Downhill number 1 in Val Gardena, here is the startlist: Innerhofer first blue at the start, Paris with 6

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Thursday (12.00) the recovery race of the one missed at Beaver Creek: Kilde main favourite, will start with 7 immediately after Domme, who is finally looking for a great result on the Saslong. Odermatt n° 12, then watch out for the Americans: for Italy Zazzi and Franzoso remain out.

Wednesday 14 December 2022 7 minutes reading time

Downhill number 3 of the World Cup season for men, that is the one canceled in Beaver Creek less than two weeks ago and recovered in Val Gardena to open the triptych of appointments of a historic 55th edition by Saslong Classic, with the super-g of Friday which will be the 100th race of the maximum circuit held on these snows and Saturday the grand finale with the "classic" descent. Thursday we begin, with the start scheduled at 12.00 (live TV on Rai 2 and Eurosport 1) and a weather that should be favorable enough for a great show. It will be Otmar Striedinger, who was a decidedly surprising second last year (but there are always twists in Gardena... almost never), who will inaugurate race-1 on the Saslong, where only one race took place on Tuesday, given that for today it had already been decided to leave the athletes at rest, also considering the two giants of Alta Badia who will follow the Val Gardena appointment on Sunday and Monday on the Gran Risa. If the Germans, with Schwaiger and Ferstl already starting with numbers 2 and 3, are not to be underestimated as seen in yesterday's training, here is the first of the nine Azzurri on the track with bib number 4 (Pietro Zazzi and Matteo Franzoso, who had also participated in the test), Christof Innerhofer. Travis Ganong (n° 5) is one of the many Americans who can exalt themselves on this track, then here is Dominik Paris with number 6, to try to really start his season, which has been all uphill until now after the North American races. It might not be the best, in terms of visibility and smoothness of the snowpack, having drawn such a low number for "Domme", in any case, immediately after him there will be all the greats of the descent, starting from the main candidate to conquer for the third time this classic (and it would be the fifth overall success in Val Gardena), Aleksander Aamodt Kilde who will come out of the starting gate seventh. Mayer and Feuz (8 and 9) must try to make a breakthrough, but this is not their favorite technical context, just as Marco Odermatt will have to invent something amazing to get on the podium again, for the seventh time in as many seasonal races ( bib 12) which will make its absolute debut in the Val Gardena descent. After the general leader, Vincent Kriechmayr (a speech similar to the one made for the Nidwalden applies), then Clarey, Dressen and the stars and stripes duo with Ryan Cochran-Siegle and the winner of Saslong 2021, Bryce Bennett. Matteo Marsaglia, with number 18, will be the third blue at the gate, Mattia Casse fourth with number 31 and really pay attention to the Piedmontese, 7th last year, very fast in qualifying with the second time trial and just such a high number could even turn out to be a card winning. Bosca and Molteni, starting with numbers 34 and 35, will try to aim for the points zone like Federico Simoni, who returns to the CdM and was super in qualifying, 4th time trial on the day when Nils Allegre, who will start just before him tomorrow (the French will have the n° 51), he concluded in front of everyone. Finally Florian Schieder, increasingly in condition and with bib number 55 on his shoulders, and Giovanni Franzoni (n° 61) who, instead, will probably have to defend himself here, at least in the two descents while in Friday's super-g, albeit completely different from the of Beaver Creek, who knows if the Brescian talent will unleash again. CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE STARTLIST MEN'S DESCENT – VAL GARDENA Startlist: 1 Striedinger, 2 Schwaiger, 3 Ferstl, 4 Innerhofer, 5 Ganong, 6 Paris, 7 Kilde, 8 Mayer, 9 Feuz, 10 Hemetsberger, 11 Hintermann, 12 Odermatt, 13 Kriechmayr, 14 Clarey, 15 Dressen, 16 Cochran- Siegle, 17 Bennett, 18 Marsaglia, 19 Crawford, 20 Baumann, 31 Casse, 34 Bosca, 35 Molteni, 52 Simoni, 55 Schieder, 61 Franzoni.

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