Grassmarket

Off we go in brown & empty Nove Mesto. Shooting range looks like a disused coal mine. Oi, how did all those flags get there? Denise H goes 5 in the prone, sets up either a win or a disaster. Puskarcikova what a nightmare! Starts by ejecting two rounds & has to manually feed. Hermann 0-0, that’s the win right there. Doro 1 in the,prone & a slow ski, so will be fighting for places for the Pursuit.

Yes, Roeiesland completely vindicated for standing up to the pressure from the Norwegian media: pre-Christmas success is often fool’s gold as we are seeing with Klaebo in the CC as well.

Just caught up with that: absolutely the best race of the year so far, like Nordic Combined used to be a while back when you got at least one open race every weekend.

Yeah, that must be the one I’m thinking of. I remember they had special graphics up so the races were taking place in a kind of Tintin place called Antholz-Hochfilzen, Antholz-Pokljuka etc etc

I can remember some pretty bad weeks about the early 2000s. Think we were in the same place three weeks in a row once. Was it Pokljuka?

As long as there is some snow somewhere in the country they can build new tracks, as they did in Minsk last week.

Classic moment about 3k from the end of the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne when the peleton gets to a roundabout & 2 riders at the front charge off heroically straight ahead in the direction of Kortrijk. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack turn left towards the actual finishing line in Kuurne.

Would have been tight if the Norwegians had shot clear at the last, but he got away with it.

. That’s your fault! Looks like he’s OK though. Has been a very poor champs from the French B team, though.

Very impressive from Bocharnikov, huge lead now.

OK, this is a problem then, because when you have a race the one thing the average TV viewer cares about is the result of the race. If all we cared about was artistic impression, we’d be watching ballet instead.

Well, I think I watch more pentathlon races than most people, but surely it is normal to have a graphic with names & time splits at the end of the race, especially when the camera cuts away from the finishing line? Biathlon, triathlon, nordic combined & cross-country skiing & running all have it.

Bronze for Ireland! Graphics much better this time, but they have got to get the finishing line working, it’s crazy not to have it.

7.72 third shoot! 28 sec fourth shoot, utter meltdown!

Marosi out before anyone else starts. Epic 2nd shoot, surely gold for Marosi

Well, at least today we get our stream started on time!

Hear that whinnying sound? That’s the sound of horses laughing!

Had her single worst run of the year on the last run of the year, that’s got to hurt.

Just reminded myself that Lidl sponsors all these Flemish Classics so for this entire month all the race parcours go past all the Lidl stores in Belgium. Once you notice something like this you can’t ever unsee it!

Oooo, Lordy a real 100% crash for Katnikova. Fortunately she walks away & runaway luge is recaptured before it can get into the wild. If you are going to crash, make sure it goes viral

Think this was one of those days when it’s all over after the first five or so, everyone else just racing for WC points.

Women’s Het Nieuwsblad live now on the GCN Channel on YouTube with commentary,

Great 4th run in the Women’s Skeleton just now!

Oh sure: it’s just the fact it’s such a great service that it deserves a bigger platform. Still can’t get over the fact that the UIPM sent their commentators out to Cairo & managed to miss 80% of their race yesterday.

It is the Olympic Committee who decides which events get into the Olympics, so there is not much chance of natural track getting in because at the moment when the IOC are concentrating on stupid non-sports like breakdancing. Agree with the YouTube idea, would be much more high-profile. Very hard to get more countries involved - luge already had a great system with the Nations Cup on Fridays serving as an entry to the World Cup, we would not want to disrupt that.