Pokljuka 2024-2025 Preview

Schedule

– Thursday March 13th: Women’s 12.5km Short Individual + Men’s 15km Men’s Individual
– Saturday March 15th: Women’s 12.5km Mass Start + Men’s 15km Mass Start
– Sunday March 16th: Mixed Relay (W+M) + Single Mixed Relay (W+M)

Course Overview

The racing takes place at Zemljevid Stadium in Pokljuka, just outside of the city of Bled in Slovenia with the following listed statistics:
– Stadium altitude: 1345 meters
– Maximum altitude on course: 1378 meters
– Lowest altitude on course: 1339 meters
– Stadium capacity: 7000 spectators
– Course capacity: 8000 spectators

If you select each course below you will see the exact statistics for that course including the actual elevation change for each loop/course and the exact length. The courses are listed in the order in which we will see them:
– 2.5km: Women’s 12.5km Short Individual + Mass Start
– 3km: Men’s 15km Short Individual + Mass Start
– 2km: Mixed Relay
– 1.5km: Single Mixed Relay

Weather

Unfortunately, as of right now, the weather for the weekend looks just gross. Thankfully it’s a little closer to freezing, and should get below freezing at night. The wet weather is going to make the racing a potentially miserable experience. We’ve already seen that it has cut the Individual down to a Short Individual.

This type of rain/wet snow just soaks you to the bone. It’s going to be a real test of the will power out there. I’m not even going to hazard a guess as to who this might benefit or not as we really haven’t had much of this weather so far this season. The closest I can think of was the Women’s Mass Start in Annecy-le Grand Bornand where Selina Grotian and Franziska Preuss went 1-2. I don’t know if we can learn too much from that though. This is certainly going to be a different kind of weekend than we have seen so far though, at least form a weather perspective.

News and Notes

1) 🇳🇴 Norway Roster Developments – Big announcement in the Norwegian team was that the roster expands to 8 for Pokljuka. They are still only starting 6 in the Short Individual but they are bringing 8. The BIG news is that the two coming up are rising superstar Isak Frey along with Johannes Dale-Skjevdal. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen was so upset at not being selected that he went home.

Christiansen has had rough couple of years in his relationship with the Norwegian coaching and federation. It started when he was sat out for Oberhof last season. He was unhappy again at being sat in Oberhof. This seems to be the most upset that he’s been with the staff. In a statement he specifically indicated that this has been damaging to his mental health. My sincere hope is that he uses this as fuel to come back for a big 2025-2026 season!

2) Illness and Injury
– 🇸🇪 Elvira Oeberg will be back…but only for the Mass Start. Regardless it’s great to have her back!
– 🇦🇹 Anna Gandler will not be back. She is going to be replaced by Anna Andexer who is coming off her Junior Worlds Sprint 🥇!

Women’s Individual Globe

Athlete	Individual Globe Score
Lou Jeanmonnot 🇫🇷	180
Franziska Preuss 🇩🇪	125
Ella Halvarsson 🇸🇪	109
Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪	106
Oceane Michelon 🇫🇷	96

Men’s Individual Globe

Athlete	Individual Globe Score
Endre Stroemsehim 🇳🇴	113
Vebjoern Soerum 🇳🇴	90
Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴	90
Emilien Claude 🇫🇷	85
Niklas Hartweg 🇨🇭	79
Johannes Thingnes Boe 🇳🇴	75
Eric Perrot 🇫🇷	74
Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷	67
Fabien Claude 🇫🇷	66

Women’s Nation’s Cup

1) 🇫🇷 France 7840
France is so far and away in the lead that they basically already have it all wrapped up.

5) 🇨🇭 Switzerland 5955
6) 🇮🇹 Italy (-96)
The top 5 teams will have 6 starting bibs for the 2025-2026 season. It’s a pretty close race between Switzerland and Italy. Switzerland has made a little surge lately to take the lead in this race. Sentimentally it would be nice for Italy to have 6 bibs for their Olympic season (although it doesn’t actually affect Olympic starters). However, I’ll be happy however this plays out!

8) 🇺🇦 Ukraine (+141)
9) 🇨🇿 Czechia (+127)
10) 🇫🇮 Finland 5057
11) 🇵🇱 Poland (-66)
Teams 6-10 will get 5 starting bibs for the 2025-2026 season while everybody outside the top 10 gets 4 bibs, so this is a really important battle. It looked like Ukraine was safe but their poor showing in the Nove Mesto relay put them in danger again. I’m going to feel for which ever teams finishes in 11th and just misses out on the extra bib. I’m hoping they all perform well to the close!

Men’s Nation’s Cup

1) 🇫🇷 France 7844
2) 🇳🇴 Norway (-184)
The battle for the top spot remains close but France’s relay victories continue to push them towards the Nations Cup title.

5) 🇨🇭 Switzerland 5852
6) 🇮🇹 Italy (-59)
7) 🇨🇿 Czechia (-197)
The top 5 teams will have 6 starting bibs for the 2025-2026 season. It’s a pretty close race between Switzerland and Italy. Right now Italy is relying on some big points from Tommaso Giacomel while Switzerland is getting a little more help from it’s 2nd and 3rd finishers lately.

10) 🇫🇮 Finland 5238
11) 🇦🇹 Austria (-126)
Teams 6-10 will get 5 starting bibs for the 2025-2026 season while everybody outside the top 10 gets 4 bibs, so this is a really important battle.

