The 24-year-old, who was 15th overall last season, has won two of the four World Cup races held this term.

He claimed a maiden win on the circuit after victory at the campaign curtain-raiser in Ruka in Finland in November and led a Norwegian clean sweep on home snow last time out in Lillehammer on December 3.

With two Gundersen competitions scheduled for Ramsau and starting tomorrow, Andersen has a 52-point lead at the top of the standings.

He boasts a tally of 276 in front of second-placed Japanese Akito Watabe, who has 224.

Norway's Jan Schmid sits third on 223 points with the expected German dominance of the season so far failing to materialise.  

Germany won all but two of the 23 World Cup races in 2016-2017 as Eric Frenzel won the overall crown in front of team-mate Johannes Rydzek.

However, Rydzek's victory in the third race in Ruka is the country's only success in the four competitions held so far during the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic season.

Frenzel, the individual/normal hill champion at Sochi 2014 who is searching for a sixth World Cup crown in a row, will hope to reignite his challenge in Ramsau alongside double Olympic medallist Rydzek.

The duo won a race apiece at the venue last year when no other countries managed to make the podium.

Ramsau's ski jumping hill is the smallest on the World Cup tour which can lead to a congested field for the staggered cross-country ski.

Broken poles or crashes are a regular fixture of racing on a winding 2.5 kilometre circuit which features challenging uphill and downhill sections.

Both the first race tomorrow, and the second on Sunday (December 17), will feature 10km races following the ski jumping.

After Ramsau, the World Cup season will resume in Otepää in Estonia on January 6.