North.

Combination World Champion Johannes Rydzek will start into his first World Cup as Germany’s Sportsman of the Year on Friday in Val di Fiemme under more difficult conditions:”The entire team had to fight with a gastrointestinal virus last week,”said national coach Hermann Weinbuch:”This means that we are currently still a little weakened and have to see how our athletes withstand the strain of three races in three days”.

After the involuntarily long Christmas break – the competitions in the Estonian town of Otepää last week were cancelled due to lack of snow – the Trentino for Rydzek, Eric Frenzel and Co. into the decisive season phase with the climax Olympia. The prelude in the old year ran bumpy, especially the arch-rivals from Norway annoyed the German “dominators” regularly and lead the World Cup with Jan Schmid and Espen Andersen.

“It’s a pity that Otepää has dropped out – it’s a pity that some time has passed since the World Cup in Ramsau,” said the five-time overall World Cup winner Frenzel, who is currently only the German number three in the season’s ranking, eighth behind Rydzek (4th) and Fabian Rießle (7th). That’s why we went to Seefeld during the compulsory break and took part in two test competitions with the Austrians.”

For Frenzel, Val di Fiemme could be the season’s turning point – he has best memories of the Fleimstal: in 2013, he won the world championship there, and last year he won both individual races. This time again, two individual competitions will be held on Friday and Sunday, with a team sprint on Saturday.