March 1, 2004 –  Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) finished fifth Sunday, his second  top-five in two weeks in a nordic combined World Cup as he continued his rebound for early season sickness. Ronny Ackermann of Germany won Sunday to keep alive his hopes of defending his World Cup title and Todd Lodwick (also  Steamboat) was 20th.

With two events remaining – next weekend in Lahti,  Finland, Ackermann trails World Cup leader Hannu Manninen of Finland by 187  points, so mathematically he still has a chance. However, with Manninen  expected to do well in front of Finnish fans, it's a slim chance; Ackermann  would have to win both events and not have Manninen, who was eighth Sunday,  not score 14 points.

Ackermann was second in the jumping behind  Ausdtrian David Zauner, but he skied strongly through the 15K race and was 23  seconds ahead of Finn Samppa Lajunen at the finish. Spillane, fifth in jumping, was 51.8 seconds out while Lodwick moved up three places during the  race and was 2:15 back. “It's good  to have Johnny back in full momentum,” said Head Coach Bard Elden. “He was  10th [Saturday in the sprint] and now fifth. It's been a good weekend for  him. He was frustrated last week in Liberec [Czech Republic] because he felt  he was getting things turned around and then he had that bad wind. I told him  he can't let one bad jump take away that good feeling…and this weekend it  was back.”

Lodwick saw his string of  consecutive top-10 finishes cut at 13 but said, “Nothing lasts forever. I'll  have to start again next week in Lahti…but, more importantly now, it's good  to see Johnny back jumping and skiing well. It was a tough start to the  season for him.”