Continuing on from last season when he won his third consecutive World Cup title, the 24-year-old showed no signs of rust by taking the lead in the ski jumping with 149.2 points to lead out on the five-kilometres cross-country skiing leg.

Austrian Mario Seidl was second after the jump with 148.9, while Manuel Faisst of Germany was third with 146.6.

Seidl's compatriot Johannes Lamparter and Estonia's Kristjan Ilves completed the top five at the halfway stage.

After pulling away from Seidl on the cross-country, Riiber built up a gap to his slower rivals, easing in with a time of 12min 16.1sec.

It made him the first Nordic combined athlete to win the opening event of three consecutive World Cup seasons.

Lamparter, who defeated the Norwegian at the World Championships for the individual long hill gold medal earlier this year, moved up two places to finish 20.2 seconds behind for the silver medal, just weeks after his 20th birthday.

Jens Lurås Oftebro made it a 1-3 for Norway with the third-fastest ski in the field to finish two seconds behind Lamparter.

Seidl and Faisst both struggled on the cross-country, dropping down to fourth and fifth.

The fastest ski leg of the day went to Germany's Julian Schmid who was more than 90 seconds down on Riiber at the end in 13th position.

Vinzenz Geiger - who won the last two legs of the last season's World Cup in the absence of Riiber to finish second in the standings - was only 11th.

Two more legs are scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday (November 28), consisting of ski jumping and a longer 10km cross-country leg.