Update from Nove Mesto
The series continues — at least one German skier among the Top 3 in a long-distance World Cup race. Tobias Angerer showed with his 3rd place behind Vincent Vittoz and Christian Hoffmann that he is a serious contender in skate races. Sommerfeldt shows great consistency this season and finished 5th again. Teichmann never got going on the hard, but short course and ended up 24th, behind a new recruit in the German World Cup team, Tom Reichelt-20th. Youngster Franz Goering completed a good day for Ze Germans with his 25th place.
On the women’s side Claudia Kuenzel showed her strength in the start, was leading after 2.1k, but had to pay for the high tempo and ended up 9th. Evi Sachenbacher showed that she is coming back, finished 12th, but did not seem very happy about that result. Katerina Neumannova didn’t take any prisoners on her home course and took the win over Marit Bjorgen who was on the podium for the 8th time in 10 races.
Wolf Wallendorf — 01/15/2005
World Cup — Pragelato
Women’s 15 Pursuit:
Kuenzel on the podium (3rd) and Bauer 7th was the best result this season for the German women in a pursuit World Cup race. Kristin Steira (NOR) and Katerina Neumannova (CZE) were the dominating women’s field today. Evi Sachenbacher was able to finish 16th, and said that she could not follow the leaders in the classical part of the race, but then was able to come back. Overall, the German women are sure that the performance curve is going up these days — a good sign for Oberstdorf.
Men’s 30k Pursuit:
The winning streak of Ze German men in Pursuit races this season was stopped in Pragelato — the Olympic course in 2006. Angerer (5th), Sommerfeldt(7th), and Teichmann (11th) delivered still a respectable team result. The wining time was posted by Lukas Bauer (CZE). Fredriksson (SWE) and Skjeldal (NOR) completed the podium for the men with a very close finish.
Not everyone was able to adjust to the altitude of Pragelato. Vincent Vittoz (FRA), who is the closest right now to Teichmann in the overall ranking, struggled quite a bit and came in 41st. Jens Filbrich, still recovering from his sick days, came in 46th, but is positive that it is going better every day.
So long, Wolf Wallendorf
01/24/05
Source: www.xc-ski.de
