Speed Skating

sonny73

Anyone else been watching it? I have watched it in the Olympics before but been really getting in to it this time round and have to say the racing is quality to watch.

Harry B

Yep, enjoyed it last night. It seems quite similar to track cycling. It also seems just as punishing on the legs :?

Pross

are we talking long track or short track here? I love the action of short track but always used to fancy that I'd be a good long track skater

Monty Dog

Long track is 'real' speed skating IMO and many of the top racers are pretty handy on a bike too. Chad Hedrick who got a bronze in the 1000m is a skating legend - on ice and inline.
I've done some inline speed skating and can attest to how hard it is on the legs on the lungs - these guys are doing in excess of 50kph and their heart-rates are at the maximum for what looks like minimal effort.
If you seriously want to improve your quad and core body strength, speed skating is a great cross-over workout. I did the Inline 111 in Switzerland in 2008 - 114km on skates in a shade over 4 hours with some serious downhills is a tough proposition.

sonny73

Long Track all the way for sure, a classic sport!!

Pross

Is there anywhere in the UK where you can do proper speed skating? I'm assuming we don't have any rinks big enough. I know a lot of cyclists used to do cross country skiing in the off season.

JLM74

I like it. Physically demanding and pretty unforgiving if you get things wrong.

Eddy S

The short track hasn’t inspired me much but the long track has been cracking!

The women’s 1000m yesterday was great racing down to the last pair. Sadly had to miss the men’s 500m – with all of the problems and delays with ice prep after the 1st group, I just couldn’t stay up that late with work the next day. A real shame as I favour the sprint events.

Monty Dog wrote:

... and many of the top racers are pretty handy on a bike too.

Handy? Jan Bos rode the Team Sprint with his brother Theo and Teun Mulder at the Athens Olympics as just one example of "handy".

Pross wrote:

Is there anywhere in the UK where you can do proper speed skating?

Sadly we don’t have a long track facility in the UK – if we did I would have a serious problem with prioritising between cycling and skating! 8) Holland is the closest.

But don’t dismiss short track – it’s proper speed skating too (I used to race short track in a previous life) - it’s just a slight variation on the technique and obviously the racing is whole different kettle of fish.

rick_chasey

Hi Guys.

Long time stalker of the site - keen roadie. Have been kept well informed on what I should be doing on my bike here!

Happen to follow skating a fair bit through Dutch coverage, and someone mentioned the problems with the icers, so I thought i'd chip in.

It's become a bit of a national scandal in Holland - who take their speed skating very seriously!

The olympic people haven't used any well known makes for the icers that are used at the top class venues. They have 3 icers, two of which broke, and the third which was in reserve wasn't ice ready, so it put a load of shit onto the ice!

The guy in charge of the ice in the city was saying how bad the ice was. When Kramer celebreated his 5km victory, had he slid accross the ice like he had in Holland he'd have slipped over!

Bad ice is bad for the Dutch because they rely more heavily on technique, unlike those damn ugly american canadian and italian skaters.

Sven Kramer all the way!

JLM74

Rick Chasey wrote:

Bad ice is bad for the Dutch because they rely more heavily on technique, unlike those damn ugly american canadian and italian skaters.!

You clearly know more about this that I do, but two Dutch skaters only lost out to Nesbitt by the narrowest of margins.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic ... 523179.stm

Pross

But don’t dismiss short track – it’s proper speed skating too (I used to race short track in a previous life) - it’s just a slight variation on the technique and obviously the racing is whole different kettle of fish

So is that short track as in a short track version of the long track racing or the 4 man short track racing they do at the Games? I don't fancy the 4 man version as much. Do they do racing at most UK rinks then or are there just a few clubs dotted around? I'm pretty fast in a straight line but the corners are my problem hence the preferrence for trying long track

My daughter was approached to take up figure skating when on a public session at our local rink (seems to have got the sporting ability I wished I'd had!) so maybe I should take her along and check out the speed skating scene there :?

rick_chasey

JLM74


It's Canadian conspiracy!

