Daniel Yule won his first World Cup race under the lights in Madonna di Campiglio after one of the most exciting, action packed races of recent time. This was just what the Christmas crowds gathering in the Italian resort wanted and was a great advert for ski racing. Marco Schwarz took second and Michael Matt third.
The first of the night races for the season started early and with the lights on, going early was not a great advantage. Michael Matt explained after the race that having started one, he did not feel that this had been a great advantage especially as bibs 2 and 3 did not even qualify for the second run.
The first run through up a bundle of surprises as half of the field that made it through to the second run came from those outside the thirty starters. With three of the top seven seeds not making the cut either, the timing of the start may have been questionable a few racers commented. With racers at late as 77 making the cut, including bib 69, Giulano Razzoli, the 2010 Slalom Olympic Champion, this was a race that had you on the edge of your seats till the last racer was down the first run.
With so many later runners coming down, even Dave Ryding was not sure of making the cut until deep into the run. Ryding had spoken after his first run of hoping to make the top fifteen but with all the later racers edging him down, eventually landed in joint 27th and started the second run third.
Madonna di Campiglio is a special place for many racers. For Ryding he scored his first top ten in Europa Cup, in 2017 he came sixth and so coming into the second run, on the back of worrying performance in Saalbach two days prior, Ryding needed a big result. having been sixth here last year, he would lose this result from his World Cup Start List ranking after the race so needed to have a strong result.
The second started with a flourish and Ryding was on the money straight away. "I missed my push at the second gate," he admitted "and this through me head on to the third gate and from there it was full on."
By the time he crossed the line, Ryding had set a mark for the rest of the field. He was 1.66 off the pace set by Marcel Hirscher after the first run yet this was Ryding on fire. Sometimes you need a bad result to refocus the mind and the mindset. After Saalbach, the focus for Ryding was to get back into skiing fast on race day and not just in the training courses.
With racer after racer coming down and losing time to Ryding, into the top twenty he went, then the top fifteen, then the top ten. The smile, the cheeky grin and the rock and roll pose in the leaders enclosure all there. Ryding was enjoying himself.
It took a run from Michael Matt to dislodge him from the leaders box. Yet he still stayed in the podium places. When Daniel Yule bettered Matt and then Schwarz, third after the first run, made it two Austrians in the top three, it was looking like sixth would be repeated for Ryding.
Then Kristoffersen skied out. Unheard of. Then straight away Hirscher made a huge error at the top and the race win was Daniel Yule's with Schwarz and Matt on the podium. From joint 27th, Ryding had scored his second best result of his slalom career, just fifteen hundredths off the podium!
With the Swiss team coach having set the course, Daniel Yule, had the confidence to attack for his second run. He knows that there is not so much between the top racers but if he was to hold back he would get nothing. With both Schwarz and Matt agreeing that the technical nature of the second run having been more favourable to attacking, the consistency of Kristoffersen and Hirscher normally implied these two would have been odds on for the podium spots.
It was not to be.
While Kristoffersen skied out and did not finish, Hirscher climbed and took 26th spot just ahead of another climber, Julien Lizeroux.
And for the record this was the 109th race since the Swiss had won a World Cup race, Marc Gini in Reiteralm in 2007. For the 2010 Olympic Champion, Giuliano Razzoli, racing in Italy gave him the encouragement to push himself for his first top ten finish since finishing second in Wengen in 2016, his first qualification since Aspen in March 2017. He finished fifth.
For Yule and first World Cup win, Schwartz returns to the podium for the first time in three years and what about Ryding..... (Subscribe and you can read his thoughts...!)
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