Ski World Cup, first downhill test in Cervinia, the results

First timed test of the men’s downhill race from Zermatt-Cervinia, the first cross-border race in the history of the Ski World Cup. After last year’s postponement due to lack of snow and after the controversy of recent weeks over the work on the glacier, the best downhill skiers competed on the “Gran Becca” slope and the fastest today was the Austrian Otmar Striedinger, in 2’05’93 (but with a goal jump). Behind him, the 23-year-old from Aosta Valley, Benjamin Alliod, at 32/100, started with bib number 68. Followed by the Swiss Niels Hintermann (at 37/100) and the other Italian Florian Schieder (at 85/100). Good time for Mattia Casse, 1’20 behind Striedinger, a gap mostly accumulated in the central section of the track. Similar story for Dominik Paris, who finished 1’85 behind the leader, leaving more than a second in the central part. Giovanni Borsotti finished at 3’04, Guglielmo Bosca at 3’06, Pietro Zazzi at 3’37, Nicolò Molteni at 3’65, Giovanni Franzoni at 3’74, Christof Innerhofer at 4’20.

The words of the blues

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“It’s difficult for everyone to understand well a track that we still have to study – commented Dominik Paris -. The first test is done anyway, there are some pretty nice jumps. In the first section it freezes a bit, and the snow is very cold and it’s slow, there’s not much speed in general. It’s quite easy to ski. If you don’t do very well you immediately lose a lot. In the central part there are waves and it is easy to make mistakes. Many missed a door, which is why they had more speed. In the final part it is a little flat, the jumps perhaps should have launched a little more. However, as first impressions, the track is fine as it is.” Schieder was satisfied: “For me it was a good test, but we’ll see how things go in the next few days”, while Mattia Casse explained: “At the end of the stage I made a mistake and lost a lot of speed, then it takes a while to recover. The track overall is quite easy. The organizers did a great job with the snow. Now we will have to work a lot to go faster.”