Lamparter cruises to Lahti win to extend lead over Schmid in race for third
Mar 21, 2025·Nordic Combined
Johannes Lamparter (AUT) moved clear of Julian Schmid (GER) in the battle for third place in the overall standings as he claimed his second win of the Viessman FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season in the penultimate competition in Lahti (FIN).
With unstable wind conditions causing the ski jumping round to be cancelled after the first 20 jumpers, results from Thursday’s provisional competition round (PCR) were used to determine starting positions for the cross-country.
That meant Schmid, winner of the PCR, and Lamparter, who finished second, starting just eight seconds apart.
But the 2022-23 champion was right in Schmid’s tracks after the first 2.5km loop and they were locked together at the front until around halfway before Lamparter broke away to open up a 11.5-second lead by 7.5km.
He extended that to 24 seconds heading into the final 1.5km and eventually took the 16th individual World Cup win of his career in 23:59.4, 27.4 seconds ahead of home favourite Ilkka Herola (FIN), who overhauled Schmid in the closing stages to back up last week’s maiden win in Oslo with his best ever result in Lahti.
Schmid took the third spot, his seventh podium of the season, but now trails Lamparter by 22 points in the overall standings heading into Sunday’s final competition, another large hill Gundersen.
Vinzenz Geiger (GER), the new overall champion, underlined his stunning form in the tracks by powering up the field from 29th at the start, 1:56 behind, to finish fourth, 52.1 seconds behind Lamparter.
With five-time champion Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) opting not to compete in Lahti after ending his career in Oslo last week, Geiger cannot be caught in the standings and will be presented with the Crystal Globe on Saturday.
More heroics from Herola
After setting a new record of 146.0m on the Holmenkollbakken HS134 hill in Oslo last weekend, Herola had declared he would try to do similar at the Salpausselkä arena in Lahti on the HS130 large hill.
While he was disappointed not to be able to jump on Friday - “I think there would have been a chance, the wind conditions were just right,” he said – he will hope for another opportunity on Saturday.
Herola started the cross-country 41 seconds behind Lamparter and 33 behind Schmid after finishing seventh in the PCR, but he swiftly moved up to third (below) to lead a chasing pack including Wendelin Thannheimer (GER), Franz-Josef Rehrl (AUT), Ryota Yamamoto (JPN), Terence Weber (GER) and Espen Andersen (NOR).
That group closed to around 24 seconds after 3.6km before Herola and Rehrl broke away from the rest and cut the deficit on Lamparter and Schmid to around 21 seconds by the halfway point.
Herola pressed on alone but couldn’t sustain his formidable pace initially, but with Schmid tiring up ahead, the Finn got his second wind.
The 29-year-old had closed to nine seconds heading into the final 1.5km and roared on by the home fans, passed the German to finish second, beating his previous best individual result in Lahti of fourth in 2023.
“The race was awesome,” Herola said. “I was surprised I was able to catch Julian. I have to say thanks to the home crowd for cheering me on."
Schmid, meanwhile, was grateful to hang on for third with compatriots Geiger, Thannheimer and Weber, who came home fourth, fifth and sixth, all finishing fast.
“I’m happy I made it to the podium," Schmid said. "I felt so, so bad on the tracks. I don’t why but after the second loop I was so tired. Then the third and last loop, I was just fighting with myself to get to the finish.”
Wind forces halt to jumping
Earlier, only the first 20 jumpers out of 60 were able to go on the HS130 hill in changeable windy conditions before the jury opted to cancel the competition round and use results from the PCR instead.
“The wind is changing so much up and down and also we don’t feel we have control in how it is; it is too unstable,” explained FIS assistant race director Jan Rune Grave.
That was unfortunate for two athletes who had impressed in the difficult conditions.
Chinese 20-year-old Haibin Fan, competing in only his third individual World Cup event after two previously in Lahti in 2023, soared out to 130.5m – 20m further than anyone else at that point - for 115.3 points, backing up his 13th place in the PCR.
After the jury dropped the start gate down first from 11 to nine, and then to seven, Richard Stenzel (GER) profited from the wind to fly out to 134.5m to take the lead with 124.8 points. But with his 16th place in the PCR, Stenzel started 1:16 behind and eventually finished 19th.
Click here for full results from Friday's Gundersen.
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