Riiber soars to Ruka win, Norway sweeps podium

Jarl Magnus Riiber, Espen Bjørnstad and Jens Lurås Oftebro swept the podium in the initual 5 km event of the Ruka Tour. Riiber took a start - finish victory and finished 53.3 seconds ahead of Bjørnstad who also brought his start number two into the finish as the silver position. Younster Oftebro took the first podium of his career by finishing +1:17.1 after teammate Riiber. Jørgen Graabak finished fourth to complete demonstration of Norwegian strength. The last time the team managed to claim all first four places was in 1996.

The Norwegians continued to lead the way on the jumping side of things. After five Norwegians were in the top seven spots of yesterday’s PCR, it was a triple Norwegian charge for the first victory of the season today with Jarl Magnus Riiber leading the way. In changing conditions 140.5 metres were enough to capture a 28-second lead on teammate Espen Bjørnstad, even though Bjørnstad flew to 148 metres, just half a metre shy of the Nordic Combined hill record (148.5 m, set by Eric Frenzel).

Riiber lead the field with 155.5 points, followed by Bjørnstad’s 148.6 and team youngster Jens Lurås Oftebro with 140.1 (143 m). In the short 5 km race, 19-year-old Oftebro had a true chance for his first-ever World Cup podium but had to defend his position against Austria’s Martin Fritz who had showed 135 metres in the jumping part and began his race 43 seconds after Oftebro. Jørgen Graabak and Manuel Faißt were a duo starting at +1:46, just one second behind Fritz and joined the race for the bronze position of the day. Blue bib bearer Franz-Josef Rehrl only ended up on position seven, +2:00 after Riiber and was followed closely by Germany’s Fabian Rießle who had his best jump so far in the competition (130 m, 125 p.).

The short 5 km distance limited the moves that athletes were able to make on the track and in his typical fashion, Jarl Riiber just extended his lead with an equally strong cross-country performance. Even though he only had the 18th-fastest time, he still finished over 50 seconds ahead of runner-up Espen Bjornstad, who had no chance of narrowing the gap. Jens Oftebro kept his energy high and secured his career-first World Cup podium.

A bigger pursuing group with six athletes included blue bib bearer Franz-Josef Rehrl, Martin Fritz, Manuel Faißt and strong skiers Jørgen Graabak and Fabian Rießle. In a show of great team tactics, Graabak lead the chase but never lead the group close to his three leading teammates. In a finish line sprint, he prevailed over Rießle, Faißt, Fritz, Rehrl, Costa and Geiger claimed the remaining Top Ten positions.

[Final Results](http://Riiber soars to Ruka win, Norway sweeps podium)
Ski Jumping Results