A highlight after the low point: Johannes Rydzek coped well with the Olympic disappointment and stormed onto the podium at the ski flying premiere in the Nordic Combined World Cup in Bad Mitterndorf/Austria. The 34-year-old from Oberstdorf only had to admit defeat in third place on Friday to the Finnish Ilkka Herola and the Austrian Johannes Lamparter.
Eight days after dramatically missing out on an Olympic medal, Rydzek won the sprint of a large group for third place in the Val di Fiemme team sprint with Vinzenz Geiger. After a flight from the huge Bakken on the Kulm and the cross-country skiing over 7.5 km in the run-out of the jump, Herola prevailed with a lead of 0.1 seconds over Lamparter, who is close to his second overall World Cup victory.
Rydzek was 16.2 seconds behind. Wendelin Thannheimer in eighth place and Julian Schmid in ninth place also made it into the top 10. Geiger only came in 17th after a weak flight.
In the spectacular flying in the morning, which opened a combined competition for the first time, Rydzek came seventh with 212.5 m. The other two Olympic participants Schmid (17th/196.5) and Geiger (22nd/195.0) were clearly behind. Because the time intervals in the compact format are determined according to the placements, the jump weaknesses were not too significant.
Lamparter, who jumped 236.5 m, therefore only started with a small lead over Herola. The best DSV starter on the giant hill was David Mach in fourth place with 220.5 m, Mach had already sailed to 236.0 m in training on Thursday.
