Alpine Skiingworld cup 2021/22
2021 Getty Images
Next Sunday the start of the World Cup also for men: Pinturault will have to overcome himself in slalom and super-g to play for an encore, even the pure sprinters are back in the dance. Schwarz and Meillard two securities, but to dream of the crystal ball they will need the last leap in quality.
Sunday 17 October 2021 21 minutes reading time
Ten favorites ten, with a prediction perhaps even more open than the women's sector that we analyzed yesterday.
The men's World Cup will kick off on Sunday 24th with the giant from Soelden and it's time to look at those who will be able to play for the absolute crystal ball, won a few months ago in Lenzerheide by Alexis Pinturault. Will the first favorite still be the French? The numbers and logic say no, given the growth of Marco Odermatt and the return, if it will be immediately at high levels, of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
Yes, with the new calendar it is the Swiss, 2nd in 2020/21, and the Norwegian who triumphed in 2019/2020, the points of reference with a program that includes the beauty of 27 races for multipurpose athletes like them that range from from the descent to the giant. Pinturault will also have three disciplines, true, but there is a big difference between the competitiveness of the Frenchman in super-g and in slalom, where Alexis finds himself in front of many superior athletes, and that of Odermatt and Kilde in the two weaker disciplines ”For them, respectively the descent and the super-g for Marco and the descent and the giant for AAK.
Out of 35 races held last year, the difference was sensational between fast races (13, with 7 descents and 6 super-gs) and technical (21, with 10 giants and 11 slaloms, then the parallel of Lech won between the '' other than Pinturault), this year they will be 18 even and just think that Odermatt came to play the CdM up to the giant of the finals.
Behind the three of them, pure sprinters will have chances at least for the final podium able to compete for victories and top 3-5 between downhill and super-g with consistency. The first names that come to mind are those of Matthias Mayer and Dominik Paris, the third that of the two world champion Vincent Kriechmayr (who in downhill, however, on many tracks pays a certain gap from the Olympian from Sochi and from Domme) , the fourth responds to the name of Beat Feuz, but in this case we are already talking about an athlete who is too little competitive in super-g and who will aim above all for the fifth in the downhill classification and the great dream of the first Olympic gold.
So here to play with them, but they will really have to overcome themselves in the technical disciplines and invent something in super-g, we indicate Marco Schwarz and Loic Meillard, not surprisingly the 3rd and 4th of the general in the last season (divided by only 9 points). The Carinthian can raise the level in giant, but he will have to have the same (frightening) continuity demonstrated in slalom a year ago and we will also see it in speed, albeit partially. The absence of combined puts him decidedly behind in the prediction compared to Odermatt, Kilde and Pinturault, the same goes for Meillard, who however is certainly not worth the Austrian among the rapid gates (but currently he is in front in giant).
The tenth name, but if the one seen until a couple of years ago in the giant will return, we are talking about one from the final podium despite the much less favorable calendar, is that of Henrik Kristoffersen. The Norwegian has already seen the best trains pass in the last two years, will focus strongly on the slalom and aim for the Beijing Olympic gold sensationally missed in PyeongChang (after the bronze at a very young age in Sochi), but he worked hard in the summer to find himself between wide doors and is still a champion who has won 23 times in the World Cup.
FEUZ, DOMME AND THE AUSTRIAN DUO
Clear hierarchies, those that lead us to think that there are three favorite athletes for a World Cup that, in the last four seasons, has always ended up in the hands of Beat Feuz.
The Swiss starts in front, will also find in the calendar very favorable races (skipped last year) such as Beaver Creek and Wengen, but this will have to be the year of the new great assault by Dominik Paris on the crystal ball that he most desires. The return immediately to high levels last season has given us back a "Domme" that gives great guarantees to play on any terrain (Val Gardena ... apart?), Starting with the novelty of the double appointment at Lake Louise.
Behind the two great rivals, Matthias Mayer stands as a constant danger, with exceptional performance peaks even more than Vincent Kriechmayr, who clearly pays on less technical tracks in this discipline. Precisely those where Johan Clarey is exalted, who at 41 is still ultra competitive and dangerous in the great classics (and perhaps in the Olympic event), but objectively even the top 5 final in the cup ranking would be an excellent result.
Max Franz could start strong, who after the injury in Kitzbuehel in 2019 has no longer shown the level expressed in the previous months with the victories of Lake Louise and Beaver Creek (in super-g in the second case), but is above all the Norway awaiting great responses from Kjetil Jansrud and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
At the last season of his career, the 2019 world champion must cancel a really negative 2020/21, we have already said about AAK and it will only be necessary to quickly regain confidence to see him again at the exceptional pre-injury levels of last January.
And Christof Innerhofer and then the excellent German team with Baumann, Sander (world silver in charge) and that Thomas Dressen who, however, we will not see in the North American races and almost certainly not even in Val d''Isère, Val Gardena and Bormio? The South Tyrolean veteran still has the shot in the barrel for a great day, competitiveness is not lacking as he has shown from January onwards, once the problems in terms of materials have been solved.
AUSTRO-SWISS POWER, BUT THE NORGE ...
Kriechmayr, Mayer, Odermatt, Caviezel, Kilde.
Five names that are really scary in a discipline that navigates on the Austro-Swiss axis, but with the return of the Norwegian, who won the super-g World Cup in 2016, to spice up a very open contest .
And also pay attention to Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who impressed by dominating in Bormio before the injury in Kitzbuehel which made him miss the second half of the season and the World Championships in Cortina; authentic loose cannon the American, while for one of the best specialists of the last decade, Kjetil Jansrud, the same speech made previously for the descent applies.
