The Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr won the first super-G of the winter, counting for the Alpine Skiing World Cup, in which the French Cyprien Sarrazin placed 4th, Friday in Val Gardena (Italy). Kriechmayr, 32, signed his 17th World Cup victory with a minimal lead, 2/100th over his compatriot Daniel Hemetsberger, 2nd, and 3/100th over the Swiss Marco Odermatt, 3rd. The Austrian won for the third time in his career in the Dolomites resort after his successes in super-G in 2019 and downhill in 2022. The day before, the 2021 super-G and downhill world champion had disappointed during the first descent of the season (17th), already contested on the Saslong.
“I was angry after yesterday’s descent, I put that anger into my skiing on this super-G. I had a good run, taking more risks,” he rejoiced. Odermatt again missed victory by a handful of hundredths: he finished 3rd in the downhill, 5/100th behind the surprise winner, the American Bryce Bennett, 14th this Friday in the super-G despite a new “big” bib. “It was perhaps one of the easiest super-Gs I have ever done. The hundredths are not in my favor at the moment, I hope that will change,” he smiled. The Swiss, winner of the last two editions of the general classification of the World Cup, took sole control of the world ranking with 220 points, or 15 more than the Austrian Marco Schwarz, 5th in the super-G.
The Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, winner of the last two super-Gs in Val Gardena, completely missed his race with several trajectory errors, synonymous with 37th place, 1 sec 09/100 behind the winner of the day. “I wanted to do too well and it didn’t work for me today. I will rectify all that for Saturday,” he promised in reference to the second descent which concludes the Val Gardena stage.
The day after Nils Allègre’s 4th place in downhill, Cyprien Sarrazin also finished just off the podium, signing his best result in super-G. Starting with bib 27 and after a long interruption to evacuate the Austrian Andreas Ploier, victim of a heavy fall, the former giant was in the lead in the first two intermediate times, before losing time in the final to finish 12 /100th of Kriechmayr. Adrien Théaux, although he started among the last on a hollow track, finished in 13th place and Nils Alphand pocketed his first points in the World Cup (22nd). Alexis Pinturault, who wants to focus on speed events this season, ranked 29th, 88/100th behind Kriechmayr.
