Two of GB Snowsport’s most experienced campaigners continued their strong starts to 2019, with Dave Ryding and Andrew Musgrave finishing the first week of the year with good World Cup results.
Cross Country Tour de Ski stages 6 & 7, Val di Fiemme – Sat 5-Sun 6 January
Andrew Musgrave has come back from a debilitating illness at the back end of 2018 to show positive signs in the lead-up to this year’s World Championships after a strong showing at the Tour de Ski.
The three-time Olympian finished in 17th place overall, his second-best finish ever in the event, following yesterday’s 9km climb in the seventh and final stage.
Throughout the nine-day event Musgrave delivered some eye-catching performances, particularly in the two 15km classic mass start stages which earned the 28-year-old his best and third-best career results in classic events.
Musgrave will now take a break from competition with his next event scheduled to be the World Cup at Ulricehamn, Sweden in three weeks time.
The next stop on the World Cup circuit is this weekend in Germany where Andrew Young, James Clugnet, Annika Taylor and Nichole Bathe take part in the individual and team sprint events.
Alpine World Cup, Zagreb CRO – Sunday 6 January
Dave Ryding just missed out on another top 10 performance but still delivered a strong result to cap an exciting opening week of the year.
Just five days after standing on the podium in Oslo, Ryding was back at it in Zagreb where he progressed to the second run in a tie for 23rd. Laurie Taylor did not move through after a recording a DNF in the first run.
Starting from a similar position to that which saw him make a charge to fourth place in Italy just before Christmas, Ryding was again in need of a solid second run. The 32-year-old laid down the eighth-fastest second run of the competition, seeing him rise to 11th overall.
The result sees Ryding now sitting in fifth place on the 2018/19 slalom World Cup standings ahead of this weekend’s race in Adelboden, Switzerland.
