Super-G disappointment for the Azzurri
Bitter SuperG for the Azzurri on the Stelvio: the Italian team leaves without podiums and with more than one regret. The race immediately goes uphill for Dominik Paris. The Azzurro lost a ski on a slight bump just before the entrance into the Carcentina section and ended up on the ground after six gates. An unfortunate episode that immediately extinguishes his ambitions.
Giovanni Franzoni stays at the foot of the podium. He closes in 1’25″95. What weighed him down were the slippages in the curves right in the Carcentina sector: there he failed to hold the ideal line and in the next stretch, up to San Pietro, he left the decisive time on the road. Mattia Casse also struggles in the same spot. At the entrance to the Carcentina, before the last corner, he is forced to widen with a small “S” to find more space and get back on track. A choice that costs him speed: at the finish line the delay exceeds two seconds.
Innerhofer, at 41 and in the last Olympics of his career, finishes with a delay of 1″05. He pays for some inaccuracy in the Fontanalonga turns and, in the St. Peter jump, comes off balance. In flight he has to put himself back in trim by spreading his legs, a risky correction that causes him to lose further speed.
The podium after fifteen athletes: Franjo von Allmen (Svi) 1’25″32; Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA) +0″13; Marco Odermatt (Svi) +0″28.
“I skied all the sectors well except for the one in the middle section where I took six tenths; it was perhaps necessary to be a little bit’more closed. I have to learn how to handle the edges; I am not perfect yet. Von Allmen was great; he is a champion. There is only to learn. I am happy with how I am dealing with the races, I felt the pressure, but I started off strong, I pushed, even if it didn”t go the way I wanted it to go there,” said Franzoni.
The Super-G World Cup to date has continued to speak different languages. In the six races held so far there have been five different winners. The only one capable of repeating was Marco Odermatt, dominator of the specialty and winner of the superG cup for three consecutive seasons. There was also one win each for Vincent Kriechmayr, Giovanni Franzoni, Jan Zabystran and Marco Schwarz.