In addition to Paris and Innerhofer, Italy will propose a Mattia Casse who, on the real post-injury return of November 2020 in Cervinia, will go hunting for his first, well-deserved podium in the cup. And then again Ferstl with Sander and Baumann for a good Germany, while at home France will focus not only on the flashes of Pinturault, but also on Matthieu Bailet who, in the last race held in Saalbach, climbed for the first time on a podium with 2nd place behind Odermatt.
PINTU-ODERMATT GIANTS, BUT THE CHALLENGE IS OPEN
It will be really interesting to understand the evolution of the giant in the season which, for the wide door specialists, will start as early as next Sunday in Soelden. Last year there was no shortage of surprises, starting with the world race that relaunched Mathieu Faivre, who then won again in the cup, and Luca De Aliprandini and Marco Schwarz proposed on the podium, for the first time at these levels in a race like this. important.
The great protagonists in the arc of a cup year, however, were first and foremost Alexis Pinturault and Marco Odermatt, who showed a step more than everyone else; perseverance, however, was not lacking in Filip Zubcic, ready to play the crystal ball for what he has seen in the last two years, and Loic Meillard, while Zan Kranjec will have to find himself completely, who has experienced a very difficult period between back problems and disappearance of the father.
In the 7, in fact, there will also be De Aliprandini who very strongly wants the first podium in the World Cup, but from behind Stefan Brennsteiner is very strong, finally exploded after having solved the physical problems, as it is expected that Henrik Kristoffersen will come back, too bad to be true in the giants of 2020/21. If Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen can still guarantee a certain continuity, but hardly with podium peaks, Norway offers above all the two class 2000 phenomena, Lucas Braathen and Atle Lie McGrath.
The first won in Soelden, the second came close to the coup in Alta Badia, then for both of them everything stopped with the double injury of Adelboden: we will see at what level they will already return to Rettenbach. We close with two pairs, the Swiss one formed by Gino Caviezel and Justin Murisier, third and fourth violin of Switzerland, and Alexander Schmid and Stefan Luitz, who will try to bring back the German colors.
BARAONDA SLALOM, NOEL THE REFERENCE?
It is the most uncertain specialty, in some ways spectacular, as demonstrated by the many different winners (7 in the first 8 races of last season) and also the world competition that awarded names such as Foss-Solevaag and Pertl, gold and silver in Cortina in front of Kristoffersen.
The most continuous in recent times has certainly been Marco Schwarz, so much so that he amply deserves his first crystal ball, but Clément Noel is perhaps the reference point in terms of peak performance, to be "contained" by the French if he finally wants to bring home that cup that he has only caressed for three years (always finishing in 2nd place, behind Hirscher, Kristoffersen and Schwarz respectively).
Anything can happen, however, if we think of the exponential growth of Foss-Solevaag, who had already won in Flachau before the world gem, to a rediscovered Manuel Feller and to our Alex Vinatzer, who has already tasted the podium and now he is also called upon to play victories consistently, having demonstrated competitiveness on all types of slopes.
The names are many, given that Austria also offers Pertl, Matt and Gstrein, Switzerland will seek redemption with Zenhaeusern and Yule (in addition to Meillard) after a very complicated year especially for the latter, and certainly it is expected a Henrik Kristoffersen able to always fight for the podium.
Pinturault and Muffat-Jeandet will be the references of France, Linus Strasser and Kristoffer Jakobsen are real stray mines, and who knows that the Azzurri will not even propose the veterans Gross, Moelgg and Razzoli in front of them, perhaps in the Olympic competition, together with a Simon Maurberger who was flying, touching the podium on the night of Schladming, before the injury in Chamonix.
COCHRAN-SIEGLE, FORD, SEJERSTED AND MANY RETURNS
Surprises in sight? It is difficult to think of names that can upset the balance in fast disciplines, but there we expect important returns such as those, first of all, of Cochran-Siegle and of Urs Kryenbuehl himself, but also of a talent like Adrian Smiseth Sejersted, who also had thought about quitting and will try one more time.
In giant, the man missed in the heart of last season, in addition to the aforementioned Braathen and McGrath and obviously Kilde, is Tommy Ford who will not be in Soelden and will have to recover calmly thinking especially of Beijing, while in slalom they can surprise Simonet, Haugan, Aerni, Hadalin, Nef and who knows veteran Ryding.
Blues to ... discover? Giovanni Franzoni and Filippo Della Vite can only be the names of the future for giant / super-g in the case of the Brescia player and giant in particular for the Bergamo player, but also pay attention to Ricky Tonetti, who dreams of an Olympic medal in "his" combined, which he will not have in the cup calendar, and to the many veterans of a team that is renewing (in this sense that it is a pity the many injuries in speed, let's think of Prast and Schieder in the first place), but which at the same time still has several long-time athletes course with the goal of another Olympics that will pass from the cup performance.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Social media engagement
Giant slalom Male Soelden (AUT)
ODERMATT Marco
LEITINGER Roland
KRANJEC Zan
men's world cup
Monday 25 October 2021
men's world cup
Odermatt starts off on the right foot for the cup dream: "Today I was lucky, what a battle"
Sunday 24 October 2021
men's world cup
Sunday 24 October 2021
men's world cup
Marco Odermatt is the new owner of the Rettenbach! De Aliprandini closes a good eighth
Sunday 24 October 2021
men's world cup
LIVE from Soelden: at 1.30pm off to a very uncertain 2nd round with the top 12 in less than 9 tenths
Sunday 24 October 2021
blue words
Sunday 24 October 2021Ultimi in Sport invernali
Slittino su pista naturale: a Formia si conclude il lungo raduno dello squadrone azzurro
Con lo start di Coppa del Mondo in programma il 19-20 dicembre a Obdach, la nazionale di Moroder sta lavorando duro con 12 atleti impegnati sino a domani nel centro di preparazione olimpica del CONI.
118