Lenzerheide Weekend Recap

Women’s Athlete of the Week: Justine Braisaz-Bouchet

Was there any doubt? Justine Braisaz-Bouchet absolutely owned the weekend from start to finish. It was actually such a dominating performance that there really isn’t that much to be said. She started out the weekend looking fast and in control in the Sprint race. Braisaz-Bouchet is always hard to beat when she is 10/10. This was once again the case as she was the fastest woman not named Anamarija Lampic in the race (and even this was just 3.6 slower). She was easily the class of the field Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Lisa Vittozzi are both having good seasons. During the Sprint race they went 10/10 and finished 12.2 and 17.2 seconds back respectively. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet owned this race.

She backed up the Sprint win with a win in the Pursuit. She wasn’t as dominant as she had three misses. That was the only blemish on her racing. She didn’t try to blow anybody away on the course and was just 4th fastest on the day. It was a really smart race. She was never better than 3rd fastest on any particular lap of the race. However, while Simon came close, nobody ever caught up to JBB as she pulled away late for her 2nd consecutive win.

The Mass Start was just a perfect race. Braisaz-Bouchet went 20/20 for just the 2nd time in her career. Just like in the Sprint, if she is going to shoot 100% she’s going to be impossible to beat. You can’t say they didn’t try. Julia Simon shot a crazy 24 second 2nd shooting while Braisaz-Bouchet took nearly 10 seconds to knock down her 5th. Simon had 10 seconds on Braisaz-Bouchet leaving the range but it didn’t matter as JBB tracked down the leaders before the 3rd shooting. That was it, she was never challenged again. Elvira made a final wild charge and cut the final margin from 18 seconds to 5 seconds but the result was never in doubt.

The racing wasn’t my favorite part of the weekend though. My favorite part of the weekend was Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s spectaular serenity throughout the weekend. She looked completely at ease on the course. And on the podium her smile just gave you the sense that she is in a really good place as an athlete and as a person. She just looks happy and content. I can’t remember seeing many athletes with this look before. It’s really wonderful to see.

Men’s Athlete of the Week: Johannes Thingnes Bø

Well it was fun while it lasted right? After the Sprint in Hochfilzen the men’s Overall looked like it could go in any number of different directions. JT Bø was solid but not dominant while perennial 2nd place finisher Sturla Holm Lægreid was well off his form. QFM nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile Sebastian Samuelsson looked like he was taking a step forward, Johannes Dale-Skjvedal running as fast as ever, and the Germans looking like they were going to compete. Things sure changed quick. Here we are just two weeks later, and JT Bø has won three of the last four (finishing 2nd in the other race), he’s back in Yellow, and it’s really not even that close anymore.

The start of the week was actually a little surprising and didn’t portend what was about to happen. JT Bø finished in 2nd, which of course is a good result, even for JT Bø. However, after the 2nd shooting almost anybody would have guessed he would win. He exited the range with just a 4.5 second deficit on Benedikt Doll. Now Doll is fast but JT Bø is supposed to be super human. To that point JTB was faster than Doll by 13 seconds on lap 1 and 2.5 seconds on lap 2. It seemed like a classic case where JT Bø, with victory in sight, calls up his super power and pulls out the win. Well by mid way on lap 3 it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen and he actually lost a couple of seconds on the back half of the lap.

The rest of the week was all JT Bø. We discussed the Pursuit in depth below so we won’t do that again. Needless to say, he looked like JT Bø. He was strong on the skis. Most importantly he was fast and extremely confident in his last shooting to put Lægreid away and run away. It was some very smart tactical racing to set up the final shoot and the victory.

The Mass Start turned into a JT Bø victory but it didn’t always look that way. He started out the first shooting with a miss while Emilien Jacquelin was doing Emilien Jacquelin things. By that I mean going full bore, pedal to the metal, and blazing away. After the 2nd shooting when Jacquelin was 10/10 with wild fast shooting times things were pretty interesting. However, as always, we can count on Jacquelin to do something interesting, and this time he seemed to give up halfway through lap 3 allowing JT Bø along with a cadre of Norwegians to close down the gap entirely.

However, JT Bø still didn’t summon any super human efforts as he had his 2nd miss of the day on the first standing shooting putting him in an 18 second hold behind Tarjei Bø, Johannes Dale-Skjvedal and Vebjoern Soerum. Once again JT Bø turned on the chase and caught the Norwegian trio just prior to the last shooting. This time he did the JT Bø thing: fast confident shooting, and he slammed the door as everybody else had a miss. Starting out lap 5 with 18 seconds in hand on his older brother and JTB was able to take a relatively relaxed final lap to the win.

The end result: 2nd, 1st, and 1st. He might not be the best JT Bø he’s ever been, but at least right now, what he’s showing is more than enough to be the best of the field. He’s going to go to the 2nd trimester as the heavy favorite to take home another big Globe.

