Two tenths of a second slower than Kilde, Swiss Marco Odermatt extended his podium subscription in front of Alexis Pinturault. Like on Saturday, Austria’s men passed the podium in the downhill. Raphael Haaser was the best Austrian in sixth (+0.74) ahead of the two top aces Vincent Kriechmayr (9th / +0.81) and Matthias Mayer (10th / +1.03). Super-G debutant Julian Schütter (24) took his chance as 17th after 50 runners, also Stefan Babinsky (19th), for the first time in a special Super-G Marco Schwarz (23rd) and Otmar Striedinger (25th) brought World Cup points on the Vogelvogel slope.
After five races of the season, the ÖSV men are still without a win. The yield in four races of the North American tour is expandable with a second place for Daniel Hemetsberger (downhill) and a third place for Mayer (Super-G) in Lake Louise. A technology weekend follows in Val d’Isere, before the classics from Val Gardena are on the calendar on December 16th and 17th.
On Sunday, Haaser made one mistake too many for the second place on the podium of his career. “I didn’t make enough direction over the Harrier jump,” the Tyrolean analyzed the decisive blunder a good ten seconds before the finish line. “What you saw below was the bottom line of that.” In any case, the 25-year-old took the knowledge that he can be fast with him. He missed 44/100 on Pinturault, who landed on the podium in the Super-G for the first time since 2014 – also at the Birds of Prey back then.
Odermatt continues to hoard big points in the World Cup winter. After five races of the season, the World Cup title defender is back at 420 points. The fact that the big hunted spoke of a loss of substance on Sunday should irritate the competition to some extent. “At the start today I no longer felt that I could give everything,” he said of the three weeks in North America that were strenuous but enormously successful for him.
Only Kilde currently knows how to prevent Odermatt victories in the speed area. “It’s a cool battle. Whenever Marco drives, I know that he’s fast. I just have to make sure I’m faster than him,” said Kilde. Despite a feverish illness in the past few days, the Norwegian won both races in the home of Mikaela Shiffrin.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Kriechmayr summed up quite differently. From Colorado, where he won his first World Cup five years ago, the Upper Austrian wasn’t able to take much good things with him this time. He was annoyed by “senseless mistakes”. “It was very instructive, I have to improve myself.” That united him with Mayer, who said: “It certainly didn’t go according to plan. I couldn’t pull the ski the way I wanted to.”
Source: Nachrichten
