...
Deuxième après le saut tout juste derrière l'Allemagne, l'équipe de France a longtemps cru garder sa position.
Devant les Allemands n'ont pas laissé la place au suspense en prenant le large dès le premier relais avec Eric Frenzel qui distançait Maxime Laheurte.
Ensuite les Tricolores n'ont rien lâché mais devant leur courageux public, les hommes de Ronny Ackermann ont tout fait pour l'emporter.
Edelmann, Kircheisen et Rydzek ont bouclé le travail.
Les Français terminent finalement au troisième rang avec un Jason Lamy-Chappuis qui s'est fait reprendre à 1 km de l'arrivée par un Jörgen Graabak déchainé.
Revenu comme une fusée sur le Japon, puis sur l'équipe de France, le champion olympique Norvégien offre une seconde place quasi inespérée à sa formation.
On retrouvera les combinés dimanche pour une épreuve individuelle à condition qu'il reste encore un peu de neige en Forêt Noire voisine !!
...
Les réactions
Tino Edelmann (GER) in German: „The team event in Schonach today, well, it was pretty wet, especially towards the end. The jumping was a windy event but went pretty well for us and we were able to defend out first rank in the cross-country. And now I will be putting on dry clothes and get into bed! (laughs)"
Jan Schmid (NOR): „We always start team competitions to win them. Today, that didn’t work out. We didn’t do the job on the hill and we didn’t do the job on the cross-country track. Some of us were fast and some not and some jumped far and some didn’t and then we don’t deserve better. When you take this into consideration, the second place is pretty good. We have to congratulate the Germans, they were strong on the hill and fast on the track and the definitely deserve the win. We try again next time."
Maxime Laheurte (FRA): „For the French team, it was a great day. Especially in the competition round in ski jumping, all four of us had good jumps. The race today was very very exciting because there were a lot of teams close together and also in these conditions, it was really exciting. We are very very happy to be on the podium today."
...