Riiber continues quest for crystal globe with win in Klingenthal
Feb 02, 2019·Nordic Combined
It was one toe or “a maximum of a centimetre” that helped Jarl Riiber take his next victory in Klingenthal. One of the closest finishes in a long time had Riiber and Geiger crossing the finish line at exactly the same time of 25:51.8 and only a photo finish was able to determine the winner. Geiger’s teammate Johannes Rydzek returned to the podium by finishing third, +1.7 seconds after Riiber.
Freshly-minted Junior World Champion Johannes Lamparter won the jumping round in Klingenthal with a fantastic jump of 139 metres. 133.4 points had the young Austrian start five seconds ahead of teammate and fellow jumping prodigy Franz-Josef Rehrl, who showed 134 metres from one gate lower than his competitors today. PCR winner Manuel Faißt continued his good jumping shape and claimed the third position in the start grid with a jump of 134 metres. 130.1 points meant a 13-second-delay at the start line.
World Cup leader Jarl Magnus Riiber was also in striking distance on position four. 133 metres meant 126.7 points which translated into 27 seconds to make up on the track. Vinzenz Geiger had good chances to go for the podium again from position seven. A jump of 132 metres had the German celebrating with his home crowd. He opened the chase for the podium with a disadvantage of 48 seconds at the start. Last year’s double Klingenthal winner Fabian Rießle started his campaign with a delay of one minute and nine seconds, a realistic goal for the fast German, who likes the hill and track of Klingenthal.
Teammate Johannes Rydzek was given a steeper task to reduce his World Cup point deficit on overall leader Riiber, as the German only managed to claim the intermediate 13th position with a delay of one minute and 30 seconds. However, he was able to ski together with Finland’s Ilkka Herola, who returned to the World Cup after taking a weekend off for training. He started his race one minute and 32 seconds after the leader.
The track in Klingenthal with its steep uphills, demanding downhills and sharp corners is not an easy one to race. An interesting dynamic developed early in the race with Franz-Josef Rehrl and Johannes Lamparter exchanging in the lead for the first 3 km. Shortly after, Jarl Magnus Riiber and Manuel Faißt had close the gap, making the leading duo a foursome that grew another member when Vinzenz Geiger also closed the gap shortly after the 5 km mark.
The leading group took it easy after this point, mainly because no athlete really wanted to do the high-energy leading work. This gave the fast pursuers Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek, Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen a chance to catch up, so that nine athletes were fighting for the podium on the last lap.
Geiger set his attack on the last uphill and Riiber, who was skiing right behind him was able to follow and use his advantage in the downhill to move past Geiger again. In the end, it was Riiber, who entered the final stretch first and even though the German managed to close the gap in a sprint again, Riiber just had that extra centimetre in his leg to claim his ninth season victory, a feat that Norwegian legend Bjarte Engen Vik accomplished as well exactly 20 years ago.
Johannes Rydzek skied behind Franz-Josef Rehrl, when his teammate Geiger made his attack on the last uphill and so Rydzel was not able to follow immediately and lost precious seconds having to go around Rehrl. Still, Rydzek managed to keep Hirvonen, Herola and teammate Fabian Rießle behind him and sprinted to the third place in the end, an upward trajectory for the German Olympic Champion and defending Lahti 2017 World Champion.
Ilkka Herola finished fourth, while teammate Eero Hirvonen ended his race as seventh, a very positive development for the Finnish team, who had struggled in this season so far. Fabian Rießle and Manuel Faißt completed a great German team result on ranks six and nine. The remaining Top Ten positions went to Austria: Franz-Josef Rehrl was fifth, Johannes Lamparter set a career-best eighth position and Willi Denifl finished tenth.
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