Rießle, a double Olympic medallist, won for the first time this season on the Austrian course after narrowly missing out to team-mate Eric Frenzel yesterday by just 0.7 seconds.

He was involved in another sprint to the finish line but this time came out on top as he edged Italian Alessandro Pittin to gold.

The winning time was 26min 12.5sec but Pittin was just 0.3 seconds adrift following the 10 kilometres ski.

Finland's Eero Hirvonen won his third medal of the season by coming home in 26:14.0 for bronze. 

Rießle had to make up an 18 second gap on Norway's ski jumping winner Jørgen Graabak who won two Olympic gold medals at Sochi 2014.

Graabak jumped 98 metres to earn himself 121.1 points, but Rießle was able to take himself to the front of the pack on the cross-country leg despite starting ninth.

Pittin's progress was more spectacular as he started 36th, more than a minute behind Graabak who faded to sixth place.

Schmid was fourth in 26:16.0 and takes over the World Cup leader's bib from compatriot Espen Andersen, who was 24th.

The new leader has 333 points with Andersen now second on 301.

Japan's Akito Watabe sits third on 284.

Frenzel, the individual/normal hill Olympic champion at Sochi 2014 who is bidding for a sixth overall World Cup crown in a row, did not start the cross-country ski after finishing 18th following the jumping.

The season will now resume in the New Year with competition in Otepää in Estonia on January 6.