After a construction period of almost two months, the new track in Bischofshofen was dedicated. The opening jump was made by the Nordic Combined World champion and Olympic champion, Bernhard Gruber. Gruber starts for the SC Bischofshofen and insisted on putting the new Master-Track of Peter Riedel through its paces. Gruber arrived from an extensive training session in the wind tunnel in Vienna the day before. After a test jump, where the length of the inrun was set, the nordic all-rounder finished with a 132 meters jump in the end.
After the first jumps, Bernhard Gruber is enthusiastic about the new inrun. "It is an honor for me to do the first jumps with the track on my home hill here in Bischofshofen. As soon as I took off at the gate, I noticed that the track runs really smoothly. It's a really great track that Peter Riedel has installed here. It's so much fun to jump, you can now reach a higher inrun speed with less length. The characteristics of the hill have changed slightly, the takeoff height has also become 24 cm higher. This affects the flight curve, but the jump is as good as ever before. The difference to the track in winter is now hardly noticeable," says Bernhard Gruber.
In addition to Bernhard Gruber, Johann Pichler (President SC Bischofshofen, Four Hills Tournament President), Peter Riedel (CEO Peter Riedel GmbH) and FIS race director Walter Hofer were also present at the opening and they took a closer look at the new inrun. Walter Hofer also appreciates Bischofshofen's move to install the new track. "I'm very glad that Bischofshofen as the tour final has now also installed a Riedel track. As a World Cup station and at the same time final of the four hills tournament Bischofshofen has a great importance for the FIS. The new track now increases the security of being able to run the event even in difficult weather conditions.“
Facts of the inrun
The 13.5 cm wide, standardized track is set up directly over the existing track. This raises the takeoff height by 24 centimeters while the flight curve remains unchanged. In the summer, the athletes have a hard-plastic track with ceramic knobs and a watering system available. Directly parallel to it runs the winter track, which is filled with a seven-centimeter high layer of snow. Through a cooling system, the snow layer freezes and a three centimeters deep track is milled out. The inrun length of the track in Bischofshofen is 127 meters, exactly the same length as the inrun of the ski flying hill on the Kulm, which is also equipped with a Riedel track.
