At the same time as the World Cup athletes were gathered in Ramsau am Dachstein, the OPA Alpen Cup also started into its winter season in Seefeld. Strong skier Bernhard Flaschberger skied his way to victory from an intermediate seventh rank and crossed the 6,2 seconds ahead of David Welde and Terence Weber, both from Germany.
After the ski jumping part, Austria's Fabian Steindl had been in the lead with a jump of 106 metres on Seefeld's HS 109 hill. With 128 points, he went out on the 10 kilometre cross-country track four second ahead of teammate Janni Reisenauer who jumped 105,5 metres. Terence Weber already claimed the third rank after jumping with 103,5 metres and 22 seconds of time disadvantage for the race. Future winner Flaschberger set a good 101,5 metres which put him only 38 seconds behind the leader for the cross-country race - no problem for the Tyrolian.
Flaschberger powered around the 2,5-kilometre track and in the end, the third fastest cross-country time of 25:24.0 was enough for Flaschberger to secure and undisputed win. The only two athletes faster than Flaschberger were David Welde who improved from rank 13 to 2 with the second fastest time and Paul Gerstgrasser who skied the fastest race with 24:47.9 and improved 32 ranks from 36 to four.
For the overall, this means Terence Weber has extended his lead on Fabian Steindl and now boasts 317 points. Steindl follows with 279, Philip Orter lies in third with 246.
Another Individual Gundersen competition is on schedule in Seefeld tomorrow.
