Why is The Petter so fast? First Bjørn was the golden hero with the highest recorded VO2, Then Sir Thomas became an international hero with his divine skate finishes. I loved watching him finish races.

But Northug is different. He has the spastic sprint that only a youngster with that teenage “edge” can throw down, but he also seems to ski with infinite fitness. In yesterday’s 4×10 relay he hammered down 34 seconds from downtown (approx 3K) to catch the leaders, and the entire time he was chasing GOLD. Anyone that says he is only good for a fast finish should look at how long he is on the ground breathing in pure Level 5 – after he stopped skiing. He was clearly the strongest skier on the course, only contested by Marcus Hellner.

It’s easy to get lost in a hero’s success and assume/hope that they will wow us with another unbelievable performance time after time. I mean, the poor bastard takes the exchange with 34 seconds to bronze, and for some reason everyone is saying “Will he catch them?” It was the sustained effort of a true champion, and not just for a medal, but ALL FOR GOLD. Plus, there is a difference between simply popping a hot race, and providing the sport with a performance on demand, every time. A win is a win, but that kind of consistent success is the sign of a true champion.

I want to know, what is it about The Petter? I’ve read a lot about him on the surface; strongest finisher ever, cocky loud mouth, Red-Bull sell-out, but WHY is he so strong? He clearly possesses fitness on a different level – challenged only by Hellner and the guts of the Swedish and French teams in general – being able to close that gap with every intention of beating the leader.

Is he simply fitter than everyone else? Is he genetically superior? Is he the first Norwegian doper? A mix of some of the above, for sure. SOMETHING is happening with him, and I want to know what it is!

How much does he train? What was his athletic childhood like? Who coached him as a junior? What were his parents like? Who pissed him off so much on the sledding hill so that he has to double pole himself to death when he loses a race? What is so different about him that nudges his superiority past the likes of Alsgaard as the strongest finisher we’ve ever seen, and now the gutsiest strongest finisher we’ve ever seen?

If you are thinking of emailing me a reply, please instead put it in the comments below.

We finally have a sport.

Today was a major day in American Cross Country skiing – the coverage has finally made it because I watched the 4×10 live in my house.

Today I WAS THAT GUY blaring the volume and yelling at the TV because my sport was on and no, it couldn’t wait. How strange to finally be the guy watching live sports and pissing off the people in the kitchen! I grew up feeling weird because my dad watched football and would stand up and scream at every missed pass with his friends, totally pissing off the neighbors. I always felt like I was kind of lame because I “wasn’t into sports.”

But today I watched the 4×10 live (*everyone’s* favorite race!) on my computer over a hacked, crappy quality, russian EuroSport stream on the internet. I screamed at the TV as I watched things happen before they even made it onto NBC’s live timing. I realized that I knew 10 times as much about every guy in the relay (wait, who the hell is Michal Malak?) than my dad ever did about the 1989 49′ers.

Mark my words, the day I order a draught Guinness in an American bar and watch the Olympic 4×10 live, while I get to piss everyone off with my Conan-esque yelling…

…I will also streak the Olympics.

http://www.langrenn.com/is-i-roebben-ga-soelv.4752683-1743.html

While 3rd leg Lars Berger held the 35 second gap from the chase pack for Norway, OddBjørn Hjelmeset lost it. He said his hairies iced up, and it was his choice to use them.

“I did an OK job today,” said Johnsrud Sundby after the exchange. “Especially with the wax holding on. Very good glide on the downhills.”

Around 7.6Km Hjelmeset lost contact with the lead group and started skiing in a vacuum. The gap between Hjelmeset and the lead group just grew and grew after that point. Olsson from Sweden skied a hell of a leg and exchanged first. Norway exchanged 35.7 seconds back.

“I got ice on the hairies and therefore had problems with the skis. It was my choice to take the hairies skis. My fitness is good,” said Hjelmeset.

After Berger held the gap with the lead pack down to the second, Northug took control and closed the gap all by himself in about 3K. We get used to seeing that kind of stuff, but the Czech and French skiers were also not slacking. When Northug caught them he waited about 500 meters, and then put on a 100% charge to pass them up the last hill before the stadium before standing up and sitting right on their faces. I can only think of two words that could have been going through their minds right then as they turned into the stadium, and the first one is “Oh…”.

Frankly I’m getting tired of stunts winning races, but I believe that the race is between the start and finish lines and what you do in between is fine as long as you don’t touch your competitors.

That said, The Petter is the best finisher we’ve ever seen. He made up 40 seconds to catch the fight for the silver medal and after that inhuman effort, absolutely crushed france and czech just like every other sprint finish we’ve seen. He also did it all by himself.

