Nordic Combined 2016 - 2017 Discussion Thread

[hckošice 14,822]

Team Germany can’t stop winning in Chaux-Neuve

 

Fabian Rießle took the win in the second Individual Gundersen event in Chaux-Neuve. In another German podium sweep, Rießle took the victory in a strong finish against teammate and yesterday’s winner Johannes Rydzek (+2.2 seconds). Eric Frenzel returned to the podium on the third position, finishing 7.9 seconds behind the winner. 

 

Jarl Riiber proved to be unbeatable on the jumping hill one more time but today, the result was closer than yesterday. 115 metres from gate 16 gave Riiber 139.8 points but only a 16-second head start on young Austrian Franz-Josef Rehrl, who continues in strong jumping shape. 113 metres (gate 19, 135.7 p.) put Rehrl in second and directly ahead of teammate Bernhard Gruber. Gruber showed 114 metres and accumulated a total of 131.7 points. 32 seconds of time to make up had Gruber starting 2 seconds ahead of World Cup dominator Eric Frenzel, who was out for blood after his unlucky day yesterday. He showed 113 metres (131.2 points).

Local hero Francois Braud positioned himself on the intermediate sixth rank with 41 seconds to catch up. A strong group of skiers went out on the track around the one minute mark: Fabian Rießle made his ambitions for victory clear with 111 metres and just 44 seconds to take in, Johannes Rydzek followed at +0:52. Magnus Krog and Björn Kircheisen has 56 and 57 seconds to make up respectively and „Le Roi Magnus“ Moan started exactly at +1:00.

Leader Riiber was caught in the stadium at the 5 kilometre mark as yesterday and from then on, it was a huge train leading the field. 20 athletes skied together for the biggest part of the race. The leading group contained all big favourites: Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek, Magnus Moan and Magnus Krog as well as Bernhard Gruber and Björn Kircheisen but also surprises like young French athlete Antoine Gerard and Austrians Franz-Josef Rehrl and Paul Gerstgraser. The crowd was enthusiastic about local hero Francois Braud also accompanying the leading group.

As yesterday, the decision was made on the last lap. When the Germans accelerated the speed, all other nations were hard pressed to follow. Rydzek, Rießle and Frenzel went to battle the podium out between themselves and by the 8.6 kilometre point, Magnus Moan, Björn Kircheisen, Magnus Krog, Akito Watabe, Samuel Costa, FJ Rehrl and the rest of the group had to let go.

It was Rießle who had the strongest sprint in the end and Rydzek and Frenzel had to concede defeat. Behind the top three, Magnus Krog beat young Austrian Paul Gerstgraser for the fourth rank but with a new career best, the 21-year-old will not be too disappointed. Watabe, Kircheisen and Gruber filled up the Top Ten ranks and local hero Antoine Gerard delighted with the first Top Ten position of his career with rank 10.

 

 

Full Results Here

 

[dcro 10,210]

Lol, Germany has won all of the individual races so far this season.

[hckošice 14,822]

Rydzek beats Frenzel by a foot's breadth in Seefeld

 

A photo finish had to decide the victory on the first day of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE in Seefeld. Johannes Rydzek made sensation reality and beat "Mr. Seefeld" Eric Frenzel by half a foot or "my shoe size 44 over Eric's 42" in the end. Samuel Costa captured his career-first individual podium, finishing 6.8 seconds behind Rydzek.

 

In the jumping round, Berhard Gruber from Austria delighted the audience with another one of his „Berni-bombs“. A fantastic jump of 107 metres gave him the intermediate lead going out on the track. Italian jumping sensation Samuel Costa jumped to the second rank with 106 metres and a point total of 137.5 points put him four seconds behind Gruber on the track. Eric Frenzel had 102 metres to show for but in more difficult conditions, this just put him only eleven seconds behind the leader Gruber.

 

Local hero David Pommer held the fourth position at the start of the race and together with Johannes Rydzek on rank five, he went out at the 18/19 second mark. In the race, these five athletes quickly formed a leading group, after Gruber and Costa took it easy on the first of two 2.5 km loops.

