Geiger leads German podium sweep on home soil
Feb 06, 2021·Nordic Combined
Vinzenz Geiger stormed to the victory at the first of two Individual Gundersen events on home soil in Klingenthal (GER). Geiger won by 3.5 seconds, beating out his teammates Fabian Rießle and Eric Frenzel, who sprinted for the podium with Finland’s Ilkka Herola.
Out of the three, Rießle had the best end with rank two, Frenzel was third, 0.1 seconds after his teammate and Ilkka Herola chose badly when selecting lanes for a final sprint and ended up on rank four.
Ryota Yamamoto was the best ski jumper on the hill in the morning and won the jumping round with 141.5 metres and 145.6 points. Terence Weber, who hails from Saxony, dealt with the home hill very well and claimed intermediate position two with 138.5 metres and a point total of 137.5. For the cross-country race, this meant a delay of 32 seconds at the start.
Laurent Mühlethaler and Simen Tiller confirmed their strong jumping performances so far with 138 and 137 metres and started their races from positions three and four, +0:40 and +0:42 seconds behind Yamamoto. Akito Watabe had a promising starting position with rank five and a delay of 50 seconds but many of the strongest skiers of the field followed right behind him:
Fabian Rießle was the best hope of the German team to reach for the victory with rank six and +0:56 seconds to make up but Johannes Rydzek, Eric Frenzel and Vinzenz Geiger followed closely behind with start delays of +1:07, +1:11 and +1:14. Also Ilkka Herola was in the mix again, even if he had to make up a little more ground from position 16 (+1:23).
The five time 2.0 km lap race was demanding for all athletes due to soft and slushy conditions, technical twists and turns and difficult uphills. Yamamoto spent the first 4 km alone but a big pursuing group found each other behind him which had Weber, Mühlethaler, Watabe, Rießle and Tiller and was soon joined by Rydzek, Frenzel, Geiger, Greiderer and also Herola.
On the third lap, the Japanese was caught and the lead alternated between Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek and Eric Frenzel with at times four Germans on the first four positions in the group. By the 8 km point, Tiller and Yamamoto has dropped back from the group and soon, a strong Vinzenz Geiger made his attack. On one of the steep uphills, the German shot away from the group, even though Ilkka Herola and Fabian Rießle tried their utmost to follow him.
But the precious metres that Geiger gained for himself should stay with him until the finish line, Behind him, Herola took the second position but was not strong enough to get away from Fabian Rießle, who overtook him again, going into the S-curves on the way into the stadium. Eric Frenzel, who was only sixth at the 8.8 km point, skied smart and fast and managed to be in a position to sprint with Rießle and Herola on the last metres into the finish.
With Frenzel on the outer track and Rießle in the middle, Herola had to make his way to the inner corridor and lost precious seconds in a near collision, so that he had to be satisfied with rank four in the end.
Johannes Rydzek finished as a strong fifth, Akito Watabe was sixth and Laurent Mühlethaler reached the first Top Ten ranking of his career on position seven. Terence Weber and Ryota Yamamoto closed out the Top Ten.
