Riiber's involvement at the Games was thrown into doubt by a positive COVID-19 test, but having been released from isolation a day earlier, he blew a comfortable lead in the 10 kilometres cross-country skiing race after going the wrong way.

There were no such difficulties in Finland, where the two-time individual world champion jumped the furthest distance on the Salpausselkä large hill as his 131 metres earned 140.8 points.

Ryota Yamamoto of Japan started the 10km cross-country race at the Lahti Stadium eight seconds behind Riiber after scoring 138.7 from a 129m jump, with Germany's Franz-Josef Rehrl ranking third with 131.0 from 125m.

World Cup leader Johannes Lamparter of Austria was fourth to set off after notching 127.2 from 125m, and began 54 seconds after Riiber.

Riiber maintained a safe distance to his challenges throughout the 10km race, and his time of 23min 45.9 sec earned victory by 27.1sec.

Germany's Vinzenz Geiger came through in second after ranking fifth in both elements of the competition, with Lamparter rounding off the podium 27.4sec short of Riiber.

Lamparter leads the overall standings with 1,090 points with four World Cups remaining.

Riiber is second on 983, with Geiger in third on 856 comfortably clear of Norway's Jørgen Graabak with 615 in fourth.

Graabak, who won yesterday's team sprint competition with Jens Lurås Oftebro in Lahti, placed sixth.

Oslo and Schonach are both due to stage World Cup double headers in March to complete the season.