Lodwick and Spillane’s fight for the nordic combined silver was one of the best guts races I’ve seen for a long time, and that kind of race goes down in my book as unbeatable sport.

While Norway is weak with only one super skier, and his antics are annoying the hell out of me, I want to remind everyone that it’s easy to forget that we have never seen anything like him before. He really is the best.

I can totally see Tor Arne Hetland drinking in the wax trailer. If I was such a badass and didn’t have to race I’d be huffin’ the hell out of the Cera, too!

Norway posted their relay team for tomorrow:

1 – Martin Johnsrud Sundby
2 – Oddbjørn Hjelmeset
3 – Lars Berger
4 – Petter Northug

Northug in Press Conference: “The only one that can match me in the final sprint is the camera running along side.”

I didn’t even know Hjelmeset went to Whistler. His classic technique will be appreciated for sure.

How are you watching the relay? (I need to get a poll thing working here) I’m planning on hitting up fromsport.com again. Watching the sprint relay live was a HELL of an exciting time. I was full-on yelling at the computer the entire last lap.

Too Much

So how about all this media madness? The sites are doing really well for themselves, but collectively it’s way too much to handle. My quiver includes vancouver2010.com, nbcolympics.com, langrenn.com (the best xc news), and fasterskier.com.

Big Dawgs, NBC & TV

While vancouver2010.com is the official site and has live timing, nbcolympics has the best live timing with splits. The thing with these sites is that there is so much extra information that it’s a total pain trying to find what you want in a hurry. There’s so much crap in there that they read more like a magazine. If you have to click the back button once, you are screwed. The iPhone apps are the same – cluttered and missing the good stuff that you actually want (like Push live timing!!)

Finding the local NBC TV listings is even more of a pain. Does the station stream video if you are out of town? When are they NOT FREAKING SHOWING days of our lives!? Are they even showing skiing? Going down that road is bullshit and I’ve given up on TV completely.

XC Web

langrenn has the best and fastest xc news (if you can read Norwegian), and is where I go to find out the details about a win. There are at least two articles within 10 minutes after a race giving details about the win, like what Petter looked like on the ground or how high the Sausage jumped when he crossed the line, and how pouty Teichmann looked when he took yet another silver. They usually have quotes and details bout a protest, and 5-10 shorter articles about each race until the next one starts.

FasterSkier puts some things up on the Olympics blog a little after the finish, and then has an edited in depth article about the USA or Canadian skiers a while after the race.

But, when a race is going on and you need to know what’s happening, go to fromsport.com and just watch the bloody thing. There are other hacked live video sites out there too, but you have to do a little work to find them.

FACT:

If you see the race live, the side-news just isn’t as important. If you didn’t see it live, you will look and scrap for every last morsel of information about the race trying to find out what it looked like if you had seen it live. Something as small as someone stepping on a pole is a major hint. But just like a football game, if you saw it or heard it, you aren’t likely to stick around and read the news.

Next Olympics, everyone will see it live.

TWITTER and FACEBOOKERS: Sorry about the mass twittering yesterday during the sprint. I was trying to do something else and I ended up spamming everyone.

UPDATE: watch LIVE on fromsport.com! follow me on twitter: twitter.com

Norway is the favorite here. The Northug and the Sausage are waving their haughty norsky fingers around with stiffy number one’s and those blood-red suits are soon to be red of a different color (with a hint of silver on the legs, apparently). It’s a sprint, madness can happen, madness will happen, followed by steady screams of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Everybody with me now! U-S-A, U-S-A!!

America, follow the action here:

LIVE: Ladies team sprint in 5 minutes:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-cross-country-skiing/schedule-and-results/ladies-team-sprint-free-final_ccw461101yr.html

LIVE: Mens team sprint in 35 minutes:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-cross-country-skiing/schedule-and-results/mens-team-sprint-free-final_ccm461101Si.html

Alternate live links:

Ladies: http://www.nbcolympics.com/cross-country-skiing/resultsandschedules/event=CCW461000/index.html
Men: http://www.nbcolympics.com/cross-country-skiing/resultsandschedules/event=CCM461000/index.html

U-S-A!! U-S-A!!

I am completely incapable of getting my a$$ to Whistler. I was supposed to get on a plane for Canada at 6:30am this morning but realized I booked it for March instead of February. Alone with no place to stay in Truckee, I cancelled my ticket late last night and found a 10K running race this morning. I got second for the 5K and won the 10K with a 39:55 in 7″ of new snow (not bad for only 2 weeks of easy 70 minute runs), and also took the prize for the “fastest scantly clad” runner. They actually give out a prize for the fastest person with no shirt while it’s dumping snow.

Posted in Crow Pass 2010, Racing | 4 Comments »