Alpine Skiingmen's world cup
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Sunday the opening of the World Cup on the Rettenbach that saw Ted Ligety triumph four times ...
Saturday 26 October 2019 11 minutes reading time
Soelden is ready to experience the show of the male giant that will open the first season of the post Marcel Hirscher era.
Yes, because after a decade marked by the one who has already been defined by many as the greatest skier of all time, the starting gate will miss an absolute reference for everyone, from insiders to fans but, above all, to opponents.
Who will benefit from the withdrawal of the Salzburg champion? Both in the general classification and in terms of tomorrow's giant, scheduled at 10.00 and 13.00 (both live on TV on Raisport and Eurosport 1), the two big favorites are Henrik Kristoffersen and Alexis Pinturault. You want them because they followed Hirscher in the last overall World Cup ranking, but above all because for years they were the first rivals of the Austrian king in an absolute sense.
The Norwegian won 3 of the last 4 disputed giants (Are World Cup, in Bansko and Kranjska Gora cup), the 28-year-old from Courchevel dominated that of the Soldeu finals; that day in Andorra, Marco Odermatt conquered his second podium in the maximum circuit, which seems already ready for the big hit and is now firmly in the first sub-group of merit.
The number 3 at WCSL level, on the other hand, is the Slovenian Zan Kranjec who has grown so much in the past season, also getting the first hurray in CdM. This could be the poker of aces to be dropped on the Rettenbach, but among the first 7 at the start we will also find Loic Meillard, Matts Olsson and Tommy Ford: the Swiss, after the double podium in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, has never been repeated and it is expected to break through, while it was not too constant, but the Swede showed important peaks also in the past year, which in March had even revealed intentions of withdrawal from the competitions, then returned. And then there is the American who exploded ... late, though never too close to the podium, but definitely constant and back from the best career season.
Between the 8th and the 15th, here is the French couple formed by Mathieu Faivre and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, both in need of redeeming themselves at a high level in this specialty, the same mission of Manuel Feller that is given in great shape and has become the new Austria home reference in a specialty in which, without Hirscher, the Wunderteam risks really big in terms of ... flop.
Rasmus Windingstad, a young man who made it to the top of last season's final, and the eternal Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen form the Norwegian pair that, combined with Kristoffersen, could repeat the fantastic team performance that girls have today. Stefan Luitz will also have a good chance, at the umpteenth post-injury return and ready to amaze at every opportunity, and the unfortunate Justin Murisier who, after another year lost to the knee crack almost 14 months ago, wants to be reborn starting already from Soelden. Finally, in the 15 also Luca De Aliprandini falls, never appeared at the levels of a couple of years ago in the last season of the Cup, but already able to do well on the Rettenbach in the last disputed edition, since in 2016 he recovered until the tenth position, his only points finish in the Oetztal, given that previously the Trentino had collected five "zeroes".
In addition to Hirscher, Fanara and Neureuther will be missing (to which are added the Schoerghofer retreat and the injured Marco Schwarz), who have hung skis to the fateful nail and have already entered a new dimension as experts, with French in the Salomon racing department by tester and the Bavarian by TV commentator for ARD, while we will have to keep an eye on Ted Ligety, 16th in WCSL among those who will start and multi-winner in Soelden with four successes, the last 2015 license plate.
Of course, the 35-year-old American is no longer what he once was, but after a practically-thrown year he is said to have found stimuli and some technical solutions to at least get back to fighting for the top ten.
The other Azzurri in the race: Riccardo Tonetti and Manfred Moelgg, respectively at the 23rd and 24th place of the world specialty lists, could aim for a top 15, even if the position at the end of the 1st round will be decisive in this regard. Out of the 30 here is Maurberger, Borsotti, Hannes Zingerle and clearly Dominik Paris, who thanks to the 500 points in the WCSL general will be able to shoot from the gate immediately behind and play his chances of qualification to the 2nd round.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Compared to the female colleagues, on the Rettenbach in Soelden "only" 19 men's races were staged in the history of the World Cup, as in addition to the one in 2006 ("skipped" in pairs), there are the two holes of 2017 and 2018 when everyone had to go home without even starting the race.
The multi-winner, as mentioned, is Ted Ligety with four pearls, of which three are consecutive from 2011 to 2013, closely followed by Hermann Maier at 3 ('98, 2000 and 2005), while another American, Bode Miller, goes up ideally on the podium with the two triumphs of 2003 and 2004 (and in 2005 he was blatantly mocked by Maier himself at the end of one of the most incredible finals on the Rettenbach).
The Azzurri do not boast an exceptional tradition in terms of podiums: only a couple, without success, given that they finished second in both Max Blardone in the 2004 edition behind Miller, and Manfred Moelgg in 2012, spaced almost 3 seconds behind a Extraordinary litigation.
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Giant slalom Male Soelden (AUT)
PINTURAULT Alexis
FAIVRE Mathieu
KRANJEC Zan
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