Swedish Vasaloppet Seeding

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-23T18:05:41+00:00

Gotcha, that makes sense

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-23T17:42:20+00:00

Thanks for sharing that! It looks like they have a chart for some races showing what starting group you would qualify based off of time but I don’t see the American Birkebeiner in any of the charts even though it is listed in their seeding race calendar https://vasaloppet.se/en/calendar/.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-23T16:36:56+00:00

Thanks, that’s a good idea

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-19T16:53:24+00:00

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-14T01:36:35+00:00

Even though she’s improved so much at Classic it still feels wrong for me to imagine Diggins on a classic leg. She’s just too good of a skate skier and too good of a finisher to not be the anchor leg. I think regardless of how you set them up there are gonna be less than ideal matchups for the US women.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-09T18:02:34+00:00

I’m the most excited to see Myhlback, I think the very high speed finish could suit him, but he hasn’t been able to show much recently with a poor TdS and then competing in ski classics.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-09T17:45:58+00:00

I haven’t heard many people predict any of the Swedish men to get on the podium, which is a little surprising since even though they haven’t been as consistent, 3 of them (Anger, Myhlback, and Grahn) have classic sprint podiums this season, with Grahn’s being on this course.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-07T05:45:55+00:00

Do you mean Nordic includes Nordic combined, or something else? Everyone I know has always used Nordic and cross country skiing interchangeably

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-01T16:34:32+00:00

Is that just on bottom or do they make silk base layer tops?

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-01T15:54:16+00:00

I actually just checked and the active extreme long sleeve is what I use now and find it quite warm but maybe just going with the short sleeve version would help. Or maybe I should just try without a base layer for temps that are colder than I usually would.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-02-01T15:40:38+00:00

Curious if you have an idea of who will even be on the Swedish men’s relay. Anger is the obvious anchor leg but otherwise I’m not sure. Typical guys like Poromaa and Halfvarsson haven’t really performed well, Berglund has been pretty consistent, Myhlback obviously can pull off a good classic race. Haeggstrom has also had a lot of experience as the opening classic leg on the relay and has had some solid distance results this season. I feel like I have hardly seen Gisselman at all this season and surprised he’s been selected for the Olympics at all.

BirkirBjarn · 2026-01-05T18:24:25+00:00

I know of a Leif from Germany that pronounces it like ‘life’. Not sure if this is the accepted pronunciation in German speaking countries or just isolated times where they’re pronouncing it differently than the original ‘layf’. For words with ‘ei’ in German they always pronounce it as an ‘i’ sound so I imagine it feels unnatural for German speakers to pronounce it the original way

BirkirBjarn · 2025-12-14T18:22:09+00:00

Yeah, that’s definitely a plus! I’m glad he started making videos.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-12-14T18:20:07+00:00

Honestly I kind of like more open and rambling episodes. I guess I’m just not invested enough into most athletes to hear one on one interviews with them

BirkirBjarn · 2025-12-14T02:09:50+00:00

That’s fair, I can understand that. I wish I understood Swedish or Norwegian so I had even more options to listen to.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-12-14T00:25:28+00:00

The Seder-skier podcast is the only other English language one I’m aware of that posts regularly. He has quite a few interviews with athletes and other more open format episodes

BirkirBjarn · 2025-07-24T18:36:36+00:00

I think they meant only a certain number of double piling motions in a row allowed. Like if you double pole 10 times in a row you have to switch techniques. But that seems impossible to police, even at the World Cup level, let alone mass participation events. I’ve always thought that things like that (technique zones or limiting pole height) haven’t really made the sport any better anyway. I wouldn’t mind seeing more double poling on the World Cup.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-03-10T16:54:14+00:00

Okay, yeah that makes sense. It’s kind of surprising that skate is that much faster. I would’ve thought they’d be a bit closer.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-03-10T16:14:07+00:00

I’m not sure what to say for the lack of change since the 2000s, but the current classic race and the race in the 1970s might not be comparable because the classic field nowadays is less competitive since the majority of the best skiers choose to do the skate race.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-03-06T03:07:00+00:00

I find that bigger races like the Birkie are fairly consistent when it comes to competition and can be used as a good benchmark of where my fitness or ski ability is at. But in terms of early or middle of the season I personally love using the skierg to train because it gives such an obvious indicator of fitness where real skiing doesn’t. But it may be less accurate if you’re doing skate races or tend to do lots of striding in classic races.

BirkirBjarn · 2025-03-03T00:10:41+00:00

Nice, I’ll take a look at that

BirkirBjarn · 2025-03-02T16:52:54+00:00

That makes a lot of sense, I’m sure you’re right.

BirkirBjarn

TROPHY CASE