Dates: December 11, 2023 – December 17, 2023
Schedule:
– Thursday December 14: Women’s Sprint
– Friday December 15: Men’s Sprint
– Saturday December 16: Women’s Pursuit + Men’s Pursuit
– Sunday December 17: Women’s Mass Start + Men’s Mass Start
Course Overview:
– Stadium altitude: 1393 meters
– Maximum altitude on course: 1444 meters
– Lowest altitude on course: 1389 meters
– Stadium capacity: 6000 spectators
During our interview with Niklas Hartweg he gave us a brief overview of the course. Basically he said it’s a very difficult course with some significant steep climbs. He mentioned that there are points where you can feel where you’re absolutely dying. This is important as we have many athletes coming off of illnesses. This might not be the right course to “get right.” Some, especially those coming off COVID or pneumonia as we know a few are, may struggle especially. Look for our recently sick athletes such as Dorothea Wierer, and unfortunately Hartweg, in particular to possibly be in difficulty.
Weather:
– Average Temperature for mid December: High -2C and Low -11C.
– In general cloudier with precipitation on about 1/2 of days in December
– Light winds expected
It appears that the temperatures this week will be in line with averages, maybe a little warmer. Snow on two of four days is right in line with average. Looks like the Sprints, particularly the women, will be the most affected. Winds, though, look to be fairly steady all weekend, just changing direction on Sunday as it warms up.
Looking at this it is likely that wax and ski conditions should be fairly similar to Hochfilzen. It seemed to benefit the Norwegians last week. However, with another week with similar conditions maybe we’ll see a more even playing field.
News and Notes
- COVID continues to take a bite out of the field: This has so far been the worst period of time for the World Cup and COVID since the world changed in 2020. It probably has a lot to do with relaxed protocols as well as just everybody being more comfortable as time passes. However, now that big names have been impacted by COVID and other respiratory illness including Vittozzi, Wierer, Preuss, Jeanmonnot, Hartweg, and Eder it seems inevitable that either everybody will be hit or protocols will be reintroduced.
It’s gotten to the point that it feels like the Overall will be impacted by who catches COVID and when. If, for example, Tandrevold or Elvira stay healthy this week, and manage to either get sick only during the holiday break or not at all, they could have a huge advantage over women like Preuss or Jeanmonnot who missed races.
Here’s who is missing this week (so far):
– Women: Lou Jeanmonnot, Marthe Krakstad Johansen, Lisa Hauser, Hanna Kebinger remains out, Elisa Gasparin, Erika Janka
– Men: Sebastian Samuelsson, Roman Rees, - Norwegian men punt the big decision: Due to Endre Stroemsheim’s Overall win on the IBU Cup last season the Norwegian men were granted seven bibs for the first two weeks. Lenzerheide is the first week where they go back to the standard six bibs to start the Sprint race. While before the season it would have seemed obvious that Soerum or Stroemsheim would be the one sent back. However, both of them started out the season very well in Oestersund while Sturla Holm Laegreid looked nothing like his normal self.
Since then there has been much speculation over which of the men would be sent home or back to the IBU Cup. Laegreid rebounded in Hochfilzen and now a good argument can be made for all of them:
– Laegreid is the 3x 2nd place Overall and just last week finished 2nd and 4th. However he still looks slow
– Vebjoern Soerum has a podium in Oestersund which had been identified as a criteria before the season for determining who would stay. However last weekend he failed to finish better than 15th.
– Endre Stroemsheim hasn’t yet had a podium. However, he only has one race where he finished outside the top 10, a feat only matched by Tarjei Boe and Johannes Dale-Skjvedal on the Norwegian team.
Who do you pick for your 6 bibs? - Wax – well we’ve seen very different conditions in the first two venues. We started in Oestersund with temperatures well below freezing and icy flurries throughout the week. The frozen temperatures seemed to level the playing field a bit and the German and Swedish teams especially seemed to have tremendous skis. Then we went to Hochfilzen where temperatures were near or above freezing for all three days. The warmer conditions seemed to give a much greater advantage to the traditionally tremendous Norwegian waxers. However it’s also worth noting that the Swedes, Germans, and Czech team all seemed to have good wax as well. This week it looks like we’ll be around freezing again with snow possible on Thursday and Friday. Should be closer to Hochfilzen than Oestersund.
