Nordic combined: Les Bleus just off the podium in Chaux-Neuve
The gap was too big to make up. At the start of the men’s wheel-ski pursuit in the gundersen of the Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix in Chaux-Neuve (Doubs), Florian Kolb, Johannes Rydzek and Richard Stenzel were within touching distance of each other at the head of the race.
For two of the four laps, they teamed up as a trio and managed to hold off the Frenchmen Laurent Muhlethaler and Marco Heinis as well as the Czech Jiri Konvalinka by around thirty seconds. It looked like anything was still possible for Les Bleus.
No one cracked at the front, where Johannes Rydzek logically made the difference to raise his arms in the streets of the city of Doubs. His compatriot Richard Stenzel was second at 12.9 seconds and Austrian Florian Kolb third at 20.2 seconds.
Six Frenchmen in the top 20 at the finish
Jura’s Laurent Muhlethaler had to make do with fourth place at 28 sec 7, while Marco Heinis finished a fine fifth, 36 sec 1 behind the leader. All in all, the atmosphere in the Haut-Doubs was indescribable.
Jiri Konvalinka, Samuel Costa, Simon Mach and Tristan Sommerfeldt then crossed the finish line ahead of France’s Gaël Blondeau, tenth, Mattéo Baud, eleventh, and Maël Tyrode, twelfth.
Further back, Edgar Vallet was sixteenth, Tom Rochat twenty-second, Lubin Martin twenty-ninth and Lilian Tréand thirty-seventh.
Full results
2026NK4108ROFThe general classification of the Summer Grand Prix
2026NK4108STGP- The full programme for the Grand Prix d’été de Chaux-Neuve, the second round of the summer tour
- Seven riders in Oberstdorf on Wednesday, fourteen this weekend in Chaux-Neuve: the French team’s selection for the first two legs of the summer Grand Prix.
- Tara Geraghty-Moats continues the summer Grand Prix with a trip to Chaux-Neuve
- Chaux-Neuve: Romane Baud fourth in the pocket jump won by Minja Korhonen, Léna Brocard and Marion Droz-Vincent also in the top 10
- Grand Prix d’été de Chaux-Neuve: the men’s pocket jump, cancelled for today, will take place on Saturday morning
- Chaux-Neuve : Laurent Muhlethaler third in the reserve jump-off at the Summer Grand Prix
- Grand Prix d’été de Chaux-Neuve: after the jump won by Minja Korhonen, Romane Baud is second in the gundersen
- Chaux-Neuve: Austrian Florian Kolb leads the gundersen after the jump, Marco Heinis and Laurent Muhlethaler in the mix
- Chaux-Neuve: Nathalie Armbruster logically wins the gundersen, Tara Geraghty-Moats still fourth, Romane Baud and Léna Brocard in the top 10
