Vinzenz Geiger took 69 seconds behind Jarl Magnus Riiber on Saturday (December 17, 2022) in the Nordic Combined in Ramsau – in the end he sensationally won.
It hadn’t looked like that at all before. In the morning competition, which was disappointing from a German point of view, only Manuel Faißt finished ninth in the top ten. Geiger botched his performance from the hill and had to start from 14th place chasing Riiber, who had already won the day before.
Full attack from the start
But Geiger tried from the first meter of the ten-kilometer run. After just seven minutes, he and Faißt had made up Riiber’s first chasing group. And Geiger didn’t hesitate, immediately took the lead as the locomotive. The Norwegian’s lead melted and melted, at kilometer five it was only 25 seconds.
In the third of the four laps, Riiber then realized that he couldn’t do anything on his own against the speeding competitors and dropped back into the group. When 1.7 kilometers before the end Jørgen Gråbak next to Riiber stumbled on a steep climb, Geiger risked everything – and jumped away from the front.
Lamparter in second place
The Austrian Johannes Lamparter then organized another pursuit – but he only managed second place – ahead of Riiber and Grabak.
Geiger was then enthusiastic about the Sportschau microphone: “There was no plan behind it. I just gave it my all. I thought I felt good and if you don’t try, you won’t make it either. I’ve improved constantly over the course of the season – and now I’m at the top.”
Long with great mileage
As the second best German, Julian Schmid finished eighth, Manuel Faißt was ninth. Jakob Lange and Fabian Rießle moved up from places 27 and 28 to positions eleven and twelve.