Irene SCHOUTEN (NED) | Winner | Mass Start W | Calgary |

[@marialidiana9516]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏❤

[@nellynelson965]

dont matter how many times I watch this event I cant see the point of the middle 14 laps.

[@bigpapahugetime7134]

So there’s some strategy not just best sprinter wins

[@hermanmertens8383]

Two answers: one is strategy (eating out of the plate of your opponent, team mate cooperation, so matter of reading the game!) and two: by winning intermediate sprints you can earn points for classification. Never enough to beat the winner of the final sprint, but possible enough to become second or third, even with a lower result in the final sprint.

[@maasro]

With that many riders, a two lap sprint would be highly affected by the start order. Also it would be an open invitation for even more brawling. Finally, it would be a one minute event, not really warranting the travelling, freezing of the ice and other cost and effort involved.

[@maasro]

And one more thing, this event was introduced by the ISU with replacement of the longest distance (5k women, 10k men) in mind. The idea is that replacing a long distance event with another long distance event will reduce the resistance to the eventual elimination of that distance in a few years.

[@maasro]

​@@hermanmertens8383 The top three is 100% decided by the position in the final sprint. There are not enough points in the intermediate sprints to even gap the difference in points between third and fourth spot at the final sprint. I admit, it would be way cooler if they doubled the distance and number of intermediate sprints, lowered the number of points at the final sprint and gave points for lapping, like in the track cycling madison event, but those are not the rules.

[@basvanrhee]

Samenvatting: Ze vertrekken allemaal gelijk en dan wint Irene Schouten… 😂