It was worth the wait: delayed by an hour due to bad weather conditions, the Kitzbühel descent offered a spectacle and at the same time a new historic moment for French skiing. Cyprien Sarrazin (29 years old) won on Friday on the Streif, the legendary Austrian track, which adds to his record in downhill, opened three weeks ago in Bormio.
The first Frenchman to win on the Stelvio since Luc Alphand in 1996, the skier from Hautes-Alpes once again followed in the footsteps of his elder, the last Tricolore to have tasted success in Kitzbühel in downhill in 1997. For this, he performed impressive, marked by an exceptional finish. After the 4th sector (out of 7), Sarrazin was 17 hundredths behind Florian Schieder.
But he was able to pick up speed in the last part to gain time. At the finish, he crossed the line 5 hundredths ahead of the Italian (2nd) and 34 hundredths ahead of Marco Odermatt (3rd). Victory was in his arms but he still had to wait until a sufficient number of competitors had started, while the snow began to fall. And Sarrazin was able to savor his new exploit.
He joins Alphand and Killy on the Streif list
Here is his name written on a new page of history since he is now one of the three French winners on the Streif, after Alphand and Jean-Claude Killy. He is also climbing ever closer to the top in the downhill globe rankings: with Friday’s results, Odermatt is only 26 points ahead of him. Sarrazin will have the opportunity to close the gap on Saturday during the second race in Kitzbühel.
Among the other French entrants, Nils Allegre took 9th place, while Maxence Muzaton ranked 11th and Matthieu Bailey 12th.