Vinzenz Geiger strikes again in Val di Fiemme
Jan 11, 2020·Nordic Combined
Vinzenz Geiger beat dominator Jarl Magnus Riiber for the second time this season and claimed his second victory in Val di Fiemme. After a stellar cross-country race, the German beat Riiber in a finish line sprint by 0.4 seconds. Riiber, in turn, managed to keep both Jørgen Graabak and Fabian Rießle behind him and claimed the second rank. A photo finish had to decide the third position and here Graabak had the better end for himself, +0.6 seconds after the winner, leaving the unlucky fourth rank to Rießle.
With 106 metres, Jarl Magnus Riiber was the man to set the bar for the jumping event really high for all other athletes. 145.1 points meant Riiber had a +0:22 head start on Manuel Faißt (100 m; 139.5 p). Jens Lurås Oftebro was third in the jumping ranking with 99 metres and 137.3 points. He started his race 31 seconds after Riiber and his teammate Espen Bjørnstad followed one second later at +0:32. Also in promising positions at the race start were Franz-Josef Rehrl and Akito Watabe with starting times of +0:34 and +0:35.
Czech Republic’s Tomas Portyk was also very satisfied with a jump of 100.5 metres and the intermediate position seven (+0:47). Teammates Johannes Lamparter and Bernhard Gruber shared position nine (+0:48).
Yesterday’s podium athlete Vinzenz Geiger and Jørgen Graabak were hot candidates for another successful day in Val di Fiemme as they started from positions eleven and twelve, with delays of +0:49 and +0:52 and took their fight to the track right from the start.
As a next fast group, Fabian Rießle and Magnus Krog were starting from ranks 20 and 21 with starting times of +1:10 and +1:12, Eric Frenzel had one minute and 29 seconds to make up and Ilkka Herola was only 35th with a delay of two minutes and two seconds.
As yesterday, Jarl Riiber began his cross-country race alone and for two laps it looked like the pursuers would not be able to close the gap on the Norwegian again. During the second lap, however, it became apparent that Riiber was not in yesterday’s cross-country shape.
In a large pursuing group, Vinzenz Geiger and Lukas Klapfer kept pushing the pace and alternating in the lead, so that the distance began to melt from the 6.3 km point onwards. By the 8.8 km intermediate time, the large pursuing group had caught Riiber and he had to battle Graabak, Geiger, Rießle, Jens Oftebro, Faißt and Portyk for the podium, with Eric Frenzel and Johannes Rydzek approaching from further behind.
Strategically smart, Graabak and Riiber blocked both lanes on the last uphill and went into the downhill first but Geiger used the wind shield behind the two to advance on the outer side and was able to enter the finish stretch first. Picking the middle lane, Geiger was able to reach the finish comfortably as Riiber was no match when it came to sprinting and stayed behind Geiger. Jørgen Graabak also chose the middle lane and had to sprint agains Fabian Rießle, who tried to overtake him on the right side. With Graabak having the longer leg once more, ranks three and four were set.
Lukas Klapfer was the best Austrian on rank five, Franz-Josef Rehrl was sixth, Eric Frenzel seventh, Jens Oftebro eighth and Manuel Faißt and Johannes Rydzek sprinted for position 9 with Faißt winning this duel on his birthday. With rank 11, Czech Republic’s Tomas Portyk collected a very good result again.
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