January 14, 2007 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) was 16th Saturday in a Nordic Combined World Cup mass start event won by Austrian Christoph Bieler, who took over the lead from defending champion Hannu Manninen of Finland.

In collecting the third World Cup victory of his career, Bieler came from 25th after the 10K to lead the first round of jumping and lay down the second-best final jump as he finished with 241.7 points. Felix Gottwald, another Austrian, was second (238.2) and Jason Lamy Chappuis – born in Montana where his French parents went to college – was third.

The mass start event reverses the normal combined format of jumping followed by cross country. The mass start begins with a 10K and ends with two rounds of jumping; the field is cut to 30 after the first round of normal hill jumping.

Demong, whose cross country skiing is the best of his career, raced to seventh place but jumped 91 and 93.5 meters to finish 16th with 218.2. Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) did not make the final round of jumping.

The World Cup Cup weekend concludes Sunday with a team event before leaving Val di Fiemme, the 1991 and ’03 World Championships site, and heads to Seefeld, Austria, venue for the 1985 Worlds. The U.S. Worlds team will be named later this for the 2007 championships Feb. 22-March 3 in Sapporo, Japan.

WARSTEINER NORDIC COMBINED WORLD UP
Val di Fiemme, ITA – Jan. 13, 2007

Mass start – 10K/NH (HS106)
1. Christoph Bieler, Austria, (25/2) 241.7 points
2. Felix Gottwald, Austria, (3/9) 238.2
3. Jason Lamy-Chappuis, France, (22/3) 237.5
4. Havard Klemetsen, Norway, (4/5) 234.1
5. Magnus Moan, Norway, (2/13) 233.7

16. Bill Demong, Vermontville, NY, (7/20) 218.2
35. Brett Camerota, Park City, UT, (35/42) 137.0
37. Johnny Spillane, Steamboat Springs, CO, (37/39) 135.2

For complete results:
http://www.fis-ski.com/