Seconde manche du GP estival ce mercredi à Villach avec une très belle participation et une grosse bagarre entre les Norvégiens et les Allemands arbitrés par le Japonais Watabe, vainqueur à Oberwiesenthal.
Haavrd Klemetsen, toujours à l'aise en saut, a pris l'avantage sur le tremplin. Avec un saut à 94m, il termine la manche en tête avec quelques secondes de marge sur le surprenant Allemand Tobias Haug et le Japonais Taihei Kato.
Deux heures plus tard plusieurs centaines de spectateurs assistaient au 10km en ski-roues. Un groupe de cinq composé de Klemetsen, Gruber, Schmid, Watabe et Kircheisen allait prendre le commandement de la course. Après avoir collaboré durant une bonne vingtaine de minutes ils se sont expliqués au sprint avec un avantage pour Klemetsen.
Le Norvégien s'offre une belle victoire et termine la journée sur le podium en compagnie de l'Autrichien Gruber et de son compatriote Schmid. Journée faste également pour Magnus Moan qui remonte du 30e au 6e rang en signant le meilleur temps de ski, une habitude pour le combiné de Trondheim.
Au classement général du GP, Akito Watabe mène devant Gruber et Klemetsen. Dernière étape vendredi et samedi à Oberstdorf.
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Les réactions :
Haavard Klemetsen (NOR): "I am really pleased with my performance today. My jumping was okay, I can jump even better than that but it was stable and I was winning with a small margin. In the cross-country I was a bit better than I expected! So it was really fun to be in the race for the victory. I knew that I am strong in the sprint so I took the chance and it was really perfect."
Bernhard Gruber (AUT) - "I had an aggressive jump today and managed to fly in the second part of the jump. We know this track very well and so it was amazing to race it with the international competition. I have been racing rather offensively because I know the track very well. It was interesting how we worked together in the group and in the end, I tried to get away but Kircheisen and Klemetsen caught up with me and got a little bit in my way. Maybe I could have followed Haavard but Björn closed the turn for me a little bit. But never mind! I am really satisfied with my second place!
Jan Schmid (NOR) - "My jumping was surprising to me today after it has been rather bad in Oberwiesenthal. That hill didn't suit me at all. But here it was better from the first jump onwards and in the competition I made my best jump here which gave me a good starting position. The race was tough. We were a fast group. If you have two or three people racing together and Haavard is still with you in the last lap, I knew he was going to win. So I had to try to keep up with him as long a possible. I tried and I came in third. Usually when you have a sprint, I am fifth out of five, so rank three was a great result for me! "
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Le classement complet ICI
Photo : Nordic Focus