The U.S. team was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup Finals Team event, a mostly for fun dual GS formatted race scored for the Nations Cup standings and little else.

Ousted by the Czech Republic the U.S. was among several power teams not advancing into the second round. Norway and the hosting German team both were cast to the sidelines as well.

As it turned out, it was no disgrace at all as the Czechs  (Lucie Hrstkova, Sarka Zahrobska, Ondrej Bank and Krystof Kryzl) went on to claim the event win taking out Austria in the semi-finals and Switzerland in the finals.

Bank was undefeated as the Czech plowed through the field and his fastest time broke the point scoring tie with Switzerland in the final match up.

The final Nations Cup tally is Austria 9207-Switzerland 7363 - Italy 5093 - France 4428, USA 4131.

Photo by GEPA, from left Bank, Zahrobska, Hrstkova and Kryzl.