<![CDATA[World Cup Men’s Bobsled, November 9 at Lake Placid]]>As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were two runs of men’s bobsled at the Lake Placid World Cup. The first was on Thursday, November 9, in the early evening, and was quite chilly. The second was the following day, in mid-afternoon, in extremely cold temperatures (at least by my standards). Although I had paid for a ticket to Friday’s events, I decided that it was simply too cold for me to be out there and drove home, skipping not only the bobsled (which I was honestly planning on skipping anyway) but also the men’s skeleton, scheduled for 8:30 AM (air temperature 11°F). So this photo gallery is my final one from the BMW IBSF World Cup 2017–2018 from Lake Placid (or indeed from any venue).

By the time the men’s bobsled rolled around, I had already taken over a thousand photos and was close to running out of space on my SD card. I chose not to take any photos during the first heat, so the following pictures from heat two do not show all of the 27 entrants, just the twenty top-ranking sleds. (Assuming I didn’t miss anyone, of course — and speaking of that, if I’ve misidentified anyone, comments are open as always.)

One of the forerunners walks around in the finish area, waiting for the other forerunners to get to the bottom and the track to be declared ready for competition to resume

Forerunner, again

Some of the hardy fans in the finish area, along with some USABS people (not sure if these were athletes not in the competition or staff members or both)

Another bobsled scabbard line-up. At center, the forerunner carries a skeleton sled to the truck that will transport it back up to the start of the track for the next race.

Rudy Rinaldi/Boris Vain (MON)
T-19th in first run
13th in second run
15th overall

Ivo de Bruin/Bror van der Zijde (NED)
T-19th in first run
20th in second run
20th overall

Bradley Hall/Toby Olubi (GBR)
18th in first run
19th in second run
19th overall

Alexey Stulnev/Ilya Malykh (RUS)
T-15th in first run
18th in second run
18th overall

Johannes Lochner/Christian Rasp (GER)
T-15th in first run
9th in second run
12th overall

Johannes Lochner/Christian Rasp (GER)

Ugis Zalims/Intars Dambis (LAT)
T-15th in first run
15th in second run
17th overall

The Latvian men definitely get the award for “most butt cleavage in a speed suit”.

Nick Poloniato/Neville Wright (CAN)
14th in first run
11th in second run
13th overall

Francesco Friedrich/Thorsten Margis (GER)
T-12th in first run
6th in second run
9th overall

Friedrich/Margis accept congratulations from Benjamin Maier/Markus Sammer (AUT)
T-12th in first run
16th in second run
16th overall

Oskars Melbardis/Daumants Drieskens (LAT)
11th in first run
16th in second run
14th overall

Oskars Melbardis/Daumants Drieskens (LAT)

Melbardis/Drieskens (LAT) congratulate Friedrich/Margis (GER)

Friedrich and Margis (GER) still waiting in the leader’s box

Chris Spring/Alexander Kopacz (CAN)
10th in first run
4th in second run
7th overall

Alexander Kasjanov/Alexei Pushkarev (RUS)
9th in first run
14th in second run
11th overall

Yunjong Won/Youngwoo Seo (KOR)
8th in first run
12th in second run
10th overall

Finish area, late in the evening

Oskars Kibermanis/Matiss Miknis (LAT)
7th in first run
8th in second run
8th overall

Kibermanis/Miknis (LAT) congratulate Spring/Kopacz (CAN)

Codie Bascue/Carlo Valdes (USA)
6th in first run
won second run
3rd overall

On the finish area TV monitor, Codie Bascue and Carlo Valdes (USA) watch as another sled comes into the finish behind their time.

Justin Kripps/Jesse Lumsden (CAN)
4th in first run
5th in second run
4th overall

Justin Kripps/Jesse Lumsden (CAN)

Justin Olsen/Steven Langton (USA)
4th in first run
7th in second run
6th overall

Nick Cunningham/Ryan Bailey (USA)
3rd in first run
3rd in second run
2nd overall

Rico Peter/Simon Friedly (SUI)
2nd in first run
9th in second run
5th overall

Cunningham and Bailey (USA) watch the final sled down to see if they will remain in first place or take the silver medal.

Nico Walther/Christian Poser (GER)
1st in first run
2nd in second run
overall winner

And that is it for my trip to Lake Placid. I’m writing this in San Antonio now, where I didn’t take any pictures, but hopefully I’ll be back with some long-promised other stuff soon after Thanksgiving.

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