Riiber catches Frenzel with 43rd World Cup victory
Dec 19, 2021·Nordic Combined
Another day, another record for Jarl Magnus Riiber. With a total of 43 wins he drew level with Eric Frenzel in the overall World Cup victory ranking today.
Only Finn Hannu Manninen is still ahead of him, with 48 World Cup victories.
The Norwegian already took the first place after the jumping round on the WM-Schanze HS98 in Ramsau this morning.
Under an azure sky, the yellow bib owner reached 92.5 meters and gained 134.5 points, after the jury decided to go down to gate 15 for the current Best Jumper of the World Cup.
Therefore, Riiber started into the 10 km race at the WM stadium in Ramsau from first position one more time.
The 2nd place after jumping went to Riibers team mate Espen Andersen, who performed a strong jump on 95 meters (129.2 pts) and had a 21 second backlog.
Norway also took the third position after the Ski Jumping round with Jens Luraas Oftebro, who jumped the furthest distance of the day (96.5 mts, 127.9 pts). He started into the cross-country race this afternoon 26 seconds after Riiber.
With Eric Frenzel (93 m, 124.7 pts, 39 sec), Terence Weber (94m, 124.3 pts, 41 sec) and Vinzenz Geiger (93.5 m, 123.8 pts, 43 sec) three strong skiers from Germany took the ranks four to six, which made the fight for the podium very interesting.
While Riiber ran a lonely race at the top, although the distance to his pursuers continuously decreased. A group of five athletes formed behind him, led by Vinzenz Geiger from Germany, who did most of the leading work and managed to shorten the distance on Riiber to 22.5 seconds after 5 km.
In the end, however, the Norwegian could not be caught.
In the last lap, Geiger launched an attack and pulled away from the rest of the chasing group. He narrowed his gap Riiber to 13 sec after 8.3 km, while the other pursuers could not keep up with the high pace of the German. With a gap of 34.2 seconds they went into the last lap, so that everything came down to a tight sprint to the finish.
While Riiber secured his 43rd World Cup victory at the top, Geiger came in second, 15.3 seconds behind. On the finish line, Eric Frenzel (+34.1 sec) narrowly beat his German team-mate Terence Weber (+34.5 sec) and completed the podium. Espen Andersen (+34.8 sec) crossed the finish line in 5th place just behind.
The fastest skiing time was once again performed by Ilkka Herola (+55.2 sec) from Finland on rank six, who therefore defended his red bib as Best Skier.
Results: Individual Gundersen HS98 Men – SJ – 19.12.21 Ramsau II
Overall Results: Individual Gundersen HS98 Men – 19.12.21 Ramsau II
