Linus Straßer was five years old when his father took him skiing from his home in Kitzbühel, and even then the boy had a soft spot for everything off-piste. He preferred to ski on mogul slopes, in deep snow, over waves; he has retained his fascination for the many beauties of his sport to this day. On Wednesday evening, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Straßer found a fascinating playground, with humps and troughs, in which a herd of goats from one of the nearby petting zoos could easily have been stowed away in the second run. “The slope was extremely difficult to drive,” Strasser said later, it was one of the friendlier reviews of the evening.
In any case, his enjoyment was limited in the end: Straßer had thrown it off in the second run, in the best starting position. So the day ended with less edifying news for the German Ski Association (DSV): Straßer and Lena Dürr, who had brought the German Alpine skiers the only podium visits of the winter so far, slipped into the new year with zero numbers. While Dürr was eliminated in Zagreb in the first run (and Mikaela Shiffrin won her 81st (!) World Cup), Straßer fought his way up to the penultimate intermediate time on the Gudiberg before retiring. Despite everything, he attested to a “strong start to the year”, and that was not even presumptuous.
What did that darn mountain get me into? Linus Straßer finishes the second run without any points.
(Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa)
A similar bravery medal was initially earned by everyone who had worked so hard in the past few weeks to prepare the white ribbon on the Gudiberg in such a way that it was reasonably enough for 71 athletes, and then again for the 30 best in the second run. They had sprinkled salt on the track to the end to remove water and harden it, it was a slalom against time. Two hours before the start, Markus Waldner, the race director of the world association Fis, then gave his blessing. Relief could be felt, but also the memory of the future of winter sports with global warming. Or: how he’s been stuck in the middle of it for a long time.
Whoever was early in the first heat, like the best in the world, still had a huge advantage. The thin layer on the piste broke after a few riders, and a “Gries” as Manuel Feller called it gushed out from under it; for the Austrian, the ride on it felt “like throwing a wooden board into the water”. The few starters whose turn it was