December 21, 2015 – Here’s an update from FIS Nordic Combined, including reports from the weekend’s World Cup events in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, where USA’s Bryan Fletcher logged the top American result on Day 1 in 26th and Taylor Fletcher set the team’s best placing of the weekend on Day 2 in 20th spot. Also note the cancellation of the Klingenthal World Cup, January 2-3, due to lack of snow. Read on for more details.

Magnus Moan has a lot of love for Ramsau am Dachstein © NordicFocus

Moan tops Norwegian triple victory in Ramsau
The first winner of the Ramsau weekend is Magnus Moan from Norway. He ended his race in a finish sprint, just milisecond ahead of second-placed teammate Magnus Krog. The podium was completed by jumping winner Jarl Riiber who took his first podium result in a 10 kilometre condition in the World Cup in a finish line sprint against Tino Edelmann from Germany, making today a triple win for the Norwegian team.

Bouncing back after his crash in Lillehammer, young Norwegian Jarl Riiber dominated the jumping round on Ramsau’s HS 98 jumping hill with a great jump of 95.5 metres, the longest jump of the day. After a coach request, Riiber even had one gate less in the inrun than the rest of the field. A total of 131 points put him 37 seconds ahead of runner-up Akito Watabe from Japan, a time different quite unusual for Ramsau.

Behind Riiber the main part of the field was packed tightly together. First of the pursuers was Akito Watabe with a point total of 121.8 points after a 92.5 metre-jump. Eric Frenzel found back to old jumping strength with 92 metres and followed Riiber 50 seconds later.

The race was an action-packed chase as usual in Ramsau am Dachstein. Leader Jarl Riiber defended his lead well into the third lap until pursuers Akito Watabe and Eric Frenzel and shortly after also a really big pursuing group containing Magnus Moan and Krog, Jørgen Graabak, Tino Edelmann, Fabian Rießle and Ilkka Herola caught up with the young Norwegian.

An exciting last lap of a tight race that saw a number of smaller and almost-crashes had a group of ten athletes fighting for the podium races. An attack on the last uphill brought Magnus Moan and namesake Magnus Krog to the fore but also Jarl Riiber fought his way to the front of the group again and was able to match the pace of the leaders.

Multiple finish line sprints decided the positions: Magnus Moan beat out Magnus Krog by about 2 centimetres and Jarl Riiber edged out new dad Tino Edelmann who had a great result as fourth after his World Cup break in the first weeks of December.

RESULTS
Official Results here.
World Cup Overall here.

KEY FACTS
– Longest jump of the day: Jarl Riiber (NOR) with 95.5 metres (131 p.) after a coach request from one gate lower than the rest of the field.
– Fastest cross-country time: Magnus Moan (NOR) needed 20:41.3 for the 10 kilometres
– The Top Ten: Four of the Top Ten ranks went to Team Norway (Top 3 + Graabak 6), Germany placed Edelmann, Frenzel and Rießle in the top ranks and Japan, Finland and Austria had Akito Watabe, Ilkka Herola and Lukas Kapfer on ranks five, eight and ten.
– Career bests/special facts: For Jarl Riiber, it was the first podium place in a 10 kilometre World Cup race after ranking third in the 5 km opener in Seefeld last year.
With Moan, Krog and Jarl Magnus Riiber, it was three “Magnusses” on the podium.
Viktor Pasichnyk (UKR) and Szczepan Kupcazk (POL) had crashes on the difficult track in Ramsau and did not finish the race.
– Overall Standings: Magnus Krog took over the yellow bib from Fabian Rießle with 212 points over the German’s 209 points. Akito Watabe ranks third with 165 points.

QUOTES:
Magnus Moan (NOR) on Sound Cloud here.

Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) on Sound Cloud here.

Eric Frenzel back on top in Ramsau am Dachstein © NordicFocus

Frenzel strikes back in Ramsau am Dachstein
It was Eric Frenzel’s turn to climb onto the top spot on the podium of Ramsau’s second Individual Gundersen event of the weekend. After a riveting race, Frenzel finally finished 10.2 seconds earlier than Jarl Riiber from Norway. The third podium position went to Manuel Faißt from Germany who finished his race 10.3 seconds after Frenzel and narrowly lost out to Riiber in a finish line sprint.

Jarl Magnus Riiber continued to reign surpreme on the jumping hill. Again, he was the measure of all things with a jump of 96 metres from one gate lower than the rest, again by far the longest jump of the day. Teammate Håvard Klemetsen and Czech Tomas Portyk underlined their good jumping shapes with matching performances of 93.5 metres, giving them 127.2 and 126.9 points and ranks two and three respectively, +0:39 and +0:40 seconds behind Riiber.

