The men's 4x7.5km relay competition in Ruhpolding, Germany had a lot to live up to after the thrilling finish in the women's relay and it's safe to say it exceeded expectations after records fell, upsets occurred and the hometown crowd celebrated.

The women's field had the day off on the second day of Stage 5 of the IBU World Cup, but the men went head-to-head in the last team relay before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

While the conditions on the shooting range nearly were perfect, the snow was wet, slippery and at times, unpredictable.

Five biathletes entered the final shooting stage separated just by 7 seconds, but it was France's anchor, Eric Perrot, who led after it. He quickly cleaned the final shooting stage to claim the lead going into the final lap.

France, Germany and Norway led the pack in the last lap, but Perrot was able to separate himself and safely secure the lead over the final stretch.

Perrot fist pumped as he crossed the finish line to celebrate France's first relay victory of the season.

Fabien Claude, Oscar Lombardot, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Perrot sealed the upset win in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 58.1 seconds.

Perrot said after the race while he was really confident in his shooting to close out the relay, the victory was about the team. "It's not about what I did today, it's about what we did together," Perrot said.

The French win marked the first time this season Norway did not win gold in the men's relay. In Oberhof, the script was flipped and Norway edged out France by 2.6 seconds to claim the title.

This time, Norway had to settle for silver after they finished 6.2 seconds behind the French team.

But the second-place finish for Norway wasn't a done deal down the final stretch, as Germany's Philipp Nawrath battled Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen to the end.

Christiansen was able to edge out Nawrath by 1.7 seconds to solidify the second spot on the podium with his Norwegian teammates, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Sturla Holm Laegreid and Martin Uldal.

Germany was hyped to earn bronze on home snow after the team placed fifth in Oberhof.

Biathletes Justus Strelow, Danilo Riethmueller and David Zobel joined Nawrath on the final podium spot as the German crowd roared.

In the rest of the field, Estonia had the team's best finish in two decades and Team USA finished in 8th place overall.

On Friday, the men have a rest day, and the women's field races the 7.5km sprint event.