September 6, 2009 (Lillehammer, Norway) – The U.S. Nordic Combined Team just finished an HS104/10km competition in Lillehammer, Norway. In the junior competition Taylor Fletcher had the fastest time skiing from 9th place after the jumping to 3rd place in the overall, six seconds from 2nd place. Nick Hendrickson finished 6th overall, Brett Denney 8th, Michael Ward 12th, Adam Loomis 13th, and Cliff Field 14th. Junior NC World Champion gold medalist, Norway’s Ole Christian Wendel won the junior event followed by his teammate Truls Johansen.

The senior race was full of fireworks. Mikko Kokslien of Norway edged out Bill Demong, Magnus Moan, and Jan Schmid for the victory. The pain train of Mikko, Billy, Petter Tande, and Carl Vanloan started 50 seconds behind jumping leader Jan-Christian Bjorn. Magnus Moan started six seconds in front of Billy’s group but after 4km they were all together. After changing leads several times, Mikko made a decisive move at the top of the last hill and a gap opened. Billy gapped Magnus but couldn’t quite get up to Mikko and finished 2nd.

On to the next one.

No Excuses.