Grassmarket

It’s no fun if everyone hits everything!

My favourite example of this is the St Jan’s Kerk in Gouda. On one side you have a set of stained glass windows celebrating His Catholic Majesty King Phillip II of Spain defending the One True Apostolic Faith against those those heathen heretical dogs, the rebellious hell-bound Calvinistic zeeguezen, the Dutch. One the other side, a set of stained glass windows celebrating the heroic divinely-inspired Dutch burgers defending the noble cause of religious liberty against that bloodthirsty tyrant and enemy of popular freedom, King Phillip II of Spain.

Orange is in France, near Avignon. For a very long time, up until about the 1670s, it was actually ruled by the Dutch, and lots of the streets, buildings etc still have Dutch names.

The Marseillaise has about a dozen verses, fortunately they don’t all get sung, although I think children have to learn them at School. British anthem has about five, but we don’t bother about the one where God sends General Wade to crush the rebellious Scots.

Back to reality today, three misses on shoot 1.

Back to Classic style for today’s Pursuits.

Guess someone in NL has bought the exclusive.

Tour Down Under is also available live on the GCN Racing YouTube Channel - the one-day preview criterium race is live now.

Allez les bleus! Should be winning every week, though.

still good shooting though, only +3 after 6.

Commentators back on ES.

No matter how bad people think the Eurosport commentstors are, it is still better than having to listen to Bavarian polka music.

No drama from Fourcade.

Managed to finish with blades on the ice both times today, so there is progress.

OEB under heavy disguise....

Penalty loops on the first shooting for SVK - into 3rd.

That train’s going to be late, the driver will be fired. National humiliation for Swiss Railways.

Didn’t expect that. Klaebo looking like a very tired man at the moment.

Another good day for ‘s Andrew Young, should get a nice ten minutes or so in the Big Comfy Chair.

For those of us in Britain, or if you have VPN cleverness, then live rights to the Tour Down Under next week have been picked up by the Freesports Channel. Starts in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Wow how many places did Fak gain with that last clear shoot? Must have been about 20.

That’s a great win for Daniel!

Must admit I thought Makarainen would never get another win, well done her.

Fialkova 5 misses!

Impressive consistency from ‘s Tania Vicenzino in today’s Women’s Bobsleigh WC in La Plagne - she crashed on the final corner on both legs, but managed to get to the finish line in both, so recorded a top 20 finish. Still, lots of time to practice between now & Cortina 2026.