JLM74

rick_chasey

*thumbs up*

Bikerbaboon

I was watching the short track yesterday... i think it was the 500m sprints.. so i was doing interval sprints along with them, going max for each race and then relaxing. They then jumped to the mens relay that went on for 6+ min it killed me.

looked like a cracking sport if the weather gets any colder i may even beable to commute by skate.

rick_chasey

Short track is for losers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4ZJLGE4As

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht

Skating for proper men!

A good ride route on the bike in the summer too!

hammerite

I think the GB team do a lot of their training in Nottingham. Not sure whether they race at other UK rinks.

My ski instructor on my last holiday was Dutch, he said he was going home to do a 26 mile skating race, not sure what he called it, but probably short in comparison to that one Rick.

Eddy S

Pross wrote:

So is that short track as in a short track version of the long track racing or the 4 man short track racing they do at the Games? I don't fancy the 4 man version as much. Do they do racing at most UK rinks then or are there just a few clubs dotted around?

All short track is as per the racing you've watch from the Games.

There are only appears to be a handful of clubs racing at an equally small amount of rinks these days. I have 4 rinks within 40-50 miles of me and none of them support short track so it depends where you are.

Pross

Cardiff's my nearest rink but Bristol is fairly close too.

Eddy S

Your closest ice speed club is at Solihull rink in that case.

Monty Dog

Short track uses a conventional ice / hockey rink whereas a long track rink is 400m. There's quite a history of speed skating in East Anglia - particulary when the Fens freeze over - but not quite on the scale of the 'marathon' events they have in the Netherlands like Elfstedentocht - 11 cities tour - where they use the canal network for 200km at an average of nearly 30kph.

kilo

Monty Dog wrote:

Long track is 'real' speed skating IMO and many of the top racers are pretty handy on a bike too.

For those too young to remeber him;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Heiden

Olympic gold medalist on ice and rode the TdeF

dag_on_a_bike

Harry B wrote:

Yep, enjoyed it last night. It seems quite similar to track cycling. It also seems just as punishing on the legs :?

That'll probably explain why an uncle of mine used to ride track as well as speed skate.

rick_chasey

*float*

For those of you who are following the speed skating, tonight is the Men's 10km - the furthest distance in the olympics.

Naturally Sven Kramer is the favourite.



He also happens to be the boyfriend of a member of the Dutch hockey team.

Alright for some.

seemunkee

kilo wrote:

For those too young to remeber him;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Heiden

Olympic gold medalist on ice and rode the TdeF

He's working as the team doctor for the US speedskating team at the Olympics. His sister was pretty damn good too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Heiden

rick_chasey

Well Sven managed to skate 2 inside tracks in a row, which got him disqualified.

He'd have won it had he not done it, but alas.

Apparantly the coach told him to go inside.

Lul!

Le Commentateur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NL&hl=nl&v=yKtRSc-nkMM

realALBERTAN

JLM74 wrote:

FU

realALBERTAN

kilo wrote:

Monty Dog wrote:

Long track is 'real' speed skating IMO and many of the top racers are pretty handy on a bike too.

For those too young to remeber him;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Heiden

Olympic gold medalist on ice and rode the TdeF

so is clara...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Hughes

realALBERTAN

seriously though, I have given some thought of racing masters long track... I guess my ankles would adapt to the skates... I have tried them before and its like they stuck bades on the bottom of a pair of shoes. I am used to wearing hockey skates.

Besides Canada now has tied the most gold medals by a host nation at 10. We have 3 more final events where it's gold or silver, including Mens Pursuit.

http://www.calgaryspeedskating.com/down ... 202008.pdf

Eddy S

I missed the live broadcast of the Team Pursuit finals because I was at Revolution last night but have just caught up with the recording from last night's highlights programme.

What a great end to the long track – both men’s and women’s A and B finals were absolute crackers! Worth catching up with if you’re in to this 8)