ALTENBERG, Germany — Two-time Olympic champion Andre Lange won a four-man bobsled World Cup race on his home track Sunday, and American Steven Holcomb bounced back from a crash the day before to place second.
Lange and his team — Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze — finished 0.76 seconds ahead of Holcomb a day after he also won the two-man event on the challenging Altenberg track.
Holcomb crashed in Saturday’s two-man race with Justin Olsen, but they didn’t balk at getting back on the track with the other members of the defending world champion four-man crew: Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz.
“They are tough guys,” Holcomb said. “My crew was confident in me, so it was nice to have them behind me. They knew I made a mistake yesterday, but they believed in me and were ready to go no matter what.”
The American had driven to victory in the three previous World Cup four-man races and leads the standings with 1,053 points, 115 ahead of Janis Minins of Latvia.
“It’s nice being able to bounce back from yesterday,” Holcomb said. “After my unfortunate mishap, it was a good day for us. A gold medal would have been great, but I’m happy with the silver after what happened yesterday.”
Lange finished in a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 47.23 seconds, with Holcomb crossing in 1:47.99 and Evgeny Popov of Russia placing third in 1:48.23 for his first podium finish since February 2007.
U.S. driver John Napier equaled his best showing on the Altenberg track, placing 10th in 1:48.60. Chuck Berkeley, Steve Langton and Chris Fogt gave Napier two of the best start times in the field.
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