We had an absolutely thrilling two weeks of racing in Lenzerheide. So much so that I’m still exhausted from it all and I didn’t even put on a ski! During our week off we have been able to see the incredible Youth and Junior athletes competing at Worlds in Oestersund. Now we are off to one of the premier stops on the schedule: Nove Mesto na Morave. This venue comes complete with the biggest grandstand in the sport and will once again bless us with sunset and night time races. With this set up it is always such a unique week! It is unfortunate that the region struggles as climate change continues to affect our lower altitude locations. While Nove Mesto has made the cut for every season up through the 2030 Olympics who knows how many more seasons we get to spend here. Let’s enjoy it while we have it!
Schedule
– Thursday March 6th: Men’s 10km Sprint
– Friday March 7th: Women’s 7.5km Sprint
– Saturday March 8th: Men’s 12.5km Pursuit + Women’s 10km Pursuit
– Sunday March 9th: Men’s 4×7.5km Relay + Women’s 4x6km Relay
Course Overview
Courses are listed by their first appearance:
1) 3.3km course to be used for Men’s 10km Sprint
2) 2.5km course to be used for Women’s 7.5km Sprint + Men’s 12.5km Pursuit + Men’s 4×7.5km Relay
3) 2.0km course to be used for Women’s Pursuit + Women’s 4x6km Relay
– Stadium altitude: 620 meters
– Highest Altitude on Course: 655 meter
– Lowest Altitude on the Course 620 meters
– Stadium capacity: 20,000 spectators
Just because it’s not a course that is at altitude does not mean Nove Mesto is an easy course. It is lumpy with several climbs early in the first half of each loop including a pretty steep climb near 15% gradient. The back half of the loop generally has a bit more downhill but it closes with another sharp 14% climb near the end of the loop. That can put a touch of lactate in the legs before the range and on the last loops could definitely expose who is running close to empty. The other not so hidden secret about Nove Mesto is that it runs a little longer than listed which this week will expose those who are a little over cooked after Worlds.
Weather
We discussed above how affected by climate change the lower altitude venues have been. I don’t know if you can get a more stark example than that weather forecast. That’s just gross. For the Americans reading this those temps are in the mid 50’s. That’s just really way too warm. The worst part is it isn’t going to be getting below freezing at night. The result is going to be sloppy wet heavy snow. We saw a lot of that in the Lenzerheide but fortunately it snuck below freezing at night and they were able to keep the course in good condition. It looks pretty breezy as well. Now it can go up and down during the day but the potential is there for some high leverage shooting in tricky conditions on shaky legs.
This is once again going to put a premium on ski prep. We saw in Lezerheide what a huge difference that can make on the legs. For example the Norwegians in the the Men’s Individual and Preuss in the Mass Start. The Germans historically have difficulty in these conditions and the French did a very good job at Worlds. This looks like a great opportunity for Jeanmonnot to close the gap in the Overall chase.
Here’s the long story short: heavy wet snow, potentially tired legs after Worlds, potential for breezy conditions, and heavy emphasis on ski prep. It could be a pretty interesting week.
News and Notes
Benedikt Doll (GER) – IBU World Championships Biathlon, individual men, Nove Mesto na Morave (CZE). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Thibaut/IBU.
Honestly not much in the way of news that has taken place. One HUGE story but not the volume I might have expected. No major roster announcements.
1) 🇩🇪 Germany Coaching Changes – Immediately following the World Championship German men’s head coach Uros Velepec announced his resignation. The statement from the German federation along with quotes from Velepec made clear that this was not a firing. Velepec acknowledged that there was a general failure of the German men to advance in over the last few years, particularly as the generation including Peiffer, Lesser, and Doll retired over the last several seasons.
Taking over for the German men is Tobias Reiter. Most recently Reiter has been involved with coaching the German “B” team. However, the 39 year old has also served as personal coach Franziska Preuss. Reiter is highly respected. Still it is interesting to see the German federation turn to now two young coaches for their top squads as Sverre Roeiseland is now in his 3rd season with the women and has quite a lot of success! It remains to be seen whether the German men will go with a full coaching search this Spring. It is a difficult ask for a “big name” head coach to join the squad in the year of an Olympics but maybe if they are able to secure a long term contract through 2030 with a good salary that might be attractive. Ultimately I think they stick with Reiter through at least the 2026 season for now. I’m fascinated to see what changes over the next few months!
Marketa Davidova (CZE) – IBU World Cup Biathlon, sprint women, Kontiolahti (FIN). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Koksarovs/IBU.
2) 🇨🇿 Marketa Davidova Returns? – Well it’s good news but not perfectly good news. Marketa Davidova has been training with the team and is on site in Nove Mesto. She is happy to be with the team but was noncommittal about starting in the Sprint on Friday. There are two ways to read this:
a) She is really feeling better and might race a few more times before the end of the season. Where better to race than at home in front of home fans?
b) She is feeling better and they are announcing this because there is hope it will drum up more interest from the home fans. I don’t actually believe this but it can’t be discounted.
