There were some strong free dances and a lot of rough rhythm dances at Rostelecom, and we get frustrated over Finnstep interruptions and twizzle connections, are relieved and optimistic about Gilles and Poirier avoiding major mistakes so far this season, and are very intrigued by the battles for the Spanish ice dance gold and the Russian ice dance bronze coming up this year.

The penultimate Grand Prix event of the season was a pretty strong one across all disciplines, but we begin with the pairs, a very exciting field with a few surprises thrown in. We discuss the overall state of Russian pairs and speculate as to what might happen for a number of teams at Europeans, advise some teams to visit seminars or other coaches to work on their twist technique, and get excited for the future of a number of young teams at this event.

We wrap up our Cup of China recap with our highlight - the pairs! We gush once again about Sui and Han and their amazing free skate, discuss what can be done to try to help Ryom and Kim to make it to more international competitions, and lament the varying levels of depth at the different Grand Prixs this season.

The men at Cup of China had their ups and downs, and we discuss the full event, including our excitement over the amazing comeback of Han Yan, the guys who we think need to take a bit of a break right now to come back stronger later, and why skaters at this level shouldn't try to rely too much on figure standing for their choreography.

We continue our Cup of China recap with the ladies, which had a whole bunch of last minute replacements to make for a bit of a rough event. We discuss why a successful program can be the worst thing for your focus on the jumps later on, the many skaters struggling with growth and Lutz technique, and how Tuktamysheva can improve her component scores.

Cup of China is back after a year off, and we begin our recap with dance, which went okay, but we still have things to gripe about. We discuss some kind tech calling on the Finnstep, the vast improvement the Chinese dance teams have made in the last few years, and why if we were in charge of the ISU, our first order of business would be to bring back the compulsory dance segment.

The dance event at this Grand Prix was an interesting one in a lot of ways, and we go into a lot of dance related tangents as we discuss the Finnstep's difficult key points and how they've changed, the skaters who need to fully commit to their costuming in the rhythm dance, and how in awe we are of Guignard and Fabbri for their set of skates here with his hand in a serious brace.

The ladies event at Grand Prix France was a mixed bag, but we were able to get excited about Kostornaia's win and a few other fun skates, and we discuss the struggles faced by a whole bunch of the skaters here due to injury, growth, and ice conditions, and the options skaters have when they're in a tough field like Russia or Japan and the jumps don't come as easily as they used to.

With the seeded pairs withdrawing, this was a wide open field for the remaining pairs, and we discuss how Russian pairs with amazing technical skills can stand out from a crowded field, the exciting race for the top of the US pairs podium, and how hard it can be to recover in the rest of a program if your twist isn't your strongest element.

The third Grand Prix event of the season had a whole lot of ups and downs, particularly in the men's event, and we discuss the emotional roller coaster the guys took us on across the two programs, why which warm up flight you're in really shouldn't affect your PCS as much as it does, and try to find any highlights from the event, or skaters who got through it unscathed.