Alpine skiing: German alpine skiers miss the top ten for the first time in Bormio

After the last race of the year, Romed Baumann was a bit lost. “I actually had the feeling,” said the best German downhill skier today, “that it wasn’t such a bad trip.” The results list for the spectacular and exciting downhill on the challenging “Stelvio” slope in Bormio, Italy, showed him only in 14th place. For the first time in a year, German ski riders lost a position in the top ten in the supreme alpine discipline.

On the Stelvio, a section 3.3 kilometers long, but above all almost indomitable, it is usually very narrow, this time too. The Austrian Matthias Mayer, a two-time Olympic champion, was only 0.04 seconds faster than his compatriot Vincent Kriechmayr, followed by the promising Swiss Urs Kryenbühl another 0.02 seconds.

For the hungry Austrians, this ended a series of at least 22 races without a World Cup victory for women and men. Mayer also conducted the last one in March at Kvitfjell.

“Rarely have we had such a close race on such a difficult track. With one second behind you you are on the podium in other races,” said Baumann, who had fallen in seventh in Super-G at the Stelvio on the day. previous knew.

His assessment was not entirely correct: a deficit of 1.02 seconds like Baumann was enough to get on the podium in a descent almost five years ago in Wengen: Klaus Kröll (Austria), who was third at the time, was even 1, 52 seconds behind winner Aksel Lund. Svindal (Norway).

This time, the 0.43 seconds Baumann lost in the top 10 target was too much. His five teammates were even further behind: Andreas Sander (Ennepetal / 19 °), Manuel Schmid (Fischen / 21 °), Simon Jocher (Garmisch / 26 °), Josef Ferstl (Hammer / 27 °) and Dominik Schwaiger (Königssee ) drove / 30.) In points.

Young Jocher even managed to do this for the second day in a row in his ninth World Cup race – in Super-G, he landed an impressive 15th place.

Sander, who started the season so promisingly with three spots in the top ten, has dropped a bit recently. On the Stelvio, “the line was not completely trusted, it would have had to go even further to the limit in two or three passages,” he admitted.

However, he found his end of the year “very forgiving”, probably also because it was his best downhill finish at the Stelvio. Sander also knows that he can do more: “Of course, I hope January starts better than December.”

The next men’s downhill races are scheduled for January 15-16 in Wengen, followed by Kitzbühel, Garmisch, and the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo (February 8-21, 2021). The new year for women and men should start with the slalom races in Zagreb (3 and 6 January).

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