Karl Geiger laughed relaxed and joked with the Slovenian winner Anze Lanisek at the award ceremony.

Just in time for the hot phase of the World Cup winter, Germany's flagship ski jumper is getting in better shape again.

A good two and a half weeks before the start of the Four Hills Tournament in his home town of Oberstdorf, Geiger celebrated third place in snowy Titisee-Neustadt and thus the first podium finish for a German ski jumper this season.

After his jump of 141.5 meters in the second round, he roared his joy after a difficult few weeks on Friday.

"Incredible," Geiger said.

"I didn't expect that it would be enough for the podium." The man from the Allgäu adds: "The jumps are getting better and better." He is "overjoyed" that he made it onto the podium.

"More than achieved our goal"

"I didn't expect the podium," said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF.

"We are very satisfied.

We have more than achieved our goal.” After the first round in extremely demanding wind conditions, Geiger was still in fourth place.

Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud, who was leading at half-time, dropped back to fifth.

After places 34, 17, 6 and 33 at the first two World Cup stations, the strong performance in the Black Forest should be the start of more successful times again.

“Karl has worked his way back up.

He hit the last jump really well,” said Horngacher.

Geiger was only beaten by Lanisek and second-placed Dawid Kubacki.

The Pole is still at the top of the overall World Cup.

The last time it took longer to get to the first podium was in the 2010/11 season.

At that time, Severin Freund only made it onto the podium in the 14th competition - as the winner in Sapporo - after the turn of the year.

On the right way

Geiger is still missing something to keep jumping for victories, but his relaxed mood shows: The 29-year-old also realizes that he is on the right track.

"The direction is clear what I have to do," he said.

Confidence in one's own strength is particularly important in psychologically demanding ski jumping.

After his first jump of 135 meters, Geiger happily gave his thumbs up.

His buddy Markus Eisenbichler, on the other hand, is still looking for his top condition.

With jumps of 127.5 and 128.5 meters and 21st place, the Bavarian again fell well short of his potential.

"The feeling isn't there yet," said the 31-year-old.

And announced: "I will continue step by step."

Eisenbichler is aiming for the tour in top form

He still has more jumps in the Black Forest and the World Cup in Engelberg on the weekend before Christmas in order to gain self-confidence for the Four Hills Tournament with better performances.

Eisenbichler is not yet giving up hope for the first major highlight of the season: "My goal is really the tour, so that I'm in top shape and feeling good again."

As the second best German, Constantin Schmid finished seventh on Friday.

Stephan Leyhe in 15th place and Pius Paschke in 22nd place also received World Cup points.

Andreas Wellinger did not succeed.

The 2018 Olympic champion was eliminated after a jump of 121.5 meters after the first round.

Wellinger fell during training the day before and injured his ankle slightly.

"That inhibited him a lot," said Horngacher.

This Saturday, the jumpers continue with the first mixed team competition of the season (11.45 a.m. / Eurosport, partly ZDF).

Men's and women's individual competitions will be held on Sunday.