Val di Fiemme NC: Bieler takes overall lead

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy — Christoph Bieler of Austria won a Nordic combined World Cup event Saturday for his third victory of the season.

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy — Christoph Bieler of Austria won a Nordic combined World Cup event Saturday for his third victory of the season.
    The win moved Bieler into first place in the World Cup standings.
    Bieler finished with 241.7 points, 3.5 more than teammate Felix Gottwald. American Bill Demong was 16th Saturday.
    Jason Lamy Chappuis — born in Montana where his French parents went to college — was third with 237.5 points.
    ''I am really happy,'' Bieler said. ''My race wasn't the best one, however I am really satisfied with my jumps.''
    Bieler was 25th after the 10-kilometer, mass-start race — behind leader Hannu Manninen of Finland — but rallied in the jumps, coming second to Norway's Espen Rian.
    After nine of 19 races, Bieler has 496 points, 41 more than Manninen, who finished sixth.
    Magnus-H Moan of Norway has 428 points in third place.
    The mass-start event reverses the normal combined format of jumping followed by cross-country. The mass start begins with a 10 km and ends with two rounds of jumping; the field is cut to 30 after the first round of normal-hill jumping.
    Demong, whose cross-country skiing is the best of his career, raced to seventh place but jumped 91 and 93.5 meters to finish 16th with 218.2. Johnny Spillane and Brett Camerota did not make the final round of jumping.
    The World Cup Cup weekend concludes Sunday with a team event before leaving Val di Fiemme, the 1991 and 2003 World Championships site, and heads to Seefeld, Austria, venue for the 1985 worlds. The U.S. worlds team will be named later this for the 2007 championships Feb. 22-March 3 in Sapporo, Japan.

World Cup Nordic Combined
VAL DI FIEMME, Italy — Results Saturday from a World Cup nordic combined event (10-kilometer cross-country and ski jumping results in parentheses):
1. Christoph Bieler, Austria, 241.7 points (25 minutes, 39.1 seconds-138 points).
2. Felix Gottwald, Austria, 238.2 (24:40.8-120).
3. Jason Lamy Chappuis, France, 237.5 (25:28.5-131).
4. Havard Klemetsen, Norway, 234.7 (25:15.7-125).
5. Magnus-H. Moan, Norway, 233.7 (24:34.9-114).
6. Hannu Manninen, Finland, 233 (24:34.3-113).
7. Mario Stecher, Austria, 228.5 (25:27.9-122).
8. Petter L. Tande, Norway, 227.2 (25:17.7-118).
9. Bernhard Gruber, Austria, 226.5 (25:47.9-125).
10. Jaakko Tallus, Finland, 226 (25:38.6-122).

World Cup standings
(after 9 of 19 events)
1. Christoph Bieler, Austria, 496 points.
2. Hannu Manninen, Finland, 455.
3. Magnus-H. Moan, Norway, 428.
4. Jason Lamy Chappuis, France, 368.
5. Sebastian Haseney, Germany, 325.
6. Anssi Koivuranta, Finland, 323.
7. Felix Gottwald, Austria, 309.
8. Ronny Ackermann, Germany, 261.
9. Petter L. Tande, Norway, 243.
10. Maxime Laheurte, France, 221.

Click here for complete results.