Women’s Young Athlete of the Week: Elvira Öberg

Elvira Öberg didn’t win this week. In fact she only made one podium this week. But Elvira Öberg is coming and she’s coming for Yellow. I don’t want to recap her whole 1st trimester (that’s coming soon!) but this weekend was a really good showcase for where she is and what she still needs to do.

The weekend started off with a mild disappointment for Elvira. She finished in 5th place in the Sprint and honestly didn’t really look like herself. She was 9/10 on a day when nobody was going to catch Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. However, the unusual part was Elvira not being the fastest with 1 miss. It really wasn’t that close. She was 13 seconds back of Julia Simon even while taking a little over two seconds off Simon on the course. We talked above about highlighting areas where Elvira can improve? This is it. Elvira lost a whopping 18 seconds to Simon in shooting time. The numbers actually make it look worse. Julia Simon took just 44.1 seconds to shoot while Elvira needed 1:02.1. Going forward this is a HUGE area she can grow in and, assuming she can as some of her competitors have, will make a big difference for her and take some stress off.

Elvira came into the Pursuit starting in bib 5 and starting 52 seconds back of Braisaz-Bouchet and 35 off the podium. After a solid effort to cut the deficit down to 44 seconds as she entered the range, Elvira basically shot herself out of the race right away with two misses on the first shooting. She was 1:08 back while Braisaz-Bouchet, Tandrevold, Vittozzi, and Simon consolidated up front. After a clean 2nd shooting she proceeded to go 4/5 on each standing shooting. Remarkably she continued her dogged pursuit, never letting up and salvaging a 5th place, really to her credit.

Finally, the Mass Start which I discuss in further detail below. Here she showed full potential with just absolutely phenomenal skiing, determination, and grit. She closed out the weekend with a 2nd place finish. Wildly enough she is now just 34 points back from Justine Braisaz-Bouchet for the Overall lead and is, of course, wearing Blue. There is no doubt in my mind that Elvira can win the Overall. However, to do so, she needs to keep the grit and speed on the skis, while also tightening up the shooting, and shooting faster. It’s a big ask, but she can do it.

Men’s Young Athlete of the Week: Niklas Hartweg

I could hear an argument here for Lovro Planko after he finished 9th in the Sprint, or Eric Perrot who continues to look like a top 15 biathlete, but this is Switzerland so it had to go to Niklas Hartweg. It was great to see him back racing again after he missed Hochfilzen with COVID. Heck, it felt like he missed Oestersund too after he once again struggled to do much there, just like last season. He returned this weekend and was immediately back competing at a decently high level going 11th in the Sprint, 12th in the Pursuit, and 15th in the Mass Start.

Yes, Hartweg is coming off a season with eight top 10’s, so 11th and 12th doesn’t move the needle on that scale. However, when he started the season looking so rough and then had COVID, this was a great sign that he can get back to that level. No, the skiing certainly wasn’t there as his ski ranks per race were 24th, 29th, and 20th. Those were much better than he was in Oestersund though, and coming off of illness, particularly COVID, that’s a good thing to see. Also, his average course time rank last season was 26th, so an average of 24th this weekend is actually right in line with where he was last year.

The most important thing though, was that his shooting was back. In Oestersund he hit 85% in the Individual, 70% in the Sprint, and 90% in the Pursuit. For a guy who was the 2nd best shooter on the World Cup last season, hitting 84% was way off. This weekend he went 90%, 95%, and 90% for a really strong 92% which was just at touch behind his 93.3% from last season. Meanwhile the shooting speed was back too. In Oestersund he averaged 27.1 seconds per shooting. This weekend in Lenzerheide it was back to 23.8 seconds. Last season he averaged 25.1 seconds so this was even an improvement on that.

Niklas Hartweg wasn’t just physically back racing again. No, it actually looked like he’s back to being the Niklas Hartweg that we all were so excited about last season, and that’s a REALLY good thing for the rest of this season. The big question now is can he get back into the race for the Blue bib? Here are the standings:

	Before Lenzerheide	Now
Tommaso Giacomel	153 (+143)	228 (+133)
Eric Perrot	122 (+112)	199 (+104)
Dider Bionaz	100 (+90)	169 (+74)
Niklas Hartweg	10	95

Well he had a phenomenal week but was only able to scratch back 10 points on his deficit. He still has six more weekends to overcome the deficit so it isn’t impossible, but he’s going to need to reach a very high level. Regardless of whether he gets back in the race or not, biathlon is better when he’s feeling good rand racing well. I’m happy he’s back!

Women’s Race of the Week: Mass Start

This was the one we were all waiting for. This first trimester has been absolutely amazing on the women’s side. We’ve seen strong racing from pretty much everybody we could have wanted to sans Davidova, Hauser, and Hanna Öberg. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet coming in on the hot streak of the season with two straight wins in Lenzerheide. Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold in Yellow. Julia Simon clearly on her best form after her first podium of the season. Elvira Öberg was looking stronger and stronger. Vittozzi and Preuss a steady presence at the front of the field all season. This is the event to see who comes out on top!