On the flat part leading to the last ascent of the second 2.5 km loop, Rydzek and Frenzel went away from the three other athletes, so it became apparent that the fight for the victory would only be between these two athletes. Rydzek tried to go away on the uphill but Frenzel wasn’t having any of this and so the fight was taken all the way to the finish line. In the end, it was just a couple of centimetres that decided the winner: Johannes Rydzek.

Behind the two Germans, Samuel Costa skied a courageous last lap and held David Pommer behind him, taking his career-first podium in the process. Pommer will not be too unhappy, taking a career-best result in his hometown of all places at the same time. Akito Watabe battled down Bernhard Gruber for the fifth position. The rest of the Top Ten spots were taken up by Fabian Rießle, Ilkka Herola, Manuel Faißt and Jan Schmid. 

 

 

Full Results Here

 

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,822]

Rydzek stays on top in the Nordic Combined TRIPLE

 

Johannes Rydzek has also won the second event of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE. Again, he wrestled down Eric Frenzel in a finish line sprint and finished one second ahead of his teammate. Samuel Costa with another amazing performance captured the third place again and followed yesterday's third place with the second podium result of his career. 

 

The results after the jumping event couldn’t have been tighter if they’d tried: Johannes Rydzek won the event with a 0.1 point lead on Bernhard Gruber and Samuel Costa who tied for the second intermediate place. 133.4 points for Rydzek after a 103.5 metre jump and 133.3 points for Gruber and Costa (both 106.5 m) meant all three athletes started at the same time in the 10 km cros-country race.

Eric Frenzel was in an excellent position to attack, just 4 seconds after the leading trio. Teammate Fabian Rießle was also overjoyed with his jump of 105 metres which meant an intermediate position six for the German and just 23 seconds to make up. Akito Watabe followed on position seven with +0:41.

 

 

 

Full Results Here

 

 

 

[heywoodu 15,135]

Two fantastic fights so far, Rydzek vs Frenzel is definitely one of the best head-to-head fights in winter sports this season 

[hckošice 14,822]

"King" Eric Frenzel has the last laugh at the TRIPLE

 

Seefeld and Eric Frenzel - the love story continues. After having been beaten narrowly by teammate Johannes Rydzek two days in a row, Frenzel retook his rightful place as the „King of Seefeld“ today. He beat Rydzek by 30.5 seconds at the finish of the last 15 km cross-country race. World Champion Bernhard Gruber took the remaining spot on the podium, finishing one minute and 18 seconds behind Frenzel.

 

After two rounds of jumping of the best 30 athletes of the TRIPLE, Johannes Rydzek maintained his lead. The German showed 106 and 105.5 metres and proved he has returned to a steady good jumping shape after struggling in the beginning of January. Rydzek held a total 285.4 points after his two jumps, which translated into a 18-second head start on Austrian Bernhard Gruber.

Gruber delighted the audience with two jumps of 107.5 metres, which put the reigning World Champion into the second position. Fellow Austrian Mario Seidl also gained two positions after jumping 107.5 and 109 metres, the longest jump of the day. Title defender Eric Frenzel was also still in the running as he showed 106 and 106.5 metres. With 20 seconds to make up on the 15 kilometres, he started at the same time as Mario Seidl (280.5 and 280.4 points respectively).

Yesterday’s podium sensation Samuel Costa from Italy was having slightly weaker jumps today: 106 and 104.5 metres were good but gave him the difficult task to make up 43 seconds on leader Johannes Rydzek. Behind Costa, a bigger gap opened up to pursuer Fabian Rießle. The German had to take on a time disadvantage of one minute and 34 seconds, hard to do but not impossible for the very strong skier on a distance of 15 km. For Akito Watabe and Terence Weber, who ranked seventh and eighth, start delays of around two minutes made the task to fight for the podium very difficult.

