Alpen Cup victories for Orter
and Steindl in Winterberg
The first weekend of the Alpen Cup season 2013/14
is history and it has seen two Austrian victories:
Philip Orter and Fabian Steindl won in the town
of Winterberg in the Hochsauerland district of Germany.
On Saturday, Orter crossed the finish line 3,3 second
ahead of Germany's Tom Lubitz and teammate Fabian
Steindl followed 6,6 seconds after Orter. Two more
Austrians, Martin Fritz and Marco Beikircher on
ranks four and nine competed a very good team result
for the Austrian squad.
In the ski jumping part, local hero Mirko Leber
had the best result with a jump of 86 metres (122,5
p.) on Winterberg's HS 87 hill. He went out on the
cross-country track through the town center with
its many spectators with a time advantage of 6 second
on teammate Tom Lubitz who jumped 84,5 metres (121
p.) Christian Deuschl ranked third at the intermediate
point with 12 second of time disadvantage for the
cross-country race.
Winner Orter set the best cross-country time with
20:43.7 and improved from a 14th rank after ski
jumping. The second fastest time went to Frenchman
Hugo Buffard who ascended from an intermediate 22nd
to a final fifth rank. Sommer Grand Prix starter
Jan Kirchhofer from Switzerland was only slightly
slower and improved his joint 22nd rank with Buffard
to a final sixth rank.
On Sunday, the weather did not allow for the ski
jumping part to take place fully and so Friday's
PCR had to be used. Therefore, Fabian Steindl started
into the 5 kilometres of roller-skiing 14 seconds
ahead of fellow Austrians Philipp Kreuzer and Christian
Deuschl.
In the race, the 24th best time was enough for Steindl
to save his advantage into the finish before Germany's
Tom Lubitz stormed to another second place 3,7 seconds
after Steindl. Philipp Kreuzer finished third. Once
again, Philip Orter was the fastest man on the track
with a time of 10:03.6 and improved a bad jump and
intermediate 40th rank to a final 15th position.
In total, 63 athletes from six nations were starting
in Winterberg. The yellow BIB of the Alpencup leader
went to Fabian Steindl from Austria who claimed
a third and a first rank and accumulated 160 points
ex aequo to Germany's Tom Lubitz who can present
two second ranks. Philip Orter follows next on rank
three with 116 points.