Truthfully I will still be surprised if she starts on Friday. Last I heard she wasn’t fully training as of a few weeks ago in the fun up to Worlds. If she has made a huge recovery with new treatments that would be amazing! However, I still don’t think there would be a surprise if she decides not to race the rest of the season and prioritize being healthy for the 2026 Olympic season.
3) 🇸🇪 Elvira Öberg Out – Elvira Öberg is going to miss the weekend of racing in Nove Mesto na Morave. It brings to a close her extremely slim chance at the Overall Globe. It was practically 0% anyway but now it’s officially over. It’s tough as she is coming off of the biggest achievement yet in her career with the Mass Start World Championship 🥇.
Recent History
Lisa Vittozzi (ITA) – IBU World Championships Biathlon, mass women, Nove Mesto na Morave (CZE). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Thibaut/IBU.
Women’s Top 5 Finishers Last 5 Competition
– Includes 2024 World Championships
– Does not include retired, injured, or ineligible athletes
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Lisa Vittozzi 🇮🇹 | 🥇🥈🥈🥉, 4, 5 |
| Julia Simon 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥇🥉, 4, 4 |
| Dorothea Wierer 🇮🇹 | 🥈, 4, 4, 5, 5 |
| Justine Braisaz-Bouchet 🇫🇷 | 🥇🥈🥉, 4 |
| Hanna Oeberg 🇸🇪 | 🥈🥉, 5 |
| Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold 🇳🇴 | 🥈🥈 |
| Paulina Batovska-Fialkova 🇸🇰 | 🥈🥉 |
| Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷 | 🥉🥉 |
| Franziska Preuss 🇩🇪 | 🥉, 5 |
| Sophie Chauveau 🇫🇷 | 4, 4 |
| Anastasiya Kuzmina 🇸🇰 | 🥇 |
| Yulia Dzhima 🇺🇦 | 🥈 |
| Marketa Davidova 🇨🇿 | 🥉 |
| Selina Grotian 🇩🇪 | 4 |
| Baiba Bendika 🇱🇻 | 5 |
| Lena Haecki-Gross 🇨🇭 | 5 |
Men’s Top 5 Finishers Last 5 Competitions
– Includes 2024 World Championships
– Does not include retired or ineligible athletes
| Athlete | Finishes |
| Johannes Thingnes Boe 🇳🇴 | 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈 |
| Tarjei Boe 🇳🇴 | 🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉🥉, 4, 5, 5 |
| Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴 | 🥇🥈, 4, 5, |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷 | 🥈🥈🥉 |
| Fabien Claude 🇫🇷 | 5, 5, 5 |
| Sebastian Samuelsson 🇸🇪 | 🥈, 5 |
| Emilien Jacquelin 🇫🇷 | 🥈, 5 |
| Martin Ponsiluloma 🇸🇪 | 🥉🥉 |
| Jakov Fak 🇸🇮 | 4, 5 |
| Eric Perrot 🇫🇷 | 4 |
| Endre Stroemsheim 🇳🇴 | 4 |
| Michal Krcmar 🇨🇿 | 4 |
| Dmytro Pidruchnyi 🇺🇦 | 4 |
Recent Memorable Moments/Performances
2024 Worlds Men’s Sprint: Rarely will I have strong memories of a Sprint, but this 2024 Worlds Men’s Sprint will be an exception. Johannes Thingnes Boe had started the season a little slower than his dominant 2022-2023 season but he was getting stronger throughout the year. He came through relatively early on in bib 26. He was 9/10 but with his ski strength is looked like he was going to have his first individual gold medal of those Worlds.
Sturla Holm Laegreid had other plans though. He was in bib 50 and finished his shooting 10/10 with a slim advantage on JT Boe’s time. At the moment I was sure that Laegreid didn’t have the ski strength to be able to hold on to that lead and that Boe’s strength would win out on the last lap. Initially that played out as halfway through lap 3 Laegreid’s time slipped just behind that of Boe. Laegreid went deep into the red and found every bit of reserve he had to just find a bit of strength and get ahead of JT Boe by the finish. It was a stunning reversal in the last kilometer!
– IBU World Championships Biathlon, relay women, Nove Mesto na Morave (CZE). http://www.biathlonworld.com © Thibaut/IBU.
2024 Worlds Women’s Relay: This was a magnificent World Championships race. It had everything you want to see. The biggest of big names eventually raced their way to the podium but not without some fun before. The race started out relatively calmly, but turned upside down in leg 2. As Sophie Chauveau had 2 penalty loops it allowed Tuuli Tomingas to jump out to the front for Estonia. It wasn’t just Estonia though as there were nine nations within 46 seconds including Austria, Belgium, Ukraine, and Poland.
