Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber won his tenth World Cup victory this season, beating out Finland’s IIkka Herola in Klingenthal by 0.5 seconds. The race, which was held on Sunday, still went underway, despite snowy and stormy weather conditions. However, jumping was not possible in these conditions, which meant Friday’s (February 1st) provisional competition jumps had to be used instead).
Riiber completed the cross-country race in 28 minutes 42.3 seconds. This win makes Riiber the leader of the World Cup standings, with a total of 1,258 points. His closest competitor, Johannes Rydzek of Germany is 497 points behind, with a score of 761. The great thing for Riiber is, there are only 400 more points to be distributed in the upcoming races in Lahti, Oslo, and Schonach according to the World Cup calendar. This means Riiber can call himself the Nordic Combined overall World Cup winner 2018/19.
Riiber managed to make a jump of 130 metres, putting him in the fourth position, starting 15-seconds behind. Faißt was in first position with 135 metres. Austria’s Willi Denifl was in second position with 137.5 metres, while Franz-Josef Rehrl reached 129 metres to make third position.
Even with his 15-second delay, Riiber closed the gap between him and the front-headers Franz-Josef Rehrl and Willi Denifl after the first lap.
It was a tight race the whole way through, that is, until Riiber made his move and took over Herola to take out his victory.
Even though the overall title winner is clear, the races still continue in Lahti, in Finland on Friday February 8th.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Ski World Cup & Championships in our blog.