January 29, 2006 – Four-time nordic combined Olympian Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) completed his first week back on the World Cup in more than a month Sunday by finishing second – his second top-3 in 24 hours – in a 15K nordic combined event. Hannu Manninen of Finland won his 11th event of the season, his seventh in a row, while Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) made his World Cup debut, finishing 28th.

Manninen was sixth in the normal hill (HS100) ski jumping and started the 15K more than two minutes back of Austrian Christoph Bieler, the jump leader. He caught Lodwick at the end of four laps and they caught Bieler at the end of the fifth lap; Manninen pulled away from Lodwick midway through the final lap.

“It’s coming. Things are getting better and better,” said Lodwick, who was third Saturday in the 7.5K sprint after missing nine World Cup competitions. He was at home for seven weeks with his wife Sunny for the birth of their first child, a daughter.

“It’s pretty satisfying to come back and be on the podium twice in two days, to know I’m still up there. I’ve got some stuff to work on before the Olympics,” he said, “but I’m happy with where I am. It’s been a good weekend of skiing.”

Once Manninen caught him, he skied with him until the tall Finn made his break. “The hills weren’t too bad because this course has a lot of flat to it, too,” Lodwick said. “We reeled-in Bieler and then skied together, but I couldn’t stay with him. I was tired after [Saturday’s sprint event].”

Coach Dave Jarrett said Lodwick had fought off a tailwind in his jumping, which normally pushes a jumper down, to finish second behind Bieler. “Obviously, Todd jumped well and then he skied with Manninen until this uphill at the end when Hannu skied away and Todd couldn’t catch him. But it was a really good weekend for him and shows he’s ‘there’ so now we have to keep Todd at this peak.

“Brett jumped pretty well but even though he’s one of the faster guys on World Cup-B, he found out there are a lot of fast guy on World Cup-A. This is different up here, but he did well for his first World Cup. He’s been having a good year and this should help him believe he can do it.”

Camerota replaced Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY), who is battling an apparent strep throat. Former sprint world champion Johnny Spillane (also Steamboat) skipped the weekend events to rest before the Olympics.

There are no more combined events before the Olympics. The U.S. combiners will have a training camp in Val di Fiemme, Italy, before heading to Torino for the Winter Games.

WARSTEINER NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP
Seefeld, AUT – Jan. 29, 2006
NH (HS100)/15K

1. Hannu Manninen, Finland, (6/4)
2. Todd Lodwick, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (2/14) 10.2 seconds behind
3. Christoph Bieler, Austria, (1/25) 17.5
4. Felix Gottwald, Austria, (12/1) 23.6
5. Magnus Moan, Norway, (18/2) 43.1
–
28. Brett Camerota, Park City, Utah, (22/27) 4:07.8

For complete results:
http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=17629