The Stelvio course is well known as one of the most demanding downhills in the world.

It's an incredible and often very icy run with 1000m of vertical drop and a course length close to 3000m, raced in 120 seconds.

An Austrian has won 11 of the 18 downhill events on this course. USA has won 3, France 2, Norway and Italy each once. The Swiss are still at zero wins, even if they dominated the World Championships in 1985 with Pirmin Zurbriggen.

The first and only Italian victory took place last year (2009) thanks to Christof Innerhofer.

Among the winners nobody has been able to win more than twice in DH: Daron Rahlves, Luc Alphand, Hannes Trinkl, Hermann Maier and Michael Walchhofer are in this exclusive club.

In 1998 Hermann Maier won by 0.70 in front of Fritz Strobl, while Michael Walchhofer avoided the first Swiss victory winning by 0.01 in front of Didier Cuche in 2006!

Further improvements for safety

A recent addition of 100m of A safety net increased the safety of the course another step. The new net has been placed to the right side of Pian dell'Orso, just under the chairlift Fontana Longa - Valbella.

Altogether, 3km of A nets, 16km of B nets, 6km of C and more than 70 air fences will aid the safety level on the 3000 m of the Stelvio course.

Two helicopters will guarantee, as usual, the maximum in case of emergency with very fast transportation to the hospital of Sondalo or Sondrio.

Great snow conditions in Bormio

After the big snowfall in the beginning of December the arrival of a cold front helped SIB (the Bormio's Lift Company) to produce snow with the powerful plant developed for the 2005 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Right now all the slopes, from the start house to the finish line, are perfectly covered, and only the finish area is still under the fire of the snow cannons. The entire course will be covered with artificial snow as only the base is of natural snow.

Up until the pre-Christmas weekend the entire Stelvio course, from Ciuk to the bottom of the mountain, was open to the public. This helped the team guided by Pier Dei Cas and Tino Pietrogiovanna to obtain smoother and near perfect snow conditions for the downhill racers.

Right after the snow control check on 19th December, FIS Race Director Helmuth Schmalzl worked on shaping the jumps on the Stelvio course. With much snow a lot of terrain could be built and a perfect mix between thrill and safety can be achieved.

Last year the weather conditions led to a very icy and hard snow. Right now, as in Val Gardena, the snow is very aggressive, but not iced. Perfect for a downhill race!

FISalpine.com
Thursday 24 December 2009