The German combination Olympic champions have clearly missed the podium at the World Cup team sprint in Lahti, Finland. After a messed up jumping, Johannes Rydzek (Oberstdorf) and Fabian Rießle (Breitnau) only managed to finish fifth in front of Eric Frenzel (Oberwiesenthal) and Vinzenz Geiger (Oberstdorf).
Austria’s oldies Bernhard Gruber (35) and Willi Denifl (37) secured victory in the second and last team sprint of the Olympic season with a 0.8-second lead over the Norwegians Jörgen Graabak and Jan Schmid. Finns Iilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen finished third (+2.1 seconds).
Rydzek, who had won all four World Championship titles in Lahti last year, and Rießle were 1’22.9 minutes behind. Both, however, did not reach their limits on the final rounds of the cross-country skiing race any more than Frenzel/Geiger (+1:37.9), who had won the first team sprint of the season in Val di Fiemme in January.
After a weak jump, Rydzek/Rießle were only seventh, Frenzel/Geiger was only tenth. During the jump there were longer delays, because the data transmission at the jump had failed. Among other things, it was not possible to calculate the correct wind points. The official result was not known until long after jumping.
On Sunday (10 a. m. and 2.45 p. m. CET/ARD and Eurosport) Lahti will host an individual competition. However, Frenzel has no chance of his sixth overall World Cup victory, even Rießle and Rydzek can’t get close to the leading duo with Japanese Akito Watabe and Schmid.