With one week of racing under our belts in trimester #2 we head to Ruhpolding for another week. It’s a bit of a relic of the Cold War that Germany continues to host two events every year as Oberhof (East Germany) and Ruhpolding (West Germany) were the respective stops of the Central European nation pre unification. But the result is that now, after surviving the week in the trying conditions of Oberhof, replete with the requite fog and warm weather, the field gets to go to one of their favorite shooting venues in Ruhpolding.
Schedule:
– Wednesday January 10: Women’s Relay
– Thursday January 11: Men’s Relay
– Friday January 12: Women’s Sprint
– Saturday January 13: Men’s Sprint
– Sunday January 14: Women’s Pursuit + Men’s Pursuit
Course Overview:
– Stadium altitude: 710 meters
– Maximum altitude on course: 733 meters
– Lowest altitude on course: 701 meters
– Stadium capacity: 12,000 spectators
In general Ruhpolding is one of the favorite shooting venues for the athletes. There is a bit of a downhill towards the range and the range is rather protected from wind. The result is we often will see a bunch of clean shooting particularly in the Sprint races. In general this can lead to giving even more of a boost to the faster racers and less of an advantage for the better shooters. In this case thing it gives athletes like Lena Haecki-Gross or Elvira Oeberg a boost while limiting the advantage that athletes like Sturla Holm Laegreid or Sebastian Stalder. **I’ve reached out to the Ruhpolding media contact for a course map for the Men’s Sprint**
Weather
– Average Temperature for mid December: High 3C and Low -5C.
– In general it isn’t particularly sunny in January in Ruhpolding with rain/snow a little over 50% of the days.
– By and large not usually windy
Well…that’s better than we saw in Oberhof! The weather isn’t perfect as it is still a little above freezing during the day. However, it’s getting well below freezing at night so good possibility to get the course in shape. In Oberhof it wasn’t getting below freezing for several nights plus it was raining. Overall I’m feeling better about what we’ll see in Ruhpolding. The volunteers and course workers will definitely be able to make this into a quality course. Below is a look at the current conditions. It’s not a ton of snow but at least it’s more aesthetically pleasing than Oberhof.
Slightly warmer conditions during the day with sun looks to be similar to what we’ve seen a couple of times this season already. When we see this we’ve been seeing, in general, the Norwegians coming through with the best skis. It looks like the French were on perfect form last week with good skis as well. No surprises here.
News and Notes:
1)Spinning the Wheel: Well Botn got his crack on the World Cup in Oberhof and he definitely showed his speed. I mean he showed his nerves too with the extra penalty loop in the Sprint and the early start penalty in the Pursuit, but he was also extremely fast. Unfortunately for him this is a numbers game on the Norwegian team and he didn’t have the numbers. It was already determined that Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen would return from the holiday break in Ruhpolding while JT Boe, Tarjei Boe, Sturla Holm Laegreid, and Johnnaes Dale-Skjvedal are locked in for now. That means it came down to Endre Stroemsheim and Johan-Olav Botn for the last bib and Stroemsheim finished 3rd in the Sprint and Won the Pursuit to move to 3rd in the Overall. Botn, while wildly fast, was just 26th and 24th. Not bad but not good enough in this high level battle for the bib. Oh, and in case you’re wondering Vebjoen Soerum was back on the IBU Cup this weekend and in went 1st, 5th, and 2nd, so he’s still showing good level.
2) Dorothea Wierer: Unfortunately she remains sick. She has just had a disastrous year. She was sick before the season started and was never able to find her form early on. She continued to be sick in Hochfilzen and then went home before Lenzerheide. Still training last week reports were that she is still not feeling 100% even though she has been up on her skis. Hopefully we’ll see her back for Antholz.
3) Norwegian Women: Marthe Krakstad Johansen has not been at the top level that we might have expected her to be in. She’s going home to train leaving an opening on the World Cup for the women. Meanwhile Karoline Erdal is going back to the IBU Cup. Maren Kirkeeide is the first woman up for the World Cup. I thought they might bring up Ida Lien but it looks like they are just going with five women.
4) Ending the Season Early: Chloe Chevalier has announced that she is ending her season. No word on her continuing her career. Last year was a career best season for her. But even at the end of the 21-22 season she was contemplating retirement. We’ve seen athletes take a prolonged break and come back stronger than ever. For our sake I hope that is what she chooses to do. However, more than anything I hope that she follows her heart. Anna Weidel meanwhile reports that she is going home for the rest of the season. She has been struggling with her health and just can’t get back into form.
Recent History
Women’s Repeat Podium Finishers Last 5 Competitions
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
| Athletes | Finishes |
| Hanna Oeberg | 🥈🥉🥉🥉 |
| Lisa Vittozzi | 🥇🥈🥈 |
| Dorothea Wierer | 🥇🥈🥉 |
| Julia Simon | 🥉🥇 |
| Elvira Oeberg | 🥇🥈 |
| Franziska Preuss | 🥇 |
| Lou Jeanmonnot | 🥈 |
| Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold | 🥈 |
Take a look at the women on this board and you have a perfect encapsulation of the type of athlete who does well at Ruhpolding. They are all good shooters but not the best. They are also all very fast. That’s who you’re looking for this week.