Yesterday’s winner Magnus Moan did not have a good jump and landed at 84.5 metres already which gave him two minutes and eleven seconds to make up but for some of the other faster skiers, the starting constellation was similar to yesterday: Fabian Rießle, Jørgen Graabak, Magnus Krog and Johannes Rydzek ranked 15th, 16th,18th and 19th with time behinds of +1:30 till +1:42. Lukas Klapfer tried to defend the Austrian honour from rank 13, +1:22 behind the leader and Eric Frenzel had a great starting position once more, ranking sixth with a time disadvantage of exactly one minute.

The race took a different turn than yesterday’s tightly packed finish line sprint. First, Riiber defended his 39-second advantage until the beginning of the third lap but then a group consisting of five athletes formed: Eric Frenzel stormed towards World Cup victory 24 and Manuel Faißt, Jarl Riiber, Tomas Portyk and Håvard Klemetsen were hanging on for dear life.

In the end, Frenzel had an irresistible amount of power left and entered the stadium alone, claiming a dominant victory. Behind him, Faißt and Riiber sprinted for the second rank with Riiber having the better end once more after even having been a couple of metres behind Faißt on the lap.

Yellow-bib bearer Magnus Krog finished the race on rank five and defended his bib against Fabian Rießle who ranked sixth.

RESULTS
Official Results here.
World Cup Overall here.

KEY FACTS
– Longest jump of the day: Jarl Riiber with 96 metres (136.9 p.)
– Fastest cross-country time: Lukas Runggaldier from Italy needed 20:09.9 for the ten kilometres and improved a 47th position after jumping into a final 21st rank.
– The Top Ten: Norway and Germany had four athletes each in the Top Ten (Riiber, Graabak, Krog, Klemetsen and Frenzel, Faißt, Rießle and Rydzek), Japan and the Czech Republic one each (Watabe and Portyk).
– Career bests/special facts: For Jarl Riiber and Manuel Faißt, their results were career bests, both of them have been or are reigning Junior World Champions.
For Czech Republic’s Tomas Portyk, today’s tenth place was the first Top Ten result of his career after a courageous cross-country race that had the jumping specialist hanging on to the top four athletes until the last part of the last lap.
A 24th position was also a career best for Estonia’s Kristjan Ilves.
Last weekend’s double COC-winner David Pommer (AUT) had a career best 25th position and took his first World Cup points.
– Overall Standings: Magnus Krog defended his yellow bib and now leads with 257 points, Fabian Rießle follows with 249 points and Akito Watabe accumulated 194 points to far.

QUOTES:
Eric Frenzel (GER), on Sound Cloud in German here.
Translation: “A very nice end of the year with this victory today. I did not really see it coming. It was a very tight and strenuous race for me. I tried to push from the beginning and ski confidently and am very happy that it worked out like that in the end.”

Jarl Riiber (NOR) on Sound Cloud here.

Manuel Faißt (GER) on Sound Cloud in German here.
Translation: “After my good jump this morning, I went into the race quite confidently. The starting position was great and we were able to execute our tactics as we discussed before. I am very happy with the third place and very much looking forward to a couple of quiet days at home with my family now.”

No chance for a World Cup in Klingenthal © Local OC

Nordic Combined World Cup Klingenthal Cancelled

What some feared already became sad reality this morning. Snow Controller Rudi Tusch had to cancel the Nordic Combined World Cup events in Klingenthal, which were set for the second and third of January 2016, due to lack of snow.

The uncharacteristically warm weather situation that has more or less the whole of middle-Europe in its grip gave the organisers no chance to produced the needed amount of snow to prepare the jumping hill and the cross-country track after all the snow on the Vogtlandarena jumping hill, which had hosted the World Cup opening of the ski jumpers in November, has melted.

OC President Alexander Ziron:” It’s with a heavy heart that we have to cancel these competitions. Who knows us as an organisers knows that we would do everything to offer the Nordic Combined athletes the best conditions and the spectators amazing competitions. But the weather which is absolutely not White Christmas does not allow it.”

Temperatures of up to 15°C have not only melted the snow on the Vogtlandarena that had been in place since the Ski Jumping World Cup in November but also soaked the areas in which the tracks were supposed to be built. In addition to that, no cold temperatures which are essential to producting snow are forecasted for the next days. Light snowfalls are only forecasted for the turn of the year which would not give the OC sufficient time to prepare the hill and track.

The German Ski Federation, the responsible host broadcaster ZDF and FIS Race Director Lasse Ottesen are in talks to see if and how the cancelled two competitions can be replaced but it seems certain that there will be no replacement possible on the first weekend of January.

Listen on Sound Cloud here.