The second and final downhill training session took place on the Saslong on Wednesday. James Crawford of Canada set the best time in the dress rehearsal for Saturday's downhill classic.
Crawford set the best time of 2:01.68 minutes and thus moved into the circle of the absolute top favorites in view of the weekend. The 27-year-old has already stood on the podium four times in the World Cup, but is still waiting for his first victory. The Canadian has always performed strongly in Val Gardena – he finished the last three Downhill races in fifth place.
Mattia Casse, who was the fastest in Tuesday's training run, also did well the second time and finished second, eight hundredths of a second behind. An interesting fact: until the penultimate split time, the Italian – who, like Crawford, has not yet won a World Cup race – was still 74 hundredths of a second ahead of the winner of the training run. The Swiss skier Stefan Rogentin completed the top three. He was also only eleven hundredths of a second behind.
In the second training session, many of the favorites were outside the top ten. While last year's winner Dominik Paris of Ulten came in 13th, Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr took 17th place. Gardena-specialist Bryce Bennett (USA) finished 30th, overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt (Switzerland) only 40th.
Many high numbers are among the frontrunners
As usual in Val Gardena, the Saslong also allowed good times for athletes with high starting numbers. This fact is clearly reflected in the results list of the second training run: no fewer than eight skiers with a starting number above 40 appear in the top 20. The best “underdog” was Germany's Simon Jocher in fourth place.
From a South Tyrolean perspective, three other speed racers took on the second training session alongside Dominik Paris: Christof Innerhofer (Gais) came in 26th place one day after his 40th birthday, Florian Schieder (Kastelruth) came in 31st, and local favorite Max Perathoner from Wolkenstein came in 66th.
“I still have room for improvement”
While James Crawford still sees room for improvement after his best time in training, the Saslong, which is a little slower than in previous years, is generally well received by the racers. We have collected the comments of some of the protagonists.
James Crawford (CAN | 1st place): “I skied quite well today and this gives me confidence. My run was solid, even though I can still improve a lot before the race. I like the track, I always enjoy coming here. The jumps are much better tuned this year than last year, overall the conditions are really very good. There are a few bigger bumps, but the speed is not high, which makes it even more interesting for me.”
Stefan Rogentin (SUI | 3rd place): “I had a really good training run. But it's very difficult to evaluate a training run because you don't really know what equipment the competition used or what percentage of their potential the top riders actually gave. In any case, it went well for me today and I'm satisfied. The track is cool, especially in the second section, you spend a lot of time in the air. Today we had a bit more speed compared to yesterday. However, I jumped too far on Ciaslat both today and yesterday. I'm not putting any pressure on myself for Saturday's race. I just want to perform to the best of my ability.”
Simon Jocher (GER | 4th place): “The track has improved since yesterday. Yesterday it was very soft, which isn't really my thing. I made a few trips here and there, which cost me quite a bit of time. That's why I'm all the more pleased that it worked better today and I got a good feeling for the weekend. Now I'm ready for the races. The World Cup is really top-notch here in Val Gardena/Gröden – the backdrop with the Sassolungo/Langkofel mountain and the whole organization are wonderful.”
Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA | 5th place): “I like this track and enjoy coming here every time. The jumps are great and the snow is not as icy as at other races, I like that. My training sessions were okay, although there are still a few things I need to work on for the weekend. Last year, the jumps were much further, which is not necessarily good for the knees. This year is better because the track is not so fast and we land in the right places.”
Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT | 17th place): “The track is in great condition. Of course, it's a bit more compact than usual, but that's mainly due to the warm temperatures. A little snow is expected over the next few days, which could change the conditions again. I can't wait for the races to finally start. I like the track here and, as usual in Italy, the food is also good. So basically, nothing can stop me (laughs).