Obereggen is a hill that has produced some great performances by Alain Baxter but not since he won there has a
British racer been in the hunt to challenge. Enter Dave Ryding. Ryding admitted after the race that he had not finished this race in the past yet here was a British racer that was battling with the best on the Europa Cup tour and doing himself proud. Coming into the race, Ryding was lying in 16th in the season long series and was looking to get back into the top 15 starters. Obereggen is traditionally a race that attracts the top slalom races from the World Cup as well; this would be no easy feat for the man from Pendle!
Ryding produced two solid runs on his way to 12th place overall. After the first run he placed 5th at the time of his finish and dropped
Ryding had positioned himself well for the second run, 12th, and it was much more of the same yet still a few small errors saw him drop a few places yet he caught a few up as racers crashed out. 12th place was the end result in a race that was won by the new rising star of the Austrian technical team Manuel Feller.to 12th at the start of the second run. With a good top flat section, his specialty, Ryding then attacked the steep section before crossing the flatter section to the finish, on the first run. His coach, Tristan Glasse-Davies, was pleased but still felt that there was more in the tank.
To be first, first you have to finish and with a race that had the likes of JB Grange, Manni Pranger and Mario Matt all on the start list this was a high quality race. The start list top 30 was littered with racers who had scored podiums on the World Cup as well as serious points on the World Cup. While Ryding was satisfied with the result, he was after bigger things and getting more sub 10 FIS point results. Another opportunity will present itself with the Night Slalom in Fassa di Pozza on Thursday.
Full results
Ryding talks about the season to date