Swiss as strong as a bear

LIVE: Here we go! Who will make the first mark?

Vincent Kriechmayr was annoyed at the finish.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

From the ÖSV's point of view, the opening race in Val Gardena/Gröden was a disaster! In the shortened downhill on Thursday, which had to be interrupted several times due to the fog and thus became a game of patience, no Austrian finished in the top 10.

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt secured victory ahead of his compatriot Franjo von Allmen (+0.15 seconds) and South Tyrol's Dominik Paris (+0.19). The best Austrian was Stefan Babinsky (+0.94) in 14th place, just ahead of Daniel Hemetsberger (+0.95) and Stefan Rieser (+0.96). The race was disappointing for Vincent Kriechmayr (+1.06).

Here are the final results:

From an Austrian point of view, the 1000th downhill in World Cup history (women and men) extended a series of ours. There has been no podium finish in the last ten downhill races. The race started 75 minutes late due to fog and was interrupted for half an hour after the 22nd runner. It was not until around 14.30 - almost three hours after the scheduled start - that it was clear that the race could be scored.

Missed Ciaslat
Babinsky was reluctant to accept the title of best Austrian in view of his placing. "But for me, after only having half a training run, it was a pretty good run," said Babinsky, who had survived a crash in some of the training runs unharmed. "When you have a full ride, you can simply assess it much better. I took far too much out on the Ciaslat exit, it turned out far too well. That annoys me because I have an extremely cool basic speed."

Stefan Babinsky(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

  Kriechmayr shook his head. "He didn't drive what he's capable of by a long way, a drifter everywhere. He definitely could have done it," said the team leader about Babinsky. "I didn't get it right myself. A small mistake here and there, then you're rightly not at the front," said Kriechmayr ahead of Friday's super-G. The classic downhill is on the program on Saturday.

  Hemetsberger, who finished second behind Odermatt in training, identified shortcomings in the Ciaslat-Wiese criterium, as did his team-mates. "Maybe I should have taken more risks. But I don't know if it would have tolerated that. My shock absorbers have a certain amount of travel and if I exceed that, I'm out."

Odermatt is four victories short of Maier
Odermatt celebrated his 50th World Cup victory in South Tyrol and thus drew level with fourth-placed Alberto Tomba in the all-time leaderboard. He also took the best line in the short format and had already won the first downhill of the season in Beaver Creek. "The hundredths were on my side at the start of the season. The Austrians are also very close, especially in the giant slalom and super-G," said Odermatt. In view of his mammoth program with four races in four days, he only wanted to "have a quick toast" to the 50th anniversary. Hermann Maier is only four wins away from third place on the all-time list. Only Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Marcel Hirscher (67) have been more successful. "He deserves credit, he's done a lot for our team. I'm very happy with second place," said Von Allmen.

World Cup returnee Aleksander Aamodt Kilde stayed on his skis for two scary seconds. "The timing is a bit off, I haven't done that much downhill training," said the five-time Val Gardena/Gröden winner. "Step by step, I'm very calm." Max Franz was in action as a forerunner after a three-year absence due to injury. "The tingling sensation is there, I'm at the start and it feels right. Now to continue working step by step." His race start on Saturday is not out of the question. Felix Hacker, who left Val Gardena/Gröden with a suspected meniscus tear in his recently injured left knee, was not at the start. Stefan Eichberger suffered a cruciate ligament and meniscus tear in training.