Recently feverish, on Saturday with top speed and wind luck: The Norwegian prevailed by almost 0.06 seconds ahead of Swiss Marco Odermatt.
The top duo set their own timeline on the “Birds of Prey” in a shifting wind: third James Crawford from Canada was already 0.79 seconds behind. Matthias Mayer missed the podium by a hundredth of a second.
Vincent Kriechmayr followed directly behind Mayer in fifth place (+0.94). Daniel Hemetsberger was 11th, Otmar Striedinger 17th. Austria’s men have to wait for the first downhill victory in Beaver Creek since Michael Walchhofer 2007. The first descent on Friday was canceled due to fresh snow and wind. The shifting wind was also a major factor the day after on the dreaded Raptor runway, which presented itself in somewhat soft but impeccable condition.
“It was a committed ride, we put in a top performance,” said Mayer about his and Kriechmayr’s performance. “But it’s an open-air sport. We just didn’t do well with our start number, especially up in the gliding passage there was just wind.” Kilde and Odermatt are in very good early form. “But a lot is still possible.”
“I drove my best race this year,” Kriechmayr didn’t want to blame himself, with one exception. At the Harrier Jump, the Upper Austrian gambled his way out into the fresh snow with a jump that was too long. “I wanted to take a risk – wasn’t that clever.” The gap to Kilde is too big, but given the circumstances there is no cause for concern. “I like it icy and hard.”
In addition to Beat Feuz (9th / +1.24) and above all Dominik Paris (20th / +1.73), Hemetsberger was also one of the defeated. “Surprisingly, there was more wind than I would have expected,” said the second from Lake Louise on ORF. “It’s an outdoor sport, it doesn’t help, I’ve tried everything.”
It didn’t matter to Kilde, who started immediately in front of the Upper Austrian. The 30-year-old man with a mustache did an excellent job of mobilizing his energy reserves. “If it’s only two minutes to be ready, then it’s fine,” Kilde felt “healthy enough” to win. After Lake Louise, he also won the second downhill of the season and, like Kjetil Jansrud, now holds eight World Cup victories in the “supreme discipline”. Only Lasse Kjus (10) and Aksel Lund Svindal (14) are more successful mooses.
On Sunday (6:00 p.m. CET/live ORF 1) in the Super-G, Kilde and Odermatt – the overall World Cup leader from Switzerland again just missed his premiere victory in the downhill – are the men who have to be beaten by the ÖSV side. Kriechmayr: “Both are currently driving at a very high level, but nobody is unbeatable.”
The live ticker to read:
Source: Nachrichten