The second half of the relay was more about the big teams making the comeback. For France it was Braisaz-Bouchet and Simon leading the charge. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet needing just one extra round took France to the lead and Simon closed it off. The Oeberg sisters pulled Sweden to a very good silver medal. It came down to a final shoot between Johanna Talihaerm and Sophia Schneider but Germany came away with the bronze. No worries for Estonia though as they were super happy with their 4th place finish!
2022-2023 Men’s Races: The Double Bødium: Nearing the end of Johannes Thingnes Bø’s overwhelming dominance he swept the Sprint and Pursuit in Nové Město with relative ease. What made it amazing was that he got to share the podium both times with his brother Tarjei Bø who finished 2nd in both races. The capper is that both brothers had COVID for at least the Pursuit race and ended up missing the following week in Östersund.
2022-2023 Women’s Races: Last Bow for Marte Olsbu Røiseland: Marte Olsbu Røiseland, the 2021-2022 Overall Crystal Globe winner, ended her decorated career at the end of the 2022-2023 season. It turns out that the last two wins of her career came a couple of weeks earlier in Nové Městowhen she, like JT Bø, swept the Sprint and the Pursuit.
2020-2021 Men’s Sprint: This Sprint came down to one of the closest podium finishes in recent memory. Standing at the top of the podium was Simon Desthieux who, in the 2nd to last season of his career, won the first race of his career. He won his 2nd, and last, career races two weeks later in Oslo. Coming in second, just 2.2 seconds back was Sebastian Samuelsson. Then in third, just 2 seconds back of Samuelsson, was Arnd Peiffer, who that day climbed on to the last podium of his career. The following day in the Pursuit Desthieux held on to the podium, Peiffer finished 10th and Samuelsson finished 12th. You’ll be stunned to learn that 1-2 that day were Tarjei Bø and JT Bø.
2018-2019 Women’s Pursuit: When you want to introduce somebody to biathlon, you want to be able to show them a race like this. If you want to re-live it you can find it on youtube with the Russian commentary. (Hopefully we don’t draw so much attention to it that it gets taken down!). The set up to the Pursuit was the Sprint where Marte Olsbu Røiseland shot a perfect 10/10 and survived against Laura Dahlmeier who was 9/10 by a slim 4.5 seconds. Meanwhile Paulina Batovska-Fialkova was just 6.2 seconds back. It looked like this was going to be an absolutely awesome Pursuit. However, only one of these three women would survive the first two shootings and remain in the mix.
By the midpoint of the Pursuit the major players of the race had moved to the front. Marte Olsbu Røiseland was hanging on to a lead as Dorothea Wiere, the Overall Globe winner, had used perfect shooting and solid skiing to move from 9th to 2nd. Hanna Öberg meanwhile had followed her lead from 6th to 3rd. Unfortunately Dahlmeier and Batovska-Fialkova had tumbled out of contention.
After Røiseland suffered her first miss of the race on the 3rd shooting Wierer pounced and went into the lead. Hanna Öberg was just 6 seconds back and Røiseland was hanging just under 20 seconds back. After Wierer put in some solid work on lap 4 she held 11 seconds on Öberg and 25 seconds on Røiseland. That’s when things got really wild. If you want to see it click on the youtube link above and go to 1:23:20.
On the last shooting Wierer and Hanna Öberg, two of the fastest shooters in biathlon, froze. To be fair this was a very windy day. There was a heck of a crosswind at the start of the shooting that sagged and turned around in the middle of the shooting. Wierer and Öberg each went 4/5 with Wierer taking 49 seconds and Öberg 43 seconds. Røiseland meanwhile came in and let it fly. She went 4/5 as well but in just 20 seconds. Remarkably Røiseland, after coming on to the range down by 25 seconds, was actually the first one off the loop.R
Røiseland managed to fend off Dorothea Wierer at the very end winning by just 0.2 seconds in a thrilling race that came down to the very end. Hanna Öberg came home in a very respectable 3rd place.
Mild Predictions
– Johannes Thingnes Boe looked much stronger in Lenzerheide than he was at any other time this season. He brought home Sprint and Pursuit gold and Mass Start bronze. If he’s had another healthy two weeks I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retake Yellow this week in the men’s Overall race.
– It’s supposed to be warm and gross in Nove Mesto. That generally doesn’t do well for German athletes as their wax team has struggled with ski prep in those conditions. If that’s the case again this week Franziska Preuss is going to need to be perfect in her bid for the Overall Globe.
– Speaking of, the French generally have had very good ski prep including as we saw at the World Championships. It looks like an excellent week upcoming for Lou Jeanmonnot, Julia Simon, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Oceane Michelon and company.
– I’m hoping that the combination of it being the first week after Worlds, more heavy conditions, and possibly tricky shooting, will give us some unusual names in the top 10!