After an accident in Innsbruck – that’s what DSV in Bischofshofen is all about

On Sunday night, Karl Geiger could only put a smile on his face – the prospect of a piece of chocolate. As a frustration snack, so to speak.

The prospect of the final competition of the Four Hills Tournament on Wednesday in Bischofshofen was less tantalizing.

“Things are as good as they are,” Geiger said with a petrified and very pained expression: “It’s just frustrating.

On Sunday, the Bergisel again became the mountain of destiny for the Germans. DSV’s happy days, such as at the 2019 Nordic Ski World Championships, when Markus Eisenbichler won the Großchance gold and Geiger won the silver, are rather the exception in Innsbruck.

The reality of the Four Hills Tournament has always been: In Innsbruck, all German chances of winning the circuit vanish. In the last three years, Geiger (2020), Eisenbichler (2019) and Richard Freitag (2018) had traveled to Austria in second place overall, and then licked their wounds.

Sunday was Geiger’s first jump at just 117 meters, which ripped the German Ski Federation of all dreams. “The jump hurt a lot, it probably cost us the Four Hills Tournament,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher of the Geiger jumps: “It’s very bitter for us and for Karl.”

This is how the abused one also saw it. “Somehow it’s always been the broken neck here in the last few years,” Geiger, still on top after his victory at Oberstdorf, said at Eurosport: “Which is the same again, you just throw up.”

Until Innsbruck they waited to be able to exploit a weakness of the once so strong Halvor Egner Granerud. When this happened in the first round at Bergisel (116.5 m), the Germans could not implement it: Kamil Stoch and Dawid Kubacki stopped.

“Maybe everyone was a little scared of Bergisel,” Horngacher dug his finger deep into the German wound. “That was pretty sobering, pretty bitter. I’m pretty frustrated,” Geiger exclaimed.

For Bischofshofen (qualifying live on Tuesday from 4:30 pm Eurosport) there is only hope of a place on the podium in the evaluation of the tour.

Stoch, who regained his strength just in time for the highlights of the season, was at the top of the overall standings with his victory in Innsbruck, and is already 15.2 points ahead of his Polish compatriot and tour winner. last year, Kubacki.

Granerud (+20.6), Geiger (+24.7) and Eisenbichler (+33.4) are already far behind and will only jump to second and third place.

Even if Eisenbichler in particular is fifth overall, he doesn’t want to back down just yet. “You won’t give up,” he said aggressively: “Bischofshofen is a big hill. I jumped 150 meters there in summer. You can jump really far.”

Geiger, on the other hand, will have to rebuild it on Monday. “The day off comes just right. I need it,” he says after he had to “drive” on Sunday night: “At the moment, I could intervene anywhere. I really don’t know myself like that,” he said immediately after jumping.

A victory in the German general should no longer be seriously considered, even if Eisenbichler recalled the fate of Daniel André Tande on Sunday, who crashed in the last jump at Bischofshofen in 2017 because a safety clip on his tether had come loose. Stoch profited from it at the time and got the golden eagle.

“Much is possible,” Eisenbichler said, thinking about the tande incident: “That’s why I always say you should never give up. You always have to believe that something is possible. We will attack again.”

He’ll talk to Geiger on the day off. “I’ll talk to him when he’s calmed down a bit. We’ll deal with it. Karl is actually a happy person,” the 29-year-old said of his two-year-old friend, who was very excited about his first German overall win. Sven Hannawald had waited in 2002.

Horngacher, meanwhile, emphasized that Bischofshofen was also about an individual victory. And world cup points. “The day off will help him. In general, the World Cup, Raw Air, there is still a lot to win. He already has a great title,” he said of Geiger, who had already been crowned world ski champion in Planica.

In the meantime, Eisenbichler could bridge the gap with overall World Cup leader Granerud with superior placement. The German is second with 584 points, the Norwegian has 746. There are 100 for a victory. 16 of 26 individual World Cups are still planned after the tour.

“Bischofshofen is a very difficult hill, but if I reach the edge, it is a very good hill for me. It is a flying hill,” said Eisenbichler, third in the World Ski Flying Championships. Ergo: “I’m improving again, I’m looking forward to it.”

Also, the DSV would like to bring more than three jumpers to the final again. Severin Freund (34th), Pius Paschke (36th) and Constantin Schmid (39th) had once again disappointed in Innsbruck.

“The pressure is off the court, we can jump freely,” the national coach hopes. In Bischofshofen, above all, the training rounds have to be better designed so that you don’t have to catch up on everything before the competition. “Who knows what will happen then.”

However, Stoch and Kubacki will most likely fight for victory against each other. The latter had won at Bischofshofen the previous year and even set a new hill record in qualifying (145.0 meters).

Stoch had gradually improved over the past few weeks to Innsbruck and, after finishing second at Oberstdorf and fourth at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he won his first win of the season at just the right time. History speaks for him too: in 23 out of 26 cases, the Innsbruck frontman also won the tour.

“The boss is back,” analyzed former national coach Werner Schuster at Eurosport. His second jump in Innsbruck was “a feast for the eyes”: “He won rightly.” Eurosport expert Martin Schmitt also praised: “Kamil was amazing. It was a tough competition. He made no mistakes. He approved of his opportunity.”

So Horngacher had to admit at the end: “Kamil has once again proved who the boss is in the ring. He does it again without mercy. Congratulations to him. He’s a great jumper.”

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