Norwegian teamwork: Oftebro maiden win ensures Riiber’s overall Ruka Tour victory
Nov 29, 2020·Nordic Combined
He needed a little help from his friends today: Jens Lurås Oftebro’s first-ever World Cup win gave Jarl Magnus Riiber the win in the overall standings of the Ruka tour, despite not racing today.
As the morning’s wind conditions made jumping impossible in Ruka, Thursday’s Provisional Competition Round had to be used. Ruka Tour leader Riiber had been disqualified in the PCR and was therefore not on start for the cross-country race today. He still remained eligible fo the Ruka Tour overall standings and with the 200 points he collected with two wins on Friday and Saturday, he was still well set up for a podium place or even the Ruka Tour win.
Only Johannes Lamparter or Akito Watabe had a chance to take the Ruka Tour win from Riiber, as they had collected more than 100 points in the first two events and would surpass Riiber’s score with a victory. If Lamparter would finish second, he and Riiber would have the same score of 200 but in this case, the better individual results count, with Riiber’s two victories trumping Lamparter’s results (2., 6., 2.).
Manuel Faißt was in the lead of the race with an 18-second head start on Jens Lurås Oftebro, while Johannes Lamparter was 26 seconds off Faißt’s start time. Kristjan Ilves began his race one second later. Germany’s Fabian Rießle had big chances for a good result with start place five and +0:42 seconds to make up on his teammate in pole position. Yesterday’s podium athletes Akito Watabe and Eric Frenzel was placed a little worse in the PCR and started from positions seven and nine with start delays of +1:08 and +1:26.
Manuel Faißt and Jens Lurås Oftebro formed a duo on the track after the first lap and behind them, also Johannes Lamparter and Fabian Rießle started to ski together. By the halfway point, these two groups had merged and four athletes were fighting for the victory
Now, the tactics began. The speed dropped as nobody in this group really wanted to lead and so a bigger pursuing group with fast skiers Vinzenz Geiger, Eric Frenzel, Eero Hirvonen and Ilkka Herola among others managed to close the gap from over one minute to 40 seconds at the 7.5 km intermediate time. Also Kristjan Ilves, who had been fifth and in between the two groups managed to close the gap to the front but quickly dropped from the leading group again when the original four started to accelerate and fight for the victory in earnest on the last lap.
Manuel Faißt lead the charge at first and Lamparter was the first to have to concede defeat and drop from the group, but then Oftebro took the initiative and sped up the last big uphill into the stadium, much to the dismay of his two German pursuers. Even Fabian Rießle, one of the fastest skiers on the tour was only able to stay in Oftebro’s back but not challenge him on the final stretch anymore, as the gap had become just a little too substantial.
So it was Oftebro who claimed his maiden win, +1.9 seconds ahead of Rießle and Faißt completed a good weekend on rank three, +6.4 seconds after the Norwegian. Johannes Lamparter was fourth and Kristjan Ilves claimed yet another very respectable fifth place.
For the Ruka Tour Standings, this meant that Jarl Magnus Riiber won with 200 points, ahead of Jens Lurås Oftebro (186) and Johannes Lamparter (170).
