Akito Watabe had his heart broken for the second time at the Pyeongchang Olympics, the Japanese on Tuesday missing gold again, this time in the Nordic combined large hill 10-kilometer event.

Watabe opened the cross-country leg with a 31-second lead over gold medalist Johannes Rydzek of Germany after leading the way with a 138.9-point leap, but could not maintain the gap and fell to fifth when he was reeled in by a three-man German chase pack.

Rydzek crossed the line in 23 minutes, 52.5 seconds, outsprinting his countrymen Fabian Riessle and normal hill gold medalist Eric Frenzel, who won silver and bronze, respectively.

Watabe collapsed as he finished 12.5 seconds off Rydzek's pace. Norway's Jarl Magnus Riiber, who started one second behind Watabe and stalked him for much of the race, came in fourth.

Watabe did not make excuses, saying he simply did not have the strength to execute his game plan, which was to fry the Germans early and hang on.

"It was really tough," the 29-year-old Watabe said. "I tried to go all out in the first half of the race. I came into it at a high pace and it's why I lost stamina."

"When the three Germans caught up to me, I thought they would take off as well but they seemed to be tired like I was, and just lurked behind me."

Watabe can take some solace from the silver he won in the normal hill event in which he was only narrowly beaten by Frenzel. Late on the final lap Tuesday, Watabe clipped skis with a fellow racer, the incident appearing to cost him momentum at the most inopportune time.

The current World Cup leader did not use this as an excuse either, saying he had nothing left in the tank at that point.

"No one tried to step on me. It just got crowded and there was a bit of contact, that's all," Watabe said. "That didn't change anything because by then, I was pretty much spent."

"Even if I had kept my balance, I would've been maybe fourth instead of fifth. That's it."

Watabe, who was sixth in the event in Sochi four years ago, started the race with a 24-second lead over Frenzel in fourth, followed by Rydzek and Riessle in fifth and sixth, respectively.

After the ski jumping phase, Watabe said he wanted to take the race to the Germans, and that he did. But he alone could not overcome the teamwork of Germany, which became the first nation in 82 years to sweep the podium in the Nordic combined.

"Amazing. I don't know what to say, it's unreal," Rydzek said. "It was an incredible race, it was Nordic combined at its best. Such a tough fight with five guys in the leading group, all could catch the medals."

"On the first (lap), we worked together really well to close up the half-minute gap to the leading group and when we got there, we all saved a little bit of power because we helped each other. Then it was a better position for us to sprint."

Watabe will have a shot at redemption in Thursday's team event, but will need to regroup -- mentally and physically -- first.

"Nothing worked out the way I hoped it would. It was an awful night," Watabe said. "Riiber and the Germans had a lot more left in the end. My legs were gone."

Go Yamamoto started the cross-country leg in eighth, almost 1 minute behind Watabe and finished 16th. Hideaki Nagai skied past his compatriot to finish 12th and Watabe's younger brother Yoshito crossed in 20th.