Cyprien Sarrazin knows his place in the sun very well. The 29-year-old has already led in numerous big places, sometimes even to the end. This was the case in Kitzbühel, Val Gardena, Lake Louise and Beaver Creek, and also in Bormio on Boxing Day this year. The only problem for Sarrazin was that he always showed his best runs in training. This earns you an honorable reputation among your colleagues as a talented driver, but it doesn’t bring you any trophies or medals – the Frenchman missed them time and time again. Until the Lombard sun shone on his face in the finish area of the Stelvio, even during such a race.
He had previously achieved a fantastic time on one of the infamous routes of the Downhill World Cup, which had appeared relatively friendly a few days ago due to the high temperatures, until a cold night brought the usual icy conditions in time. On the rocks It is said that driving in Bormio is like serving a good cocktail. Some drivers actually felt this in the literal sense due to the small amount of snow: Small stones on the track prevented better results for Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Vincent Kriechmayr – Sarrazin also benefited from this in the end.
He crossed the finish line 2.91 seconds ahead of Andreas Sander, who was leading at this early point in the race and ultimately finished 19th as the best German (Romed Baumann was eliminated, Simon Jocher was 21st, Josef Ferstl 39th). The Frenchman’s ride could be seen as a clear message to the many favorites who were watching the ride from higher up. And while stones prevented some from catching up, one reacted promptly. Marco Odermatt battled Sarrazin’s time from section to section, but in the end he was nine hundredths of a second behind. Odermatt later said it was a “perfect ride”: “But someone was faster.”
The Austrian Marco Schwarz falls badly and is transported away in the rescue helicopter
The remarkable story of the two-time overall World Cup winner continued, who now has 27 World Cup victories in giant slaloms and super-G, but none in the premier discipline of downhill. “I don’t even remember how many podium places this is, a few hundredths behind,” said Odermatt, who came second but at least took the lead in the overall standings – also because his biggest competitor wrote a tragic story. The Austrian Marco Schwarz, who started this season with the mission of racing in all disciplines to attack Odermatt, fell heavily in the lower part and had to be rescued by helicopter with an injury to his right leg.
The rescue required a long break, which Sarrazin spent in the leader’s red chair – where he perhaps found an opportunity to reflect on his long career leading up to that first truly great victory. He had already been at the top of the World Cup once, in the parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia in 2016. After that, years full of injuries and failures followed, which, however, resulted in the decision that he would dedicate himself more and more to speed competitions.
His talent for downhill skiing shone through again and again, in training runs and occasionally in races: in Val Gardena in 2022 he finished sixth with start number 61, and on the first downhill run of the season in mid-December he surprisingly came fourth – again in Val Gardena. This gave him a better starting position and ultimately led to the primal scream with which Sarrazin celebrated his journey at the finish.
One athlete after another stopped by to warmly congratulate him on his victory: Dominik Paris hugged him, Kilde chatted for a while, 39-year-old Adrien Theaux fell into his arms. And even Odermatt seemed to be able to live with the fact that at least someone like the likeable, talented, patient Sarrazin snatched his first downhill victory from under his nose. Someone who everyone always knew could be at the top – after all, he proved it often enough in training.