heywoodu

Yeah, St Ulrich ain't looking fantastic neither. It does seem to be getting a bit colder in a few days and maybe some snow falling in the second half of the week can save the races... At least for now cancelled races would not at all be a disadvantage for Bruna, especially if the cancelled races are those where Mika would basically have her only chances of getting her sprint average under 300 points And there is a bit of a backup for Ravna Gora for them: Bad Mitterndorf on 15 January, a 5k classic. No sprint.

Mika had an excellent sprint result in Finnish Imatra today, 339 FIS points. That improves her points position on the national ranking, although it doesn't help her get her sprint average under 300 and so, as of now, she is still out of the fight. She's got sprints in Minsk, Zlatibor and Ravna Gora (and possibly St Ulrich between Minsk and Zlatibor) to fix that or else it's done as far as her chances go. Zlatibor and Ravna Gora will definitely be her biggest chances. Her result of today slightly changes the ranking, which now looks like this: Tomorrow is a 5k classic, where I suspect she'll replace that 290 distance result with a 220 or so. Which, again, only matters if she manages to get her sprint average under 300 in the next two weeks.

What are your actual traditions for these days? So not the "People traditionally eat bread and say hello" kind of thing Wikipedia says, but things you actually do and many people in your country actually do (and presumably don't do in other countries) Here one of the big things is listening the 'Top 2000' on one of the radio stations (which people only listen during this time of year for this reason). Started in the year 2000, people vote for their best songs ever and in the end a list of 2000 best songs ever is compiled. They start playing them on the first day of Christmas (25th of December), starting at position 2000, and then go non-stop until the last minutes of the year, ending the year with playing the number one song of all time (usually Bohemian Rapsody) We're at number 26 at the moment, Metallica's One https://www.nporadio2.nl/top2000

That's what I thought in 2021 about 2020! Happy new year to you as well!

"Last pair of the day. Ten kilometers. You're the only one left who can qualify for the Olympics. Half the field has withdrawn and the stadium has emptied. You've got to go faster than 13:06.71 (national federation criteria). The fastest time ever posted by a Japanese skater in Japan is 13:14 minutes. Ryosuke Tsuchiya: 13:06.17!" Just, wow Phenomenal ride.

Why is Martin Haven, apparently talking through a potatophone or something by the sounds of it, calling Ken Childs 'Greg West' or just 'Greg' all the time? And in case he is actually correct: why did 'Greg West' introduce himself as 'Ken Childs'?

Fun to see names from longer ago (but not so long ago that I didn't watch yet)...old bald Levi Leipheimer, Jaan Kirsipuu who was shaking of fear when the first small hills appeared in the TdF, France's eternal hope Sandy Casar, downhill legend Paolo Savoldelli, etc How on earth did Gianni Moscon end up as high as 187th though?! Even Puck Moonen is in, who has not finished a single race in more than two years but keeps getting a contract because, you know. Clicks

Apparently ProCyclingStats is popular in Slovakia, considering the amount of non-Sagan Slovaks in this year's "Favourite 500 riders" list https://www.procyclingstats.com/favorite500/ranking Patrik Tybor? Michael Kolar? A whopping 128 people picked Erik Baska? And Richard Carapaz only 29th

And surely New Zealand fans would still cheer for him anyway? Assuming they would be proud of him and not whichever flag he happens to have next to his name

As far as I'm aware, he has already given up, both in biathlon and cross-country, where he would easily have qualified. It sucks, but it comes to show how much certain countries actually value their athletes as a whole.

Hard to see who (succesfully) could join Kramer and Roest though. I doubt Snel can keep it up that long in their pace, Krol could have done it if he hadn't focussed on the shorter distances more nowadays. Then there's Ntab and Scheperkamp, but that's definitely too long for them Otterspeer is of course a sprinter, a team pursuit is probably too long for Nuis as well and then only Bergsma is left, but...yeah.

Arguably the best ever player never to win a world title, so at least it'd definitely fit in his career

Well that was not much of a close fight

Let's go Kleermaker It's not entirely my own little town of Nunspeet, but it's our even smaller neighbour town

So did Nuis Then again, if history is any indication, his girlfriend not being there is not as much 'sad' for him as much as it is 'freedom to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants'

I think I heard them say Monday or Tuesday.

That's 10 different names. And no Marcel Bosker, whom they need for the team pursuit, basically. Ntab can probably book a holiday for February, and I think Snel has a problem as well..

Tijmen Snel in 3rd, Nuis in 1st. The matrix is fuuuuucked.

Marcel Bosker isn't gonna make it in the 1500m. Most likely remote controls are flying towards TV's in the home of the Ntab family since this will end up costing him his chance due to the team pursuit

Conijn But I'm definitely a fan of Sanne in 't Hof now, she was so enthusiastic in her interview after the race and basically didn't stop talking for 5 minutes straight with the interviewer just barely managing to fit in a question or a "yes?" or something

And now for the final downfall of Olympic champion Esmee Visser...

Seriously, they are as inseparable as it's going to get. https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?sectorcode=CC&raceid=40607

Could have gone for T12, where a single (12) would have still given him 170. Or T15, where a single 15 would have still left 167. Or T18, where a single would have left 164. Or single bull to leave 157, but that's of course much harder than hitting anything within the 12, 15 or 18 (preferably a treble, but a single in one of those three would have at least left a finish) No way I can count fast enough to do that But a professional player really should have all of these routes firmly in their mind. Of course, huge pressure and all, so he can be forgiven, but it's a mistake nonetheless.

And Clayton made a huge counting mistake in the last leg....he was at 221, hit a single 20 and 19 and so had 182 left, but then went for the 20 again and left 162 since he didn't hit the treble....going for T18 would have at least left a finish if he had hit the single...

And Smith takes it, what a fantastic match! It had everything from superb scoring to awesome finishes to tension until the last dart