“This is one of those days you dream about. Everything went well. I woke up and felt great and just carried that into the race,” Bryan Fletcher said to FasterSkier as he completed his cooldown.
“I had a good comp jump and Todd (Lodwick) was right in front of me, so I knew I could start out at my own pace and ski with him. I skied my own race the whole way, and on the last lap I was just ecstatic,” Fletcher said.
Bryan Fletcher was 13th after jumping, while Todd Lodwick was 10, so they started the cross-country only five seconds apart, 24 and 29 seconds behind the leaders respectively.
Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett was excited for Bryan Fletcher’s race, both on the hill and on the course, and notes that Todd Lodwick also skied a great race until the last lap.
Lodwick lost his ski in a contact encounter on his last lap. He had to retrieve his ski, get the snow out of the bindings and proceed to race, but lost substantial time and focus from the mishap, Jarrett explained. Lodwick still skied in to finish in 18 place.
Mario Stecher (AUT), who won Saturday’s race, continued his winning streak on home turf, while Tino Edelmann (GER) was second and Eric Frenzel (GER) was third. Taylor Fletcher was 37, Nick Hendrickson 45 and Eric Camerota 59. Complete results here.
Inge Scheve
Inge is FasterSkier's international reporter, born and bred in Norway. A cross-country ski racer and mountain runner, she also dabbles on two wheels in the offseason. If it's steep and long, she loves it. Follow her on Twitter: @IngeScheve.
