Men’s departure in Val Gardena – Feuz is back, Kilde twice later – sport

The podium

• 1. Aleksander Kilde (NOR) 2: 00.45
• 2. Ryan Cochran (United States) +0.22
• 3. Beat Feuz (SUI) +0.54

On the first winter descent almost a week ago in Val d’Isère, Beat Feuz missed the podium in sixth place. The downhill world cup winner of the last three years has now returned to Val Gardena. Although the 33-year-old Schangnau was behind from the start, he was able to keep it within bounds until the very end. The reward for this was the 36th downhill podium of his career.

Feuz was pleased with his appearance. In training and especially in the past, he had had a bad time in Val Gardena. A look at the statistics shows that: firstly, he took the podium on a downhill at the Saslong. In 2018 he was also third.

In the best conditions, only Aleksander Kilde and Ryan Cochran were faster than Feuz. While the Norwegian won the Super-G on Friday and is a regular guest on the podium, the American is breaking new ground. First, Cochran had made the top 10 in a World Cup downhill race (sixth at Beaver Creek 2019). With aggressive driving, the 28-year-old rewarded himself with his first podium.

The other Swiss in points

• 7. Carlo Janka +0.78
• 12. Mauro Caviezel +1.28
• 19. Niels Hintermann +1.69
• 20. Ralph Weber +1.78
• 24. Urs Kryenbühl + 1.94

Besides Feuz, Carlo Janka was also convincing from a Swiss point of view. The one from Graubünden, who suffers from back problems, finished in seventh position, while the one from Obersaxi, 34, lost a lot of time, but was able to climb it again in the lower part of the route.

So it goes

After the two speed races in Val Gardena, it will be the technicians’ turn again from Sunday. In Alta Badia, the 4th giant slalom of the season is on Sunday, before the slalom specialists finally hit the train for the first time this winter on Monday – also in Alta Badia – and on Tuesday in Madonna di Campiglio.