ALPINE SKI. VAL GARDENA, Italy- It’s the first career victory in Super G for Beat Feuz. With a time of 1 minute, 21.51 seconds, the young Swiss was able to ski a perfect run and “steal” the victory from Bode Miller, who was left 0.30 seconds behind. Kjetil Jansrud landed his first speed podium with an amazing third place, just .44 seconds slower than Feuz.

 “I have no idea what happened to me, this is unbelievable,” Feuz said. “All I know is that while waiting for my run, I heard everyone was coming down so far behind and that Miller’s run was so superior. Than the Swiss guy’s which were already down, told me that you have to risk it all, no holding back. With three podium finishes so far this season, I know I am doing well, but I certainly wasn’t counting on this victory. To win a Super G, the discipline I always believed to be my second best, this is just amazing.”

Bode Miller won the Beaver Creek Downhill just two weeks ago while in SG, he last won in Hinterstoder in 2006, and his last podium in the discipline was a third place last season there as well. It was looking as if Miller would be standing on the top step of the podium in Val Gardena, but Feuz messed up his plans and Miller ended up repeating his 2007 result from this venue.

Miller had some visibility issues coming down, but overall seemed pleased with his second place.

“On the Saslong you always have to wait till the very end, as even a tiny bit of sun can make a big difference. When the visibility gets better, it is a great advantage on this course and that’s why a few skiers who started late managed to race into the front,” Miller said about the great but somewhat unexpected performances of some of the skiers starting with higher numbers.

Looking forward to Saturday’s Downhill, Miller didn’t think the SG results would be predicting much.

“I made a few mistakes, especially at the last ten gates, but the Super G on this slope doesn’t usually give any clues about the Downhill. Tomorrow’s race will be affected by lots of factors such as the weather or bib numbers.”

Jansrud had been improving steadily in the speed disciplines and this season in Lake Louise he surprised everyone with a sixth place finish in the Beaver Creek Super G. Friday’s podium only proved it’s time to consider him one of the top speed skiers. He considered himself to be lucky, starting at the beginning of the race while visibility was still fairly good.

“I have never come down and been this forward, but with number five everything was possible. It could have been faster, it could have been slower… With this bib draw it can go either way. You can be the snowplow for everyone else, or you can ski well and have everyone else have ruts later on; you never know until you go,” Jansrud said about his starting position.

“I thought I did parts of the course well, had a couple of mistakes too so it was interesting to see how it turns out. When Miller took the lead from me, I thought more guys were going to come down fast, pushing me back but than it got darker by the minute. Even though it stopped snowing, I believe it was still an advantage to start in the front. More often than not there is an advantage in starting first, but in Lake Louise for example it was the other way around. I’ve never been top seven in SG, so I never experienced starting 22nd,” he added.

On a SG course, which had to be shortened due to some bad weather, we saw various results happening for the first time. Feuz won a SG for the first time, Jansrud, much better known as a Giant Slalom skier, made it to his first non-GS podium. Franz Max surprised everyone when with bib number 54 he crossed the finish line in fifth position, his best so far. Andreas Romar from Finland, who never achieved a top 10 in a World Cup race and suffered a crash in the second Downhill training, crossed the finish line in seventh position making a big step forward from bib number 40.

Weather might have played a role in today’s race, but luckily it stayed stable enough to allow a fair race without interruptions. The weather forecast for Saturday’s Downhill is again not ideal, but hopefully it will stay good enough to allow everyone to witness another exciting Downhil on the Saslong.

by Ana Jelusic
FISalpine.com
Friday 16 December 2011

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