The new star of French skiing has struck again. Highly anticipated this Friday, Cyprien Sarrazin met all expectations by winning the Kitzbühel descent in Austria. He is only the third Frenchman in history to achieve this feat after Jean-Claude Killy and Luc Alphand. Excuse me a little…
Cyprien Sarrazin won the first downhill in Kitzbühel, Austria, on Friday, notching his third success of the winter and giving France its first victory in 27 years on the legendary “Streif”.
Bib No. 14, the 29-year-old Haut-Alpin achieved a breathtaking bottom line, making up all the time lost on the long intermediate flat to beat the Italian Florian Schieder, already second last year, by 5/100th, and by 34/100th the Swiss leader of the World Cup, Marco Odermatt. “It wasn’t the perfect run, far from it. But down there I felt very good physically, I went there with my heart,” the Gapençais told the Swiss channel RTS.
Sarrazin, already winner of the Italian downhill of Bormio at the end of December, then of the super-G of Wengen last week in Switzerland, continues his dream winter with a fifth podium in the last six races, where he was only beaten by Marco Odermatt.
Not only does the Gapençais join in the list of winners another skier from the Hautes-Alpes, Luc Alphand, triple winner on the Streif (two descents in 1995 and one in 1997), but he consoles the blue camp with the three second places of Johan Clarey (2021 , 2022, 2023), his recently retired Olympic vice-champion.
“It’s exceptional,” rejoiced Alphand, also interviewed by RTS. “Can he be the first to make Marco doubt the little speed globe? We wondered who could tickle Odermatt.
In the downhill rankings, Sarrazin is right on the heels of the Swiss, at 26 points. He also moved into second place in the general ranking, but with 516 points less than the double holder of the big globe. Behind Sarrazin, the French downhillers achieved an excellent overall result: after 45 passages, Nils Allègre occupied 9th place, Maxence Muzaton and Matthieu Bailet 11th and 12th, and Blaise Giezendanner 20th.