- German women going young: They are calling up Johanna Puff to join the World Cup squad alongside Franziska Preuss, Vanessa Voigt, Sophia Schneider, Janina Hettich-Walz, and fellow youth talent Selina Grotian. Just need to see Julia Tannheimer and we’ve got the full youth movement going!
Recent History
There have been no prior World Cup races in Lenzerheide before so we have to look elsewhere to find our history….
2023 European Championships
We’ll start with a look at medal winners from the European Championships, several of whom we’ll be seeing this week
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Men’s Individual | Endre Stroemsheim | Anton Dudchenko | Lovro Planko |
| Men’s Sprint | Erlend Bjoentegaard(r) | Vebjoern Soerum | Philip Nawrath |
| Men’s Pursuit | Vebjoern Soerum | Erlend Bjoentegaard(r) | Endre Stroemsheim |
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Women’s Individual | Lisa Marie Spark | Yulia Dzhima | Selina Grotian |
| Women’s Sprint | Anastasiya Merkushyna | Tilda Johansson | Vanessa Hinz(r) |
| Women’s Pursuit | Selina Grotian | Tilda Johansson | Gilonne Guigonnat |
From that group we can expect to see several of those women competing this week in Lenzerheide:
– It seems at this point that we’ll see one of Endre Stroemsheim or Vebjoern Soerum. Both have already performed well this year. It wouldn’t be stunning to see either on the podium in Lenzerheide.
– Selina Grotian has shown flashes so maybe seeing friendly snow will spark her.
– Philip Nawrath wore the Yellow Jersey in the Sprint in Hochfilzen. Can he recapture the magic?
– Gilonne Guigonnat has had really good moments in both Oestersund and Hochfilzen. She’s going to find herself in a flower ceremony sooner or later.
– Tilda Johansson no longer on the World Cup this week. She had been on the World Cup after Sweden got an extra bid from her IBU Cup overall win. It’s a shame as she had some good performances in Lenzerheide.
There were several individuals who didn’t land on the podium but also raced well including:
– Andrejs Rastorgujevs with a 33rd and two 4th place finishes
– Maxine Germain had a 15th and 13th in the Sprint/Pursuit
– Adam Vaclavik finished 9th, 8th, and 15th
– Juni Arnekleiv had a 10th in the Sprint
2020 Junior World Championships
So maybe not quite as helpful being Juniors and over three years ago now, but still, you’ll want to note a few of the names that pop up here.
| Youth Men | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 |
| Individual | Martin Nevland | Damien Levet | Eric Perrot |
| Sprint | Aleksei Kovalev | Ondrej Manek | Maxime Germain |
| Pursuit | Martin Nevland | Ondrej Manek | Lovro Planko |
| Junior Men | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 |
| Individual | Max Barchewitz | Vebjoern Soerum | Sebastian Stalder |
| Sprint | Vebjoern Soerum | Jakub Svrtecky | Dzmitry Lazouski |
| Pursuit | Danilo Riethmueller | Said Khalili | Alex Cisar |
| Youth Women | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 |
| Individual | Lea Meier | Rebecca Passler | Anna Gandler |
| Sprint | Linda Zingerle | Liubov Kalinina | Oceane Michelon |
| Pursuit | Anna Gandler | Camille Coupe | Linda Zingerle |
| Junior Women | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 |
| Individual | Anasatsiia Khaliullina | Milena Todorova | Amy Baserga |
| Sprint | Anasasiia Shevchenko | Aasne Skrede | Milena Todorova |
| Pursuit | Anasasiia Shevchenko | Aasne Skrede | Milena Todorova |
I don’t have time to list all of the men and women who took part in the Youth/Junior Worlds that season but it’s remarkable to see how many of them have become well known names on the World Cup in the last 1-2 years. I guess that’s always the case but it’s just fun to look back and realize, once again, we really should watch the Junior Worlds more closely.
Other athletes who performed well at that Youth/Junior Worlds we will should see this week:
– Amy Baserga 4th in Sprint and 6th in Pursuit
– Samuela Comola 6th in Individual and 9th in Sprint
– Joanna Jakiela 12th in Sprint and 9th in Pursuit
– Tommaso Giacomel 6th in Sprint and 12th in Pursuit
– Niklas Hartweg 9th in Sprint and 7th in Pursuit
– Didier Bionaz 8th in Individual
– Anton Vidmar 9th in Individual
– Emilien Claude 12th in Sprint
Penalty Loop 