Clocking the fastest time in the second and final practice run hold by perfect weather conditions on the treacherous ‘Stelvio’ course overlooking Bormio, Austria’s Klaus Kroell has confirmed his actual splendid form and his determination battling very hard on Thursday for his first season win in the last downhill race of the year 2011.
The 31-year-old speed from Styria clearly finished ahead of his closest rivals, including Canada’s Robbie Dixon who missed a gate on his way down the slope, beating Switzerland’s Didier Cuche, 4th fastest skier of the day, by over a second!
Italy’s Christof Innerhofert, a former winner in Bormio, found back part of his form after suffering the flue earlier this week to end in 8th position two seconds back, while USA’s Bode Miller, the 2005 World Champion in that specialty here, was a far 28th nearly three seconds behind Kroell.
Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, 2nd in the Overall World Cup standings prior tomorrow competition nine points behind Austria’s slalom specialist Marcel Hirscher, was a solid 15th in that last timed run, so that he can hope to regain the lead with another strong performance on race day.
Next to Hirscher, a few other top World Cup contenders have decided to skip the third downhill of the season such as USA’s giant slalom expert Ted Ligety or slalom ace Ivica Kostelic who prefers to save some energy before his crucial home race at Zagreb-Sljeme.
No Swiss victory since 1985!
Since Pirmin Zurbriggen’s World Championships triumph here in 1985, the Austrian have clearly dominated this technically and physically demanding downhill regularly part of the World Cup tour since December 1993. A group of eight Austrian specialists and skiing legends like Hannes Trinkl, Hermann Maier, Stephan Eberharter or Michael Walchhofer won 12 out of 18 downhills here – while no Swiss managed to imitate Zurbriggen afterwards.
Klaus Kroell is definitely expecting from himself to join that prestigious club of winners after achieving several promising results here including a top-3 finish back in December 2008. “I have been looking forward for this race since the start of the speed season, I like this course a lot and I would be very proud to leave Bormio as a winner,” explained the Austrian, who already reached the podium in eleven World Cup downhill races in recent winters. Last season he dominated all his rival on the prestigious Lauberhorn ‘Classic’ at Wengen.
“The course is physically so demanding that you have to save as much energy as possible in training. You also have to make smart choices on race-day to save some gas in your legs for the last steep wall situated prior the finish line. There is no other place on the World Cup tour where you suffer so much from top to bottom,” Kroell also told the press after his run.
“I just hope I didn’t spend too much power today and that the weather conditions will remain fair for tomorrow. The course can be very tricky when the snow is too hard. I remember a time that we even burned the metallic edges of our racing skis
on the icy slope.”
Beside great physical potential and technical skills, it’s also crucial to be as experienced as possible when cruising down the steep ‘Stelvio’ course which has a vertical drop of 965 meters for a length of 3,200 metres ! And nobody has as much
routine as the defending downhill World Cup champion Didier Cuche, who raced his first World Cup downhill here in…1993 ! That year, he ended far from the podium in 57th place. Cuche came often back to Bormio afterwards, entering a total of eighteen downhills! In December 2006, only former World Champion Michael Walchhofer managed to beat the Swiss veteran by a mere 1/100 of a second ! The tall Austrian won three times here including a year ago on his farewell tour…
What about Bode Miller?
Cuche, who has not moved at his best level in Beaver Creek after crushing his rivals in Lake Louise, has been pretty consistent in practice this week and aims to put this race to his list of great downhill victories next to his four triumphs at Kitzbuehel.
New Hampshire’s Bode Miller who has scored his first top-10 result in downhill in Bormio back in December 2002, is always ready for a ‘coup’ on the Italian slope which perfectly suits his unique style. His amazing balance also helped him to accomplish several impressive performances here including his two gold medal runs in February 2005! His recent win at Beaver Creek and his 2nd place in Super-G at Val Gardena definitely confirm his position among the group of top favorites in downhill this winter.
Even though surprises are also possible in Bormio where unheralded racers as Slovenia’s Andrej Jerman in 2009 and Innerhofer in 2008 were able to unexpectedly beat the rest of the field, it seems difficult for the moment to predict such an issue this year.
But who (really) know’s ?
PkL
