Bernhard Gruber wins the 53rd Schwarzwaldpokal
Mar 16, 2019·Nordic Combined
Bernhard Gruber continued with a fable end to his 2018/19 winter and took the win in the 53rd edition of the Schwarzwaldpokal in Schonach. The 36-year-old veteran beat his younger teammate Lukas Greiderer on the last metres of the final stretch and took his seventh World Cup win in Schonach. Overall World Cup winner Jarl Magnus Riiber wasn't able to match the two Austrians today and took the third place.
After the PCR had to be cancelled yesterday, the schedule of the first competition day in Schonach was changed to include a Provisional Competition Round as the first thing this morning. Jarl Magnus Riiber got the many spectators who enjoyed sunny weather in Schonach today in the right mood with a hill record of 108.5 metres in his first jump. It was Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto, however, who was rewarded with the PCR win with a jump of 103 metres and a point total of 126 points. Riiber followed with 121.7 points and Germany’s David Welde was third on the last weekend of his career with 99.5 metres and 118.2 points.
The competition round followed immediately after and Jarl Magnus Riiber impressed again with another long flight of 108 metres. But again, it was a Japanese athlete who surpassed Riiber’s efforts. Yoshito Watabe stepped it up and won the jumping round with a score of 127.5 points after a strong 105.5 metre jump. Riiber was second and took up his pursuit of World Cup victory number 12 with a delay of 21 seconds.Terence Weber had the crowd roaring with a jump of 103.5 metres and starting position three, just one second behind Riiber.
Bernhard Gruber showed one of his famous “Berni bombs” and landed at 106 metres, rank four in the start list for the cross-country race. Local hero Manuel Faißt was fifth and started his race with a delay of 34 seconds, PCR winner Ryota Yamamoto was sixth with the same start time. A really interesting group had formed around a time behind of +0:45. Fast skiers Johannes Rydzek, Vinzenz Geiger, COC overall winner Paul Gerstgraser and Ilkka Herola started within 2 seconds of each other and Akito Watabe, Jan Schmid and Fabian Rießle followed at +0:45, +0:46 and +0:52.
The race started with the first seven athletes forming a leading group quickly and skiing the first lap together before Yoshito Watabe was the first athlete to have to let go. As expected, the fast skiers stayed together in a pursuing group and managed to reduce their disadvantage to 25 seconds on the first lap. Lead by Ilkka Herola, the group continued to gain group but in the end, never managed to come closer than 19 seconds, as Bernhard Gruber and Lukas Greiderer worked together to keep the pace high in front. By the 5 km point of the race, the leading group had melted to a foursome consisting of Riiber, Greiderer, Gruber and Faißt. The local hero tried to stay with the other three athletes but lost contact going out on the last lap.
In the end, it came down to a showdown between Riiber, Gruber and Greiderer and to everyone’s surprise, super sprinter Riiber did not have the necessary power today. He was not able to match Greiderer and Gruber’s pace on the last uphill and settled for third. Lukas Greiderer lead going on to the final stretch and tried to keep Bernhard Gruber behind him by changing the finish corridor at the last minute but even this manoeuvre could not keep Gruber down. In his typical all-or-nothing style, the Seefeld bronze medallist stormed up the final stretch, which proved to be just too long for Greiderer who had to concede defeat but was still satisfied with his career-first podium.
Coming out of the past pursuing group, Vinzenz Geiger claimed rank four, Ilkka Herola was fifth, Manuel Faißt sixth, Johannes Rydzek seventh, Antoine Gerard improved from position 21 to eight, Akito Watabe was ninth and Alessandro Pittin was once more unbeatable on the skinny skis. The fastest cross-country time propelled him from position 40 to ten.
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