Monzanator

Ignorantia iuris nocet - I guess they will laugh at this "we didn't know the rules" excuse.

After all the near-misses, Vittozzi looks good for a win here

The races in St. Anton have been cancelled due to avalanche threat

Flachau suits Vlhova's style and it's a bogey track for Shiffrin who even lost to Hansdotter here before. It's simply too short & too flat for Shiffrin to excell. It's like expecting Vonn to win a downhill in Bad Kleinkirchheim

Drug & steroid abuse is old news in baseball. How many MLB Hall of Famers own their career to lax doping policy?

Kobayashi actually uses much longer skis than usual while in years past it's been a case of making the skis shorter. Maybe the BMI tweak helped him? The jumpers had to gain ca. 2 kg before the season IIRC. And Polish media report his change of technique where he doesn't lean so much forward like basically all the Japanese did to mirror Funaki's style.

Mielzynski did the same but spun in the "correct" direction and finished 11th.

Due to Nina Loeseth's injury, Liensberger advances to Top group and bib #2 in Zagreb today. Roni Remme is Top 15 for the first time and bib #9!

[hide] Preliminary Round January 5th - January 17th, 2019 24 Nations, 6 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group and 6 best 3rd ranked Teams among all Groups will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 5th 2019, h. 20:00 United Arab Emirates 3 1 Bahrain January 6th 2019, h. 17:30 Thailand 2 1 India January 10th 2019, h. 15:00 Bahrain 2 1 Thailand January 10th 2019, h. 20:00 India 0 2 United Arab Emirates January 14th 2019, h. 20:00 United Arab Emirates 3 0 Thailand January 14th 2019, h. 20:00 India 0 1 Bahrain Group B Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Australia 4 0 Jordan January 6th 2019, h. 20:00 Syria 2 1 Palestine January 10th 2019, h. 17:30 Jordan 1 1 Syria January 11th 2019, h. 15:00 Palestine 0 5 Australia January 15th 2019, h. 17:30 Australia 3 0 Syria January 15th 2019, h. 17:30 Palestine 0 2 Jordan Group C Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 7th 2019, h. 15:00 China 3 0 Kyrgyzstan January 7th 2019, h. 17:30 South Korea 5 0 Philippines January 11th 2019, h. 17:30 Philippines 1 3 China January 11th 2019, h. 20:00 Kyrgyzstan 0 4 South Korea January 16th 2019, h. 17:30 South Korea 2 0 China January 16th 2019, h. 17:30 Kyrgyzstan 1 2 Philippines Group D Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 7th 2019, h. 20:00 Iran 4 0 Yemen January 8th 2019, h. 17:30 Iraq 2 0 Vietnam January 12th 2019, h. 15:00 Vietnam 1 3 Iran January 12th 2019, h. 17:30 Yemen 0 3 Iraq January 16th 2019, h. 20:00 Vietnam 2 1 Yemen January 16th 2019, h. 20:00 Iran 1 1 Iraq Group E Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 8th 2019, h. 20:00 Saudi Arabia 3 1 North Korea January 9th 2019, h. 20:00 Qatar 3 0 Lebanon January 12th 2019, h. 20:00 Lebanon 0 4 Saudi Arabia January 13th 2019, h. 15:00 North Korea 1 2 Qatar January 17th 2019, h. 20:00 Saudi Arabia 3 2 Qatar January 17th 2019, h. 20:00 Lebanon 0 1 North Korea Group F Date & Time (GMT+4) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 January 9th 2019, h. 15:00 Japan 4 0 Turkmenistan January 9th 2019, h. 17:30 Uzbekistan 4 1 Oman January 13th 2019, h. 17:30 Oman 0 5 Japan January 13th 2019, h. 20:00 Turkmenistan 0 3 Uzbekistan January 17th 2019, h. 17:30 Oman 2 1 Turkmenistan January 17th 2019, h. 17:30 Japan 2 1 Uzbekistan [/hide]

Tour de Ski has lost it's mojo. It was a flashy new GF when it started but now the World Chams are like the exciting MILF you prefer while the teenage GF drives you nuts! First it was the thing about too many freestyle races and now the World Cup is skewed towards the sprint/short races while Tour de Ski remains an endurance thing. You can't try to send the endurance races into retirement 3/4 of the season and then promote TdS as the ultimate prize. It makes no sense. I've completely lost interest in this one.

And that basically wraps it up for Kobayashi! Now he can focus on 4/4!

It's becoming rather clear that these parallel events are favoring the big men. Hirscher's technique isn't quite suited to this type of event. And Vlhova adapted the men's style with the arms forward all the way. Swenn-Larsson using this old school technique even in regular slaloms so it works for her here as well.

Kobayashi wins by 0,4. Top 4 builds a solid gap over the rest. Poor wind in the 2nd round.

It's a happy day for Slovakia but likewise for Poland as Maryna Gasienica-Daniel finishes in 19th place! She was 17th in the parallel slalom in Courchevel last season so this is by far her best result in a "regular" event. Even Katarzyna Karasinska cheered her on FB and KK's best World Cup result was 12th in the Semmering slalom in 2006 so guess this is a lucky place for Polish female skiers!

OK, so I won't ask who is he from now on Well done for all Croatia fans!

First win for Swiss men in slalom since Marc Gini in Reiteralm 2007?

Fuck me sideways!

Bye Henrik... And now Hirscher to waltz it for the win!

This is one of these races that had Yuasa score a WC podium here before.

French meltdown... Lizeroux and Noel

Bulgaria has a Top 20 guy in slalom and Poland's men are in deep ### for over 20 years now. How pathetic...

Can't stand ES raving about Ryding's magic... Over to Polish ES...

So many Junior WC have flamed out in the seniors I hardly pay attention to that competition anymore. A ton of people unable to kick into a higher gear in the 3nd run. Rodes still 2nd?

Who the hell is Istok Rodes? People bitching about Razzoli's bib number and he's 10th after the 1st run...

I remember having issues with some married names before. It took me a while to figure out Laura Mononen was actually Ahervo before. Took me half a season to figure that out.