World Cup leader Johannes Rydzek has returned to the top of the podium in the Austrian venue of Ramsau am Dachstein. After an intense fight until the finish line, Rydzek proved to be the stronger man in a duel with teammate Fabian Rießle (+1.5). Eric Frenzel claimed the third position (+8.7) and Vinzenz Geiger made the German glory day complete with a fourth place.

Frenzel ruled supreme in the ski jumping part of the event and had a fantastic, long jump of 100.5 metres. His 138.9 points gave him the pole position for the race, two seconds ahead of local hero Mario Seidl who showed 99.5 metres (138.4 p.). Johannes Rydzek contined to display his improved jumping skills with 97 metres and the intermediate third position which put him 10 seconds behind his teammate.

In true Ramsau-style, the start list for the race did not show any bigger gaps. All 50 athletes started within two minutes and eight seconds, promising an intense and tactical race. Another German triple victory seemed a distinct possibility with Fabian Rießle jumping to rank seven with 96 metres. He had to make up 30 seconds on his teammate Eric Frenzel and had Japanese superstar Akito Watabe hot on his heels who had a time behind of 31 seconds. Espen Andersen and Magnus Krog were the best Norwegians on ranks five (+0:15) and twelve (0:40).

The race was the expected close affair but in the end, a top group of seven athletes could tear a small gap between them and a large group of athletes finishing around one minute behind the leaders. This large group of athletes was skating in close proximity, even resulting in one mass traffic jam at the bottom of the large uphills. 

The top athletes at the head of the field were undisturbed by these kind of shuffles and for the first part, Eric Frenzel and Mario Seidl tried to stay ahead of their pursuers. But already on the second lap, the tempo proved to be to high for the young Austrian and also Eric Frenzel was eventually caught by his teammates Johannes Rydzek and Fabian Rießle. On the last lap, Frenzel even had to let go of these two and it was Rydzek and Rießle who decided the victory between themselves. Their young teammate Vinzenz Geiger skied an enormously strong race again and finished on a career-best fourth, resulting in the first German quadruple victory since 1987 (Lahti). 

The young generation of up and coming athletes claimed many of the top ten positions again with Norway’s Espen Andersen finishing fifth, David Pommer on rank seven and Mario Seidl on eight. Bernhard Gruber returned to the top results with rank nine and veteran Björn Kircheisen claimed another respectable tenth position.

Source: fis-ski.com