Men’s Multiple Podium Finishers Last 5 Competitions
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
| Athlete | Finishes |
| JT Boe | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥉 |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet | 🥇🥇🥈🥈🥉 |
| Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen | 🥈🥈🥉 |
| Benedikt Doll | 🥈🥉🥉 |
| Tarjei Boe | 🥈 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid | 🥉 |
| Jakov Fak | 🥉 |
| Antonin Guigonnat | 🥉 |
Just look back at last week and you can see the difference between Oberhof and Ruhpolding. JT Boe traditionally not great in Oberhof but he’s been the best in Ruhpolding over the same period (and he even skipped the 2022 Ruhpolding races). Also, I’ve got my eye on one Benedikt Doll…
Recent Memorable Moments/Performances
2023 Men’s Individual: While we all remember the massive Individual performance that JT Boe had at the World Championships, the win in Ruhpolding was quite impressive as well. While he shot 18/20 vs. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen’s 19/20, JT Boe came out victorious by 9.9 seconds He ran 1:14 seconds faster on the course than Martin Ponsiluoma and 1:15 on Christiansen. Last year Christiansen was on tremendous form and ended the season ranked 3rd Overall and actually won the discipline globe for the Individual. It was one of our many hints that JT Boe was about to do something wild in Oberhof.
2023 Women’s Individual: It was a shooting clinic as we saw 10 total misses amongst the top 14 women in the race. At the very top was Lisa Vittozzi who put the capstone on her triumphant return to top level of women’s biathlon by going 20/20 while running the 3rd best course time. It was one of the most popular and cheered victories of the season. Right behind her was Lou Jeanmonnot, who scored the first podium of her career and announced her presence on the World Cup stage. We of course have seen her go on to really great things over the last year including back to back wins this season in Oestersund. Rounding out the podium was Julia Simon who was was her way to winning the Overall Globe.
2023 Women’s Mass Start: The hope with a Mass Start is that it comes down to at least two athletes going head to head on the last shooting and the last lap with a chance to win. That’s exactly what happened in this race as Lisa Vittozzi, coming off her first win in years in the Individual, and Julia Simon, leading the Overall, were leading going to the final shooting. Simon (20 seconds) shot fast but missed while Vittozzi shot slow (31 seconds) and went clean. The result was they were neck and neck going into the last lap. The problem was the opened the door for Anais Chevalier-Bouchet to catch them with clean and quick shooting! The final lap was a three woman race but ultimately Simon won the three woman final Sprint with Vittozzi in 2nd and Chevalier-Bouchet in 3rd.
2022 Women’s Sprint: What if I told you the following women went clean in a Sprint: Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, Dorothea Wierer, Dzinara Alimbekava, Lisa Hauser, Anais Bescond, and Linn Persson, while Justine Braisaz-Bouchet was 9/10? You would probably say that was a heck of a race. And it was! Except Elvira Oeberg went 10/10 and dusted the field by a solid 21 seconds on Roeiseland. It was Elvira’s 2nd win of the season and her 2nd in a row. She wasn’t quite strong enough to hold off Roeiseland in the Pursuit but it was still a top notch Sprint. It was Elvira Oeberg at her full powers.
Random Notes:
– Hanna Oeberg absolutely loves Ruhpolding. These are her finishes in solo races in Ruhpolding beginning in 2019 (she didn’t race there in 2018): 3, 4, 2, 3, 11, 3, 5, 6. That means that in eight races she has been outside of the flowers just one time. That’s easily her best of any venue on the World Cup. She had an awesome Pursuit race last week and a great Mass Start in Lenzerheide. Otherwise she has had a subpar season though. If she’s looking for a weekend to “get right” this may be it.
– For QFM just pretty much what I said about Hanna Oeberg. He had those five podium finishes all in succession from 2019-2022. Last season he finished 9th and 16th. We haven’t seen really anything to suggest that he’s suddenly going to find his form. Maybe getting into a friendly venue will do the trick though?
– On the opposite side of things, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold generally races fairly poorly here. Just two top 10’s in nine races in Ruhpolding. I actually think that she breaks that streak this week.
– Justine Braisaz-Bouchet has just three top 10’s in her 14 career races in Ruhupolding and just one top 5. She has only raced there one time since 2020 though due to no races there in 2021 and her maternity leave last season. Two of those top 10’s were in that 2022. She’s racing at a high high level right now.
– Sturla Holm Laegreid has raced just two times in his career in Ruhpolding and he went 4th and 3rd.
– Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen has five straight finishes in the top five in Ruhpolding.
Predictions:
– JT Boe didn’t have a terrific weekend in Oberhof but it’s not terribly concerning. He’s still got a solid 82 point lead in the Overall. He’s still fast. He’s going to continue to be very good. He’s not the man to beat necessarily like he was last year. It’s really a big bunch of guys who can win. However, he likes Ruhpolding a lot and this sets up well for him.
– Doll has a pretty good record in Ruhpolding. He’s had great Sprints recently. Could be another great one coming up for him!
– This course is just perfect for so many of the top women including but not limited to Simon, Vittozzi, Elvira, Vittozzi, and yes, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. I am really hoping that the Sprint is a shoot out and the Pursuit is a battle for survival. We could be an all time Pursuit race here.
– This is not a prediction but my heart this week is with Preuss. She’s had three heartbreaking 2nd place finishes. I think it’s time for her to get a win. Why not here?
Penalty Loop 