heywoodu

[ hide] Preliminary Round December 3rd - December 8th, 2020 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nation from each Group will qualify for the Main Round Group A Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 4th 2020, h. 18:15 France 5 Montenegro December 4th 2020, h. 20:30 Denmark 3 Slovenia December 6th 2020, h. 18:15 Slovenia 5 France December 6th 2020, h. 20:30 Montenegro 3 Denmark December 8th 2020, h. 18:15 Montenegro 2 Slovenia December 8th 2020, h. 20:30 France 2 Denmark Group B Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 3rd 2020, h. 18:15 Russia 2 Spain December 3rd 2020, h. 20:30 Sweden 4 Czech Republic December 5th 2020, h. 18:15 Czech Republic 5 Russia December 5th 2020, h. 20:30 Spain 2 Sweden December 7th 2020, h. 18:15 Spain 5 Czech Republic December 7th 2020, h. 20:30 Russia 2 Sweden Group C Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 4th 2020, h. 18:15 Hungary 2 Croatia December 4th 2020, h. 20:30 Netherlands 5 Serbia December 6th 2020, h. 16:00 Serbia 3 Hungary December 6th 2020, h. 18:15 Croatia 5 Netherlands December 8th 2020, h. 18:15 Serbia 3 Croatia December 8th 2020, h. 20:30 Netherlands 5 Hungary Group D Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 3rd 2020, h. 18:00 Romania 3 Germany December 3rd 2020, h. 20:30 Norway 6 Poland December 5th 2020, h. 16:00 Poland 3 Romania December 5th 2020, h. 18:15 Germany 3 Norway December 7th 2020, h. 18:15 Germany 5 Poland December 7th 2020, h. 20:30 Romania 5 Norway Top 3 Place 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Nation Norway France Netherlands [/hide]

It's interesting that was on 20 January, when there had already been significant media attention in the rest of the world (here, at least, the thread on a Dutch forum which by now has around 334k posts about it started on 17 January based on some already fairly lengthy news items ).

Wow, translate this piece. Surely it's some sort of editorial? That is one pathetically written item https://www.ski-nordique.net/ski-de-fond-la-coupe-du-monde-doit-se-poursuivre.6350737-138912.html

Finland and Sweden are out of Davos and Dresden by the way, and not (yet) out of the Tour de Ski?

Yes, FIS can definitely go on without those countries. It's not ideal and obviously the sport would pretty much collapse if they withdraw forever, but not if it's for a month or so.

No no no, not Artem Markelov. The guy has been racing in F2 since before Fangio entered F1 and just never really improved. He's quite decent, no doubt, but especially for what would be a rookie he's both too old and hasn't nearly shown enough improvement in recent years.

Someone didn't appreciate Sagan's wheelies anymore?

At least 6 cars being filled in differently next season, now that's interesting. Curious what Schumacher will do, he absolutely has the raw speed but does need to step up in terms of consistency (although, to be fair, that has gotten better this year).

Apparently US musician Todd Rundgren covered one of the biggest Dutch Christmas classics, if not the biggest It's from the point of view of a little boy and it's about 'Flappie', his pet rabbit In terms of having the right melody it's done nearly perfect, although the music could have been a bit less loud in comparison with the voice. Here's the real one, not with English music but with English subtitles:

Didn't do much of a good job at that then since it was already gaining international attention before that, as I said at least in late December

Damn, time flies. Was it in local news already as well? I remember here the first reports of an unknown virus/sickness in a few dozen people connected to a market appeared around 28/29 December if I'm not mistaken.

A politician turns out to be human and is hypocritical, what else is new

In theory, she can (if she competes), yes.

Considering she announced it a few days ago....that's the overall World Cup decided in November

That might not be entirely true for people who stress their lungs nearly infinitely more than any regular human being. Sure, athletes are fit, that doesn't mean they're healthy. Not saying it's an absolutely necessary decision, but for anyone following the sport it is without a doubt understandable.

Can't wait for all those athletes who, in a few years from now, have like a 5th place that makes you think "Wow, must be their best ever result!" only to realize they had a win or podium in some race where half the usual field was absent

That's literally not true in an environment full of athletes who are on the razor thin line between sick and not sick and where distance is definitely not being kept, as we saw in Ruka.

Even Russia not going to Russia, damn.

Awesome! The first small step towards becoming an Olympic event, let's see if the start of the World Cup will help make it a bit more competitive in the next few years, even men's NC is competitive compared to the women at the moment, but I have hope Especially considering most women are still teenagers apart from the 10 years older and dominant American.

Define 'many more'? I'm curious now

Luckily for Latvia she has fairly mild symptoms so shouldn't fall back too much before rejoining the World Cup in (probably) Hochfilzen.

And now a race over 10km.

First I thought that was a whole living room wall or something and so that thing would have been like half a meter, entirely unrealistic and obviously fake. Then I noticed the scale is a bit different and it's the corner of a wall....making it suddenly both realistic and absolutely horrifying

Wow. There's a lot of names I would not have been too surprised with, but Pietro Fittipaldi was not on that list Last sort of alright thing he did was winning the 2017 World Series, but that already had a very poor field by then...well, he's been their test driver for a while, so I guess he knows the car at least. Still, Pietro Fittipaldi. Alrighty.

Leclerc's reaction says quite a lot as well by the way. You could very much hear in his voice that he was having major Bianchi and Hubert flashbacks.