Max Blardone wins in Alta Badia
He wanted it and was determined to put in a performance that showed this, was how Italian Max Blardone felt after wining from start number 19. Blardone has gone through some trials in recent years and sporting a piece of tape over his old sponsors name, Blardone was a man on a mission from the moment he left the start gate on the first run. Sometimes you can see a racers determination in how he attacks a course and this was one of those times. With the Austrians packing the top five finishers, Hannes Reichelt took second, Philipp Schoerghofer third and Marcel Hirscher in fifth, this was a race that was full of talking points and not all just on the skiing. With a lead of over a second on Blardone as he left the start for the second run, Ted Ligety finished fourth.
Ante Kostelic set a bizarre course on the first run with what would turn out to be 15 extra seconds of racing than the second run and a combination of two double gates mid way down the middle section pitch. Blardone summed it up best by saying “It is not for me to question the course setter as he can set what he likes, but that was strange.” The first course was tight at the top and as Schoerghofer said afterwards, “the second course was like a Super G.” While the hill was not its ‘usual’ pack of ice, many of the racers still struggled on the first run with the technical nature of the course.
The big surprise of the day was not Blardone winning (two years to the day since his last win here) but more the way that Ted Ligety managed to lose two seconds on the second run. Ligety commented after the race that he was not angry at his fourth place but more how he had lost so much time. Ligety has opened the debate on the whole set up of ski racing with a post on his blog suggesting that the format of racing is changed. Instead of two runs, three hours apart, Ligety is suggesting that the courses are shorter, maybe 40 seconds in length and that the slower racers are ‘knocked out’ with each run. This would provide one block of TV viewing and be more entertaining he feels.
With Reichelt and Schoerghofer joining Blardone on the podium, the demise from second place after the first run of Marcel Hirscher was something of a surprise: Ligety commented that the fact that neither of the top two Giant Slalom racers this season were on the podium was something of a shock, “how could we both have skied so bad,” he said after the race.
A number of racers, including Fritz Dopfer and Didier Defago made great use of early second run starts and charged up the leaderboard. The German Dopfer forced his way into 7th spot just behind Thomas Fanara with Defago in 9th just behind Svindal who had dropped from third after the first run to go 8th. Defago had started 38th. Davide Simoncelli rounded off the top 10. Sebastien Pichot was the last man to crash the second run party from a start on the first run of 49 and made good his opportunity to place 13th.
Miller looked to be heading for a great run yet a mistake saw him lose valuable time on the second run just when a top 10 finish was heading his way.
Take nothing away from Blardone as he was a man on a mission. Blardone has moved back to Dynastar this year and it was on these skis that he made his name. This was a race that had his name on it from the moment he left the start on run one. Coming from 19 after the first run, he did not have the best of conditions and yet he still attacked and made the others attack as well. With the pressure on those racers following him to better his time, many of them would either push too hard and make mistakes or skied safe and lost too much time. While every racer wanted to win, on this occasion Blardone wanted it more than all the others and skied on the limit.
Monday sees day four of racing with the second World Cup Slalom of the season.
