Valby lost b/c she was horrible with the tangents

Not sure why you felt the need to make up the part about Tuohy not being tired. Tuohy herself said she was totally exhausted.

You don't have to look tired to be tired. The only time she's looked tired was in her final NXN. She will openly admit if she was barely hanging on when asked about it after races. She did the same thing at to 5000 championship in the spring where she said she was exhausted from catching up and holding on for dear life, but she "looked" like she was fine when she crossed the finish line.

With her injury history, that's probably why she chose to not cut them too close.
Not being injured is more important than gaining a few yards.

The opposite is true too. Some runners' faces look like they are in pain for most of the race. You can't always tell how they are really feeling just by looking at a runner's face.

Did you even watch the video? She missed one turn. She ran all the other tangents

This thread is BS.

You’re wrong. You rewatch.

I just did. Cut the BS.

Yes the thread is silly BUT…a couple points worth addressing. Anyone who comments negatively on Valby’s intelligence is ignorant. Albert Einstein was a dude that got lost and maybe had poor visual-spatial skills but he was probably smarter than anyone who has posted here. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Also do not blame the coach.

Another point is that if this is a weakness of yours as an athlete, one strategy would be to fasten yourself to another runner or pack for a good part of the race so as to mitigate against this potential disadvantage. Of course this needs to be weighed against the cons of a front runner potentially getting outkicked. There is no obvious right answer and hindsight is almost 20/20 but maybe not quite based on this thread. Also these are college kids so cut them some slack and notice that the runner gals seem to be so much better behaved than their message board fans.

Like Parker Valby, you also obviously don't understand what it means to run the tangents. That is the only possible explanation for your incorrect claim that "she ran all the other tangents."

Have we started a thread yet to discuss whether congratulated each one another or the other competitors after the race? I need to rewatch the ending. :)

Cut the BS.

Of course there is no logic to calculating the tangents as I described. The whole point of my post was to show that sole ski in no way did what you explained. Instead, he just made up a number that conveniently showed that Valby would have won the race by four seconds if she ran the tangents instead of losing by three.

I just rewatched too so here’s what I saw:

the obvious blunder in the oxbow turn lap one.

Every time she would go through the “S” sections she followed the cart, which followed the “s” shape while everyone else took a straight line through them. There is an excellent aerial shot towards the end where KT makes significant ground up because of this.

there were many corners she was closer to the apex but there was not a single frame of the race where I saw her hugging the line like KT was while chasing. She was always at least 2-3yards away from the most inside route.

When KT passed her, she passed her on the INSIDE of a turn.

we can debate all we want about how much this cost her, but the reality is, this was more than one blunder caught on camera, it was the whole race.

Also, if I’ve got a gap in a national championship race I’m shouldering spectators while I cut every corner I possibly can.

Yes that is the conventional wisdom. And that is what I heard from the "experts". But when I watch other elite races usually the winners are more patient and take their rivals with them. They push the pace later when the doubts start to come. Once they drop it is pretty rare that they come back. In this case the rival let her go believing she could get her later in the last 2k. Running the tangents was also a factor since she could have put more ground between her and Tuohy only of course had Tuohy let her.

no one. literally no one. citius mag, even Isaac wood who had valby ranked #1 preseason before anyone else, has said they do not believe it would have made a difference and too much is made of this. she did fine on the tangents, this thread is quite silly.

I think most of us making the point agree KT was PROBABLY going to win regardless, because her strategy was to let her dangle out front and then chase her down when she felt ready to do so. (Although there were a few turns where KT made up huge ground, so there is legitimate debate that KT would’ve needed to make the move earlier if Valby was hitting turns like Verstappen out there).

However, to say it’s no biggy for an elite level racer, of any discipline, to not understand how to take turns is straight up ludicrous!!!!! I will never be convinced otherwise.

If she never gets this figured out I GUARANTEE she will lose a race in the final turn as someone takes the inside line and this thread will come back from the dead and we can all laugh at you folks making excuses for her not understanding an important skill.