Recent History

Women’s Top 5 Finishers Last 3 Competition (Goes back to 2018-2019 season)

Athlete	Finishes
Dorothea Wierer 🇮🇹	🥈🥈🥈🥉, 4
Market Davidova 🇨🇿	🥇🥉, 5, 5
Paulina Batovska-Fialkova 🇸🇰	🥉, 4, 4, 4
Lisa Vittozzi 🇮🇹	4, 5, 5, 5
Lisa Theresa Hauser 🇦🇹	🥇🥈, 4
Julia Simon 🇫🇷	🥈🥉, 4
Elvira Oeberg 🇸🇪	🥇🥇
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold 🇳🇴	🥈🥉
Yulia Dzhima 🇺🇦	🥇
Hanna Oeberg 🇸🇪	🥈
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet 🇫🇷	🥉
Franziska Preuss 🇩🇪	5
Baiba Bendika 🇱🇻	5

Men’s Top 5 Finishers Last 3 Competitions (Goes back to 2018-2019 season)

Athlete	Finishes
Johannes Thingnes Boe 🇳🇴	🥇🥇🥇🥇🥉, 5, 5
Quentin Fillon Maillet 🇫🇷	🥈🥈🥉, 4, 4
Sturla Holm Laegreid 🇳🇴	🥇🥇🥉, 4
Tarjei Boe 🇳🇴	🥈🥉, 4
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal 🇳🇴	🥈🥉, 4
Simon Eder 🇦🇹	🥉4, 4
Emilien Jacquelin 🇫🇷	🥇🥉
Jakov Fak 🇸🇮	4, 5
Martin Ponsiluoma 🇸🇪	🥇
Sebastian Samuelsson 🇸🇪	🥈
Johannes Kuehn 🇩🇪	5
Michal Krcmar 🇨🇿	5
Tommaso Giacomel 🇮🇹	5

Recent Memorable Moments/Performances

We visit Pokljuka only a few times per decade so we really haven’t had that many recent performances to look at. Add to that not a huge amount of drama in some of these races and it’s a slim list.

2023 Women’s Sprint: What a phenomenal race this was. We saw three of the best women having great races all at the same time. Elvira Oeberg, Julia Simon, and Dorothea Wierer all went clean (on a day with actually really good shooting all around) and all raced well. Elvira Oeberg ended up the fastest woman on the day as she sprinted to the win beating out Julia Simon by just 6.9 seconds. Dorothea Wierer finished +18. Just to show you how fast Lou Jeanmonnot has gotten good, she finished 10/10 and was +52.2 and tied for 10th with Mari Eder. What a magnificent rise she has had!

Two days later Elvira Oeberg completed the Sprint/Pursuit double win. At that moment she was within 21 points of Julia Simon for the lead in the Overall race. That’s as close as the race would be the rest of the way as Simon had a fantastic week in Ruhpolding finishing 3rd in the Individual and won the Mass Start.

2021 Worlds Mixed Relay: While it was won by Norway in relatively strong fashion, the story for most was the amazing shooting of the Austrian team. The group of David Komatz, Simon Eder, Dunja Zdouc, and Lisa Hauser had just two extra rounds the entire race. They were able to battle their way to the silver medal!

2021 Worlds Men’s Pursuit: The crowning achievement of Emilien Jacquelin’s career to date was his World Championship in the Pursuit! He started the day in 3rd after taking bronze in the Sprint and went out and had a perfect day. Literally perfect as he was 20/20. It kept him in front of a powerful podium that included Sebastian Samuelsson and JT Boe. That race came down to the very end as Samuelsson held off JT Boe by just 0.8 seconds in the end! This is certainly a moment to remember in our ever evolving relationship with Emilien Jacquelin!

2021 Women’s Relay: This was a crazy day. We can jump straight to the final exchange when the Norwegian team was clinging to a slim 9 second lead on Belarus, and the Polish women were putting up a great fight holding 3rd at +10 seconds. Roeiseland put in a good lap one and was able to hold Kruchinkina at bay and put a gap on Anna Maka. But after a tough shoot the lead collapsed for Roeiseland.

Heading to the 2nd lap there were six teams within 27 seconds including Ukraine, Norway, Poland, Belarus, Germany, and Sweden with France a few seconds further adrift. Late in the 4th leg that’s crazy tight! By the time it came to the final shoot of the day it was Marte Olsbu Roeiseland holding the lead with Olena Bilosiuk right behind her. Elena Kruchinkina, Anna Maka, and Franziska Preuss were all within 16 seconds. That’s a dream for a relay.

Ultimately Roeiseland had 1 extra round and pulled away for the win. Franziska Preuss was clean and got Germany into the silver medal. Olena Bilosiuk came home with a strong bronze medal for Ukraine. It was an absolutely wild relay day! Go watch it when you get a chance!

Mild Predictions

I honestly have no idea. The weather looks so gross. The course looks rough even though the crew is doing everything they can. However, there is no way to predict how things are going to go on a course like this. No way of knowing who is going to nail the ski prep. No way of knowing who is going to have the legs at this point.

If I had to guess I think the switch from an Individual to Short Individual actually benefits Sturla Holm Laegreid and Franziska Preuss in their efforts to take the Overall. But who knows at this point.

Let’s just hope and these athletes are able to compete in relatively fair conditions and give us a good show!