WORLD CUP BANSKO. With a total of fifteen competitions left on the men's World Cup calendar until the end of the season, the battle for the large crystal globe to be awarded next month at Schladming is entering its most tense time: three top champions are still in the hunt for the most significant trophy in Alpine ski racing.

The men’s tour resumes this weekend at Bansko, Bulgaria, with two tech events while two super-G races and a giant slalom are planned in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, next week. In-between the best 15 skiers from the overall standings and one Russian receiving a ‘Wild Card’ from the organizers will compete in Moscow on February 21st for the first City Event of the season after the cancellation of the event planned at Munich on Jan. 1st 2012.

Then the racers will move up to Norway for two super-Gs and a downhill, then come back to Kranjska Gora for the noted giant slalom and slalom races held on the difficult Podkoren slope prior to traveling to Schladming for the Finals organized on the courses of the 2013 Alpine Ski World Championships.

It’s a balanced program with seven so called ‘speed events’ and seven ‘technical events' and one parallel slalom to be staged on an impressive ramp constructed within the Luzhniki Olympic Complex.

Kostelic out for three weeks

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, the winner in six events this season, sits in first place with 1 043 points for the moment – only 70 more than Switzerland’s Beat Feuz, who's won three races this season and has 218 more points than Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, also crowned on six occasions in past months.

After injuring himself on Sunday on his right knee while racing the super combined on the Rosa Khutor slope, Kostelic will be out of contention for at least three weekends. Hence it’s pretty probable that he will be caught in the overall standings by his nearest rivals, Feuz and Hirscher. The skier from Zagreb, who underwent a successful surgery on Monday on the meniscus of his right knee, will try to get back on the tour early March in Slovenia.

Interestingly enough, Feuz is skipping the coming races at Bansko to train for Moscow and for Crans-Montana. He has shown in past combined slaloms that he has the potential to score ‘big’ points in Russia if he survives one or two rounds. He might also do well in giant slalom and for sure his relaxed attitude and his confidence should help him to excel in the speed events in the coming weeks. 
The Swiss is particularly motivated by the idea to return in three weeks at Kvitfjell where he celebrated his very first World Cup win a year ago in downhill. The overall Cup is not his most immediate target for the moment. As Hirscher who aims to keep on challenging Kostelic and USA’s Ted Ligety in the slalom and giant slalom standings, Feuz has a great chance to put heavy pressure on his teammate Didier Cuche in the downhill standings and on Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal in the super-G classification.

Hans Pum bets on Beat Feuz

Austria’s Alpine Director Hans Pum considers the 25-year-old Swiss from Schangnau as the skier to beat in this year’s overall standings. “Beat has the potential to keep on scoring a lot of points in the coming weeks as he seems to be on a roll,” the long-time head coach said during the pre-Olympic events near Sochi. “He is very confident too and also very determined. We have calculated with our experts that he should be able to get close to the mark of 1 400 points or even 1 450 points at the end of the season with a series of strong results in Crans-Montana, Kvitfjell and Schladming and a good parallel race at Moscow,” said Pum.

“The air is very thin at that level and I don’t believe that either Kostelic or Hirscher could match this. Marcel is first and foremost fighting for the specialty standings in both slalom and giant slalom; the overall title has never been a goal for him this winter. Don’t forget it was supposed to only be a comeback season after his leg injury last February before the World Championships. We are already amazed by his recent achievements so far. His last triumph at Schladming was particularly impressive.” 
Hirscher remains cool

Even though Marcel Hirscher will mostly focus on the next tech events, starting with the giant slalom and slalom set on the demanding ‘Alberto Tomba’ course at Bansko, he took some time last week to train super-G at Reiteralm, near Schladming. The skier from south of Salzburg scored points in that specialty finishing 11th at Val d’Isère in December 2009, a day after reaching the podium in a super-G/slalom combined event!

“I enjoyed it, I felt comfortable and I do plan now to enter the two super-G races at Crans-Montana but don’t expect from me to finish among the best-15,” he explained on Monday evening during a show aired by Servus-TV at Salzburg. “It’ll also help me to test the course in Switzerland prior the giant slalom there,” he added. 
The 22-year-old prodigy also said that he remains cool when thinking about the overall standings. “For sure there is a chance, and it’s interesting but there is no better tactic than to fight each time as hard as possible,” he also said. “I have already reached way more than I thought, so I’m pretty relaxed. I also hope that Ivica will manage to come back soon. He is a great champion and it would be too bad if he would be sidelined by the injury now. I know how tough it is for a racer to skip races – it happened to me last year the week before the World Championships in Germany.”

Great racing expected in Bansko

Other racers too aim to take advantage of the remaining competitions to enjoy a successful end of the season – including some of Hirscher’s Austrian colleagues. None of them is ready to slow down for him while racing at Bansko this weekend. Mario Matt, a slalom winner there a year ago, will be battling for his first season win after finishing a promising 3rd at Schladming. The Italian slalom team too has been very strong this winter – especially Cristian Deville, winner in Kitzbühel, Stephano Gross or Olympic champion Giuliano Razzoli, the winner at Alta Badia. The Swedes Andre Myhrer and Jens Byggmark have been solid too. For the moment, Ivica Kostelic leads the slalom standings with 595 points, 135 more than 2nd placed Marcel Hirscher.

In giant slalom Ligety is in command with 380 points – 15 more than Hirscher. A dozen specialists will also fight in Bulgaria for victory and a spot on the podium including France’s Alexis Pinturault, Italy’s Max Blardone, the winner at Alta Badia, or Austrian veteran Benjamin Raich, a superb 2nd at Adelboden this January.

PkL
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 15 February 2012

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