USA Seventh in Chaux Neuve Combined

CHAUX NEUVE, France (Jan. 12) – Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) battled for the lead throughout the team sprint but eventually settled for seventh Sunday in the FIS World Cup nordic combined team event in Chaux Neuve. The duo finished five seconds back from the Germany 2 team, who took the victory. Olympic selection continues for U.S. athletes next weekend at the Seefeld World Cup, with team nominations to be announced Jan. 22.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) battled for the lead throughout the team sprint but eventually settled for seventh Sunday in the FIS World Cup nordic combined team event in Chaux Neuve.
• The duo finished five seconds back, improving on a 31-second deficit in the start after jumping into sixth place.
• A second U.S. team, consisting of Brett Denney (Steamboat Springs, CO) and anchor Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO), finished 16th after jumping into the 20th spot.
• Fabian Riessle and Tino Edelmann of the Germany 2 team took the victory.
• Slim snow conditions forced the race onto a narrow band of snow in the French resort, which made for a tightly packed track during the sprints.
• Olympic selection continues for U.S. athletes next weekend at the Seefeld World Cup, with team nominations to be announced Jan. 22.

QUOTES
Bryan Fletcher
Certainly was tough racing out there today, and there were a lot of elements that made today's course tough on everyone. However, we can walk away knowing that we put two solid jumps together and gave it our all in the race. Luck was not on my side this weekend with a fall yesterday and a broken pole today, but that's okay. Bill skied awesome and both of us took a step in the right direction on the jump hill today.

Billy Demong
I think today was pretty good overall. We had some really solid jumps and put ourselves in a position to fight. We were certainly in the mix the whole race, but there is a ton of jockeying for position when you have six or seven teams together in a sprint. Honestly, we have been training towards more sustained racing for the 5 and 10 km events and not as much for the staccato of sprinting, so I feel good about our performance given our current focus.

RESULTS
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