Rydzek on top, Frenzel unlucky in Chaux-Neuve

Johannes Rydzek has effectively ended Eric Frenzel’s winning streak in the Nordic Combined World Cup. Rydzek took the win with an advantage of 2.8 seconds on teammate Fabian Rießle at the finish line. Japanese Akito Watabe claimed rank three (+5.7). Eric Frenzel ended up on the fourth position after his pole broke in a racing manoeuvre with Johannes Rydzek on the last lap.

Jarl Riiber claimed another jumping win. 112 metres from gate 13 meant a total of 139 points for the Norwegian, which put him 46 seconds ahead of American Ben Berend for the cross-country race. Berend had a great performance and also had 112 metres to show for but he jumped from gate 16. This gave him 127.5 points. Eric Frenzel set himself up promisingly with position three and had 53 seconds to make up on Riiber. 109.5 metres gave the German 125.8 points.

Candidates for the podium in Chaux-Neuve were Fabian Rießle who was happy with his 109.5 metre jump and intermediate sixth position. With 123.7 points, he had a disadvantage of one minute and one second and was definitely an athlete to watch on the track, as well as his teammate Johannes Rydzek who presents himself in a fantastic cross-country shape at the moment. One minute and 15 seconds were well within the realm of doable for the reining World Champion from Germany. Also teammate Björn Kircheisen with +1:09 and Olympic Champion Jørgen Graabak with +1:22 were not to be dismissed. Japan’s Akito Watabe, who claimed a podium last weekend and Berni Gruber from Austria, who returned from a sickness break, also had good starting positions five and seven (+1:01 and +1:02).

The race was an action packed affair, which had Jarl Riiber’s advantage melt until a bigger pursuing group had caught up with him after the 6 km point of the race. Second placed Ben Berend could not match the speed of the athletes in this group and went quickly back in the ranking to end up on a final 32nd position.

Riiber’s pursuers, among them as expected Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek, Akito Watabe and Björn Kircheisen, joined by Jan Schmid, Bernhard Gruber, and also FJ Rehrl until the 5 km point, worked together to come closer and closer until the Norwegian was caught and the true fight for the podium started.

Going out on the last lap, it was a group of four athletes who still had the chance to grab the three podium positions. Eric Frenzel forced the issue, increased the speed on the plentiful uphills in Chaux-Neuve but was not able to shake his teammates. Rießle and Rydzek pushed back and in the manoeuvring, Frenzel’s pole broke. Incapacitated such, the World Cup leader could not stop the other three athletes moving past him to take the podium positions.

Behind Frenzel, Björn Kircheisen completed another great German result on rank five. Local hero Antoine Gerard had heads turning with the third fastes cross-country time and a final position 16.