 

The long „unusual“ 15 kilometres started out with Johannes Rydzek working alone to keep his advantage approximately until the halfway point of the race. Eric Frenzel, Mario Seidl and Bernhard Gruber started out together with Eric Frenzel stepping on the gas to close the gap to his teammate who was skiing ahead. At some point, the speed got too high for the two Austrians and from then on, it was a fight Germany - Germany for the first two spots on the podium and Austria - Austria for the third place.

On the fifth lap Frenzel set an attack and to the surprise of many, Rydzek was not able to follow anymore. The gap between the two got bigger and bigger and while Frenzel skied towards a triumphal finish, Rydzek reached the end of the race with a big distance and was visibly crestfallen. Mario Seidl and Bernhard Gruber fought man to man for the third rank until the finish line - with the veteran edging out the up-and-coming young athlete today. Samuel Costa successfully defended his fifth position against Fabian Rießle.

Magnus Krog improved to a seventh position, Ilkka Herola finished eighth, Akito Watabe ninth and Björn Kircheisen entered the Top Ten on rank ten. With today's result, Eric Frenzel also retakes his yellow bib of the World Cup leader.

 

 

Full Results Here

 

[hckošice 14,822]

Juniors World Championships Results Thread updated Here

[hckošice 14,822]

Rydzek strikes back at Olympic test event in PyeongChang

 

After losing out to his teammate Eric Frenzel in the last TRIPLE race last Sunday, Johannes Rydzek was back to his winning ways in PyeongChang today. He won with 20 seconds over Mario Seidl from Austria who captured his first podium result in the World Cup today.

 

Fabian Rießle beat Eric Frenzel in a finish line sprint and was third, +38.3 seconds behind Rydzek. With this result, Johannes Rydzek takes back the yellow bib of the World Cup leader from Eric Frenzel.

 

Mario Seidl had a really good time on the large hill in PyeongChang and dominated every jumping round held here so far. The competition round of the first Individual Gundersen event was no exception: 136 metres and 139.9 points meant to the top spot and a head start of 29 seconds on Germany’s Johannes Rydzek who seems to be able to stabilise his good jumping performances again. 135.5 metres and 132.6 points put the German in the second position and made his a big favourite for the victory of the day.

Franz-Josef Rehrl also repeated his strong performance of the PCR and claimed the third intermediate position, 39 seconds behind leader and teammate Seidl. Fabian Rießle and Eric Frenzel were able to ski together from the start of the race, starting with delays of 56 and 57 seconds, so the three Germans seemed to be en route for the podium again. On top of this, Manuel Faißt joined a strong team performance with the intermediate fourth position, starting into the race 40 seconds behind leader Seidl.  

 

The race started as a lonely affair for Mario Seidl but he was soon joined by Johannes Rydzek who closed the 30-second gap in the first phase of the race. After this, Seidl and Rydzek worked together to avoid losing the gap to the pursuing skiers. Fabian Rießle, Eric Frenzel, Tim Hug and Manuel Faißt worked tried their utmost to get closer to the Rydzek and Seidl but to no avail: the gap did not shrink.

When Rydzek set an attack on the last lap, Seidl was not able to follow him but in total the Austrian skied a very strong race and ended up on the first World Cup podium of his career deservedly. Fabian Rießle was the strongest in a finish line sprint with Eric Frenzel, Jan Schmid improved rank nine to the final fifth position and Manuel Faißt ended up on the sixth position.

The rest of the Top Ten ranks went to Tim Hug, Yoshito Watabe, Franz-Josef Rehrl and Akito Watabe. Local hero Je-Un Park finished the race on position 31. 

 

 

Full Results Here

 

[dcro 10,210]

Rydzek beats Frenzel in a photo finish, once again.

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by dcro

[heywoodu 15,135]

1 hour ago, dcro said:

Rydzek beats Frenzel in a photo finish, once again.

 

After clawing back 1:16 minutes on an in-form Seidl in no-time 

 

It would have been nice if it was a rivalry with two nationalities, but nonetheless Rydzek vs Frenzel is by far one of the best season-long fights of the past few years of winter sports 

Edited February 5, 2017 by heywoodu