The magnificent icing on the cake? After an extremely complicated last season where he had to give up his throne in the World Cup to Johannes Boe while finishing on failed Worlds and without the slightest medal, Martin Fourcade found smile and performance. To the point of appearing as leader of the World Cup seven events from the end. What offer him great prospects to resume his place at the top of the hierarchy and win an 8th big crystal Globe. Even if he knows all the difficulty of the task that awaits him against a formidable Norwegian rival: “Today, we find ourselves 50/50 in this race for the big Globe. Admittedly, I have a small lead but it will be tight. If he wins all the races and I am second every time, that may be enough. Except that it won't happen that way. He won't win everything and I won't be second all the time. It will really be necessary to develop a high level of performance and to look for very nice places. I shouldn't just play behind him because that won't be enough. ”
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Mathematically, his lead is comfortable with 98 points ahead (788 units for the French against 690 for the Norwegian), knowing that a victory earns 60. Except that this difference does not take into account the regulations which, at the 'end of the season, cut off the points of the two worst results. For Boe, who missed four tests when his wife gave birth to their first child, this means that his total remains unchanged. On the other hand, for Fourcade, it is necessary to subtract 60 points from its total, which would be established at the same time at 728. So his lead, real, is only 38 points. At the same time significant, but also fragile while the first of the last three stages will take place behind closed doors, on the side of Nove Mesto. With two individual races on the program: a sprint this Friday (5.30 p.m.) and a mass start (1.45 p.m.).
Inconsistency continues with # COVID19. Czech fans cannot attend to @biathlonNMNM while there is no problem for the whole biathlon caravan to travel there in spite of the fact we were all in Italy less than 14 days ago (7) ... https://t.co/8Se0NkpYzT
- Martin Fourcade (@martinfkde) March 2, 2020Impressive since the start of the shooting season, where he found his sniper qualities, Fourcade also returned to an excellent level on skis. Probably not the one that allowed him to reign over the discipline as an absolute monarch for seven seasons in a row. But not very far, which allows him to fight eye to eye with a Boe still as impressive, and a Quentin Fillon Maillet who only asks to take the light. But it is especially on the mental level that Fourcade knew how to turn its back on a previous extremely painful exercise, which he expressed with emotion a fortnight ago, after having conquered an 11th world title in individual, record of Ole Einar Björndalen equaled: “I struggled last year, I suffered, I took a lot on myself. It's never funny when you're at the front of the stage not being able to do what is expected of us. I was so lucky that my first 10 years of my career were a dream. I won a lot and when I did not win, I managed to bounce back. This world collapsed last year. ” But it could be reborn by March 22, the date of the finals in Oslo…
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