Geiger seals Ruka Tour triumph with 'perfect' jump

Vinzenz Geiger crowned a 'perfect' weekend in Ruka with a Men's Individual Mass Start triumph on Sunday, kicking off the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season with three podiums in as many days.

The German 27-year-old added a 133.5-metre jump to a strong Cross-Country performance to claim his first World Cup win since December 2022, denying runner-up Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) a second victory this weekend. Germany's Manuel Faisst finished third.

"It means everything for me," Geiger said.

"I think I need to change my mind as normally, I hate Mass Starts. It was a crazy day for me, a perfect jump for me and I am so proud."

Winning the Ruka Tour also meant Geiger takes over the overall World Cup lead from defending champion Riiber.

He had finished in second place in the early morning's 10km Cross-Country Mass Start race, seven tenths of a second behind his teammate Julian Schmid and a tenth of a second before another German; Saturday's Gundersen winner Johannes Rydzek.

As a large group had come into the last uphill section of the course, the top 14 skiers had finished within 10 seconds of each other. No.10 to cross the line, Riiber, had been 6.6 seconds behind Schmid, putting him -1.7 points behind the leader coming into the Ski Jumping.

Close end to Cross-Country race

With 10 of 60 skiers left to jump at the Rukanturi hill, Austria's Franz-Josef Rehrl had been in the lead with an outstanding 145-metre jump that had given him 150.5 points in total. The furthest jump of the day was however not going to be enough for the Rehrl, who had finished in 40th place in the Cross-Country part.

Riiber, in the unusual position to be first out in the top-10, pulled off a jump of 134.5 metres that in the tricky conditions in the northern-Finnish ski town could have become the winning one.

Geiger, however, had a different plan. With the penultimate jump of the weekend, he landed just one metre short of Riiber improve on what he on Friday and Saturday already had called a 'perfect start' to the season.

"It's unbelievable," Geiger said.

Riiber with 100 World Cup podiums

Failing to claim his 75th World Cup win, Riiber got some comfort in securing a milestone career-100th World Cup podium.

"That's insane. It is very cool that I was able to take the 100th this weekend," the 27-year-old said.

For Faisst, who had finished seventh in Friday's Compact competition and not started in the Cross-Country race on Saturday, the first podium of the season brought plenty of confidence for the rest of the winter.

"I'm really happy with the day," Faisst said.

"The Cross-Country skiing was really good and for the first time (this season) I got a good jump on the hill. Yesterday was quite tough for me but that makes me even more happy now to have got a third-place in the end. I'm now looking forward to Lillehammer."

Lillehammer, Norway, is where the Nordic Combined World Cup action continues in just four days. The four days of competition in the iconic winter sports town 5-8 December also marks the start of the women's season.

Click here for full results from the Men's Individual Mass Start.

Facts and figures

• The second place means Jarl Magnus Riiber has been on a World Cup podium 100 times.

• It was Vinzenz Geiger's first victory in almost two years, the last one being a Gundersen triumph in Ramsau, Austria, on 17 December 2022.

• It was Geiger's first victory in a Mass Start. His 10 previous individual World Cup triumphs had come in Gundersen.

• Manuel Faisst's third place was the eighth podium of the career for the 31-year-old.