Marcel Hirscher makes it two wins in three days
“You do not feel the tiredness when you win,” replied Marcel Hirscher after his second win in three days 600 miles apart. This was not a win that was easy to work out as the top four racers were separated by a mere fourteen hundredths of a second. With Benni Raich coming back to his imperious best to take second and Max Blardone third, Ted Ligety was the unlucky man to drop off the podium after the first run.
Adelboden is a unique and challenging slope. It is one of the classics and as such it commands not just respect from the racers but also the large crowd that makes their way up the hill. 29,000 came to watch these racers battle it out for the fastest time. They were not disappointed with the array of skills these racers had yet for some of the racers it could have been so different on the first run. Fritz Dopfer has been making his way up the rankings steadily this season and with Hirscher leading in the finish the young Austrian who now races for Germany was ahead at all the splits before leaning back two gates before the finish and landing on his backside. If ever there was a lesson learnt it was do not think you are through the finish before you get there!
Dopfer was not the only racer to experience the nightmare of crashing metres from home as Didier Defago suffered the same ignominy as he also crashed in the same place. For Alexis Pinturault a mistake coming onto the flat meant that he lost a load of speed and scrapped into 17thon the first run. While for many this would be a result, Pinturault expects more these days.
So with Hirscher leading by seven hundredths from Ligety and Blardone a third of a second back, the rest of the field had a big margin to make up. Adelboden is notorious for bad light on the second run and Ligety was ominous that he hoped that the weather would stay true and even for the all the second run racers.
Beat Feuz had just made it into the second run in 29th yet when he set off down the course he soon came up against an object you just don’t expect to see in the World Cup. It is a lesson that all young racers have drilled into them: Feuz came across a guy putting the blue dye down and after a few choice words; Feuz looked to get a rerun. Having not gone through the finish, this was granted and Feuz headed off back up the hill.
Alexis Pinturault is definitely a star in the making. He already has a podium in GS and it will not be long before he takes a place on the top step. Frustrated with his first run, 'Pintu' stormed down the second run and did not just take the lead, he grabbed it and rung it around his neck with a huge lead. Carlo Janka could only shake his head in the finish area as he could not get near the Frenchman’s time. Indeed it took until Romed Baumann, 7th after the first run, came down for the lead to change hands. Then it was like a bus, you wait so long for the lead to change and it then changes twice in two races.
Benni Raich is one of the elder statesmen of the World Cup these days and after his injury last season at the World Championships, many have written him off. Write Raich off at your peril as the injury gremlins are now behind him and he is back! Raich grabbed the lead by 1.20 seconds from his countryman and then the fight was on.
Neither of the French racers in the top five could better the time as both made small but costly errors. Max Blardone, winner last time out in Alta Badia before Christmas then slipped two hundredths behind the Austrian.
If anyone was expected to take the lead it was Ted Ligety. Ligety had a lead over Raich from the first run of just under a second. Raich has the experience of winning on this slope whereas Ligety had not been better than 9th before this race. Ligety set off and all was looking OK, not great but he still held the lead. A small error on the roll before the last split as they dropped down onto the steep pitch into the finish and then Ligety had to hang on for dear life into the finish.
Four hundredths behind Blardone flashed up for Ligety in third place; six hundredths off the lead. Hirscher still had to go. These were dramatic times and a great advert for ski racing. Hirscher attacked and while he lost little time he was still in the lead. By the time he crossed the line it was close yet as the crowd went wild for him as he had won, he did not realise it until the commentator said “Yes Marcel you have won!”
After the race Hirscher said “It is a great feeling to win a classic. I had a little bit of luck. In Zagreb I won by a tenth; the feeling is great after winning here by eight hundredths!”
Ligety still leads the GS season long campaign but his lead over the man who calls him Mr GS is now down to 15 points. “Sure I do not like coming 4th again,” explained Ligety after the race, “I put in one good run and made a small mistake that was costly!”
A second win in three days for Hirscher and now it is on to the Slalom down the same slope. For those wondering if he has aspirations on the Overall, at the moment he says he will just concentrate on the thing she is good at: Slalom and Giant Slalom. The rest of the field can rest!
