Grassmarket

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.

Just caught up, that was some great commentary on the last few sleds from John & Martin. Way too much coffee!

I can! Remember the Men’s World Championship in Mexico in.....2018 was it? And they still do not have an on-screen graphic for runners crossing the finishing line, so you know who finishes 1st & 2nd, but not 3rd or any places down.

Once again UIPM TV on YouTube manage to arrive late for the live stream.....last 5 minutes of the race. Won’t give the result, hopefully they’ll put up proper coverage later.

I modern pentathlon horses. It is the equine race’s revenge on humanity for dressage.

Final two (likely sprint or solo breakaway) stages of the United Arab Emirates Tour called off because of cases of Coronavirus affecting Italian team support - not riders though. Adam Yates is the overall winner. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/51667939 Riders & other staff being tested right now

Team Pursuit at the top level nowadays is so highly planned in advance that if just one rider messes up a change the whole team can collapse like a house of cards.

They are showing off - look what we can do when we are not even at 100%! Plus they can just paint their helmets & use them for their medieval warfare re-enactments at the weekend.

3 Frenchmen miss, 3 Norwegians hit.

Italy is a country where involvement in doping is an actual crime, not just a sporting offense. If the Russian coach was using fake credentials that really is beyond stupid. M

Hmmmn....Loginov withdraws from the Mass Start. Seems he welcomed the Polizia to his room twice yesterday.

Pidhrushina 2 minute penalty. Safety, probably.

Wierer’s race! Roeisland gets a miracle!

Simon’s shooting has been dreadful all week, now 15/15

Vittozzi Five misses! B Needs to go home & watch box sets until summer training starts, I think.

French lead - it won’t last.

Off we go in the mass start.

It’s very common in Nordic Combined & these Cross Country Tour races. Doesn’t really happen in biathlon because the maximum gap is only three-four minutes. Maybe they use it in those Schalke stadium races.

Would have been chaos because some people would start lapped.

That is the wave I was talking about earlier! They all started 8:08 after Johaug, but their actual calculated time could be 15 or 20 minutes, which gets added to their finishing time today.

Johaug with the time for a shower, massage & lunch before the others arrive.