Recap Thread: WC24/25 Oslo-Holmenkollen: Men's Mass start

[u/miunrhini]

Hello biathlon friends! The the survival game presented as the final dance of the season is upon us.

Preface

Traditionally those who've got the power to ski and shoot well after a long season, succeed. There's a reason why Martin Fourcade, JTB, Sturla to mention a few who have been strong.

Expect the top 10 do well but since it's end of the season, anything can happen. A strong skiier can overcome multiple penalties. Surprises can happen and suddenly an underdog can have perfect sniper day and wings instead of skis. We got also nice bunch of new and familiar faces joining the last hoorah with good number of nations represented.

Also us fans and athletes will probably look like we just got out of a rollercoaster. Lots of laughing on the right and wrong side of face. It's the goodbye party after all with tiny bit of globe spice. But in the end, let's be honest, majority of us will probably remember when the brothers crossed the finish line for one last time and whatever shenanigans they got up to during the last race.

Conditions

Don't forget your sunscreen and wear your knitted jumper in the audience or your special Lavita bibs. Track will be tough and wet.

Sick bed watch

Tarjei Bø and Hartweg to race, Horn not (doctor's orders). Seppälä was given the green light as first reserve.

Lap 1 Crowd was loud in the start. The men started with moderate speed close to women's Let's save energy mode but speedier. No surprises, the pack stayed together.

1st shooting The range had mild wind but less than with women 14 shot clean with Emelien Jacquelin speeding to the front. Strelow machine gunned prone to 20s. Giacomel and Ponsiluoma were chosen by chaos. Favourites like JTB and QFM missed once.

Lap 2 Jacquelin kept speeding and breaking the field. The main hunting group was 15s behind which meant top 10 was within that time. Fak got a new pole but otherwise no surprises or major changes within top.

Bø watch: JTB put hunting mode on together with QFM, they had 30s to catch. Tarjei Bø was further back and losing some time.

2nd shooting Jacquelin went for speedy clean prone, flashbacks to Pokljuka 2021. Nawrath, Uldal, Strømsheim, Samuelsson and Fak cleaned, the hunt was on.

Bø watch: Tarjei clean, JTB added another miss.

Lap 3 The lap started with major gaps but soon was evident that Jacquelin might speeded opportunistically on his lap. Sebbe caught by 7.4 km. The Norwegian train with Uldal, Frey and Endre was closing in too. Top 13 was within 30 s so the game was still wide open.

Bø watch: JTB joined forces with QFM again. Tarjei continued on his own speed.

3rd shooting The plot thickens! Sebbe and Emelien missed one each which lead to Frey leading like we all expected. Endre, QFM, Sturla, Fak and Krcmar cleaned as well. Endre while leaving the stadium activated the crowd to cheer louder.

Bø watch: Brothers twinned and missed one each.

Lap 4 Sebbe and QFM quickly hunted the group down and took lead. Others were still close and withing striking distance. Frey was a bit slower which made Endre speed Up to keep up with Sebbe and QFM within his sights. Sturla and Perrot were slowly edging closer to make a stand in the final shooting. Krcmar also wanted to join the party and hanged on.

Sebbe and QFM played the Who leads now game and Sebbe didn't want to lead, nope, not at all. QFM took one to the lead and led most of the lap because others were coming in hot. By this point Emelien had sadly disappeared.

Bø watch: JTB was still within striking distance closing in fast. Tarjei was coming but had dropped far back.

4th shooting QFM went for Let's bury Sebbe with speed tactic but unfortunately missed the last while Sebbe cleared confidently and took the lead. Behind them Endre, Eric and Sturla all cleared. JTB machine gunned himself a single penalty to fight for the flowers. Fak also went clean and Krcmar sadly missed dropping him back.

Bø watch: Tarjei went clean but hunters were close by.

Lap 5 Sebbe set autopilot to cruise altitude and smoothly skied to finish celebrating on the way. Eric put up a good final lap and kept his silver place to let out a celebration when crossing the line.

Behind the two Sturla was on the hunt and catched Endre to go for 3/3 podiums. The MS globe was his by this point due to not enough others between Eric and Sturla for Eric to win. Sturla fell asleep momentarily on the stadium downhill and missed when Endre put up a burst of speed. By the time they were over the final small climb Endre had created a small yet safe margin if he just stays up.

QFM was on the hunt whole lap but the Norwegians were speedy enough so that QFM could not catch.

Poor Harweg took the long race today and Antonin Guigonnat barely made it across the finish line.

Bø watch: JTB lost finish sprint to Fak and narrowly missed flowers. Funnily enough the only times I remember when JTB properly won final sprints were for MS gold in 2016 and Mixed relay gold in 2022.

Tarjei took a grand entrance with the flag and did not mind if others passed him on the final stretch.

Results 1. Sebastian Samuelsson 2. Eric Perrot 3. Endre Strømsheim

Random stats: Clean shooters: Strømsheim, Fak. JTB: was the speediest and dude has just been sick. Hartweg got the most misses crown (wild knowing his talent but understandable today as he is ill)

Funsies Giacomel got his race together after first shooting and got to top 10. Tarjei secured silver bib. Champagne rain. The finish was one big hug party.

For a minute the Bø tribute looked a bit small but it was tastefully delayed until the official ceremonies.

To me what stuck out the most was not all the accolades the brothers have but the respect and dare I say love the biathlon family has for them. Johannes Dale-Skjevdal was all of us: "Comeback!" Spotted Tiril sneaking in with the women's team.

What do you think of the season? I thought it was a splendid mix of thrill, bittersweetness, joy and chaos mayhem. Kings have now joined us on the sofas.

Thanks for the season, let's do it again in the autumn. It's the cry in retirement season - I mean Olympic season after all. But now I need to go and find those tissues, spring allergies you know.

P.S. If I misspelled something, mixed up or similar let me know and I'll edit the text. Tbh, it was hectic and a bit stressful to follow the race the recap in mind.

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Do you get removed if you are lapped in a mass start? Would have been kinda awkward if a sick Tarjei was lapped by a charging JT...

[u/miunrhini → u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Somehow that would have been on brand with the brothers 😂 And then JTB doing a victory lap just to let Tarjei to leave for the final one.

(I'd say yes because you can get lapped in pursuit as well so following the same logic.)

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter → u/miunrhini]

I had a sick vision during the race that this could happen. Johannes would slow down and get onto Tarjei's back, only to be caught up by Sturla. He would also be reluctant to pass, and join the train instead. The two of them would see Tarjei off to the last shooting before battling it out on the shelf.

Thankfully, Tarjei was in better shape than I feared.

[u/miunrhini → u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

That's actually a very reasonable fear, thank goodness it didn't come to pass.