currently +10c down here but that's still half Europe across :)
 

Rudi Riet

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The course is breaking down rather quickly due to the warm weather. Really tough for anyone outside of the top seed to make any headway.
 

Primoz

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I think we more or less have top 10, but 2nd run will be interesting, as I doubt course will be much better. If weather forecast is anywhere near accurate, and those Norwegians normally are quite right, there's no drastic cooling off expected, hardly degree or 2 lower then current for 18-19:00. But that means, we might see somone ending high 20s in 1st run to come quite high in 2nd run. But for medals, I would say top 6 or 7 from 1st run, and regardless on reports on Hirscher's sickness, I think those 0.10sec that he's behind Pinturault are not all that much, and he's gonna get gold. Second and third... I hope Kranjec and then Pinturalt or Kristoffersen... sorry I have to include Kranjec, and he's back far enough to know he doesn't have any other way the risk all the way, so maybe it might go. :D
 

Rudi Riet

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The breakdown of the surface is eating up racers: just had three in a row (numbers 19 thru 21) exit the course because they couldn't hold their line in the soft stuff.
 

Primoz

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And some more bad news for Luitz... taken to Östersund hospital for examination as his knee feels "loose" (sorry no idea what would be right English word for that).
 
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Just checked my favorite weather forecast and it says +6c for Are... it's really that warm upthere? Not saying anything as we have currently +10c down here but that's still half Europe across :)

Yes, it's warm. Has been like that the whole week. Heavy rain yesterday evening. Weather is nuts. YR is the most accurate.
 

Rudi Riet

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Wondering what Manfred Moelgg has going on that had him DNS the second run.

Course is still as soft as first run. The later runners will have some chop to contend with.
 

Muleski

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The course conditions SUCK. Traded texts with a first run DNF. It's bumpy, it's rutted, it's soft, the surface is nothing but water and salt, the lighting is not all that great. It's impossible to push off.

This hill, set and the conditions absolutely do NOT favor Hirscher. We'll see. If he does win this, phenomenal day. This could really play into Pintu's skiing, particularly with the lead.

I'm not critical of FIS, or the organizers, at all. Weather S*** happens, and and it sure has the last few days in Are!!
 

Seldomski

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Thought maybe you could ski the course on a wider ski, but see now that the FIS stipulates a maximum ski width under binding...
 

Rudi Riet

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Wowee! Quite the battle of survival on that second run!

Congrats to HK - one helluva second go there!

Edit: Per HK just now: "It's about f**king time!"
 

Muleski

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No love between Hirscher and HK. None. That was very clear. HK acting a bit "giddy", which is very much non-MH. I can guarantee that MH would have preferred it if Pintu had held on. BUT, HK knew that he could kill it on that run. He sent it. Chapeau!

That set was a drag race....and what impressed me was that HK DID let it rip like that. He's has a bunch of things that he has been trying to straighten out this season, and I had heard that he and his team {which is a lot of his dad} has pretty much resigned themselves to fix it after the season, and before next. Today...those issues did not hurt him and may have worked FOR him. As he said when interviewed, "racing on snow" reminded him of his junior years. He has won ONE WC GS and it was four seasons ago. So this was a nice race to win, for sure.

I am hoping that somehow things harden up by Sunday. That's a real crapshoot.

I personally want to see MH just crush the field in the SL, because it will be his last World Champs race. He deserves to go out on the top step. Hirscher will want his last WCH race to be a gold, and he is the ultimate competitor.

Any bets on whether this season is the end for MH? If this is it, it's just five tech starts left. I'm watching ALL of them, as I am really going to miss him when he's gone. I hope he'll stick with it, but he has zero to prove, and he's healthy.

Always fun to watch racing. Always.
 

Primoz

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This is gonna be personal like hell, but what the hell, I'm not here to write objective news, it's just my personal opinion and nothing else. After Hirscher came down second, I was hoping Pintu will win. I honestly don't like this spoiled little kid. Only good thing with his victory is, Yul, who is really good friend of mine and his serviceman, will finally have World champion again. Otherwise I was really hoping Hirscher or Pintu would win.
As far as Hirscher reactions goes, I don't think he has issue with Kristoffersen... he's not the one finishing second every race :) But he was sick and I'm sure not feeling super good, and finishing second, adds a bit more salt to this. So I would just say he wasn't feeling too great regardless on place. But I don't think he will be throwing poles and helmets around because of this.
 

4ster

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Fun race even if it was corn snow.
Did look like MH was NOT going to make eye contact with HK.
 

Muleski

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His issue with inclination, and other issues did not hold HK back on that crap. He just went for it, hammer down, and yep, he won. It's and outdoor sport as we always say. But it was the World Champs. Everybody deserved a better surface. As did Mikaela.

It will be a shame if the SL's are contested on what looks like U12 spring conditions. Just my $.02

HK, shall we say, is not a very popular guy on tour, even before you put his father onto the mix. I admired his skiing today, though. For sure.
 

Ivan

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I can guarantee that MH would have preferred it if Pintu had held on.
Interesting. I've never noticed any issues between MH and HK. When HK won his first race in Schladming in 2017, MH sort of celebrated with him (link), and they gave pretty cool interviews together (link). It might have been just for cameras, while in reality they don't get along well, but still.

I thought MH looked disappointed simply because he is a great competitor, he wanted to win, but his sickness and weak snow didn't allow him to push as hard as he would have liked. But I may be wrong of course.
 

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