Well, as we already know, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet was simply untouchable this weekend. And that’s really all we need to know. She was a perfect 20/20 and just ran away from everybody time and time again. She wasn’t the fastest on the course, just 6th on the day a full 32 seconds back of Elvira, but she really didn’t have to be. She was just dominant.

Elvira Öberg continued her surge, and in many ways resembled her “old self.” Elvira Öberg at her best reminds me of a wolf, and I mean this in the best way possible. Simply relentless with a constant rate of speed. No flying bursts, just a constant high level with endurance to wear down and run down opponents. When she combines it with the shooting she wins. On this day she was one miss shy of the win. She went 4/5 each on her two prone shootings. After that though she was on the hunt. Entering the last lap she was 22 seconds back. That’s an impossible task for anybody when chasing Braisaz-Bouchet. Elvira wouldn’t hear it though. She kept pushing and closed the gap remarkably. It was never going to happen but it was the attitude that I absolutely loved.

On Elvira Öberg’s relentless march to 2nd place she passed right by her sister, who gave her quite a look as Elvira went by. However, let’s not lose sight of Hanna Öberg’s own great race. It has been an underwhelming start to the season for the older Öberg sister, but this Mass Start showed all of her potential. Just like Elvira she was 4/5 on each of the prone shootings but she was quite strong the skis, hit her standing shots, and survived a race of attrition to land on the podium.

Behind the podium three, Lisa Vittozzi, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, Julia Simon, and Franziska Preuss all had moments when they looked like they might get into contention. However each of them was just held back either because they didn’t quite have the legs or they just had the one miss they couldn’t afford. It was remarkable though, a Mass Start that actually lived up to the billing. We had our eyes on the top women and they all showed up, plus the return of Hanna Öberg to remind us that she’s still dangerous!

Men’s Race of the Week: Pursuit

This race had a little bit of everything. There was late race drama. There was a first time podium. There was…a man clipping out of his skis to reach across the firing line to grab his magazine?!?

The race started out with a host of German men at the front while the Norwegian men, outside of JT Bø and Sturla Holm Lægreid were further back after a relative disappointment in the Sprint. The start of the race was relatively benign. There were a couple of misses on the first shooting with JT Bø taking a lead and Christiansen and Dale-Skjvedal worked there way into the middle of the top 10.

On lap 2 JT Bø tried to lay down the hammer. He pushed he lead out beyond 30 seconds as he got to the range. However, a miss on the 2nd prone shooting kept him from putting the race to bed early. By this point the entire top 9 was composed of German and Norwegian men, like something out of the mid 1990’s. It wasn’t going to last though.

After JT Bø again tried to put the race out of reach, he got to the range for the first standing shooting and promptly missed his first two shots. Suddenly he goes from a solid lead to once again chasing. Meanwhile, Sturla Holm Lægreid came off the range a perfect 15/15 and in the lead. This is where it got really fun.

On lap 4 the far superior JT Bø immediately caught Sturla Holm Lægreid and then just parked it right behind him. He didn’t make a single effort to get around him. He just let Lægreid do all of the work even though it let the chasers close up a little behind them. Strømsheim for example closed the gap down to just 3 seconds going to the final shooting. It was a smart call. He knew that there was no way he was going to get a full penalty loop lead on Lægreid, and if he were to push for say a 10-12 second lead he might hurt his chances on the range. Then he could potentially be too far behind a perfect 20/20 Lægreid to catch him for the win. He chose to make a stand on the range, and as it turns out he chose correctly.

The last shooting was absolutely wild. JT Bø and Lægreid side by side for the final shooting. They were shooting in sync for the final three shots. Both 4/4 they fired at the same moment and JT Bø hit while Lægreid missed. JT Bø was off for an easy win. If it had been reversed JT Bø would likely have been 21 seconds back of Lægreid on the final lap. Could he have caught him? Possibly but it’s definitely not a sure thing. It doesn’t matter though, he went 5/5 and grabbed the win and subsequently the yellow bib.

Behind them though things got even more interesting. Endre Strømsheim fumbled his magazine and it landed across the firing line. Making a snap decision, rather than calling for an official for a replacement, he decided to go get it. He snapped out of his skis, knelt down, and reached well across the firing line to go get the errant magazine. He grabbed it, stood up, clipped back into his skis, and promptly hit 5/5. Somehow he did all that in just 38.9 seconds.

Strømsheim then raced off the range and absolutely blazed around the final lap. He started out the lap 18 seconds back of Sturla Holm Lægrei. No worries, he caught him and moved past him with ease as he sprinted to his first career podium, crossing the line in 2nd while Lægreid cruised across in 3rd. It was a WILD race.

Yellow Bib Updated: Stay tuned. Big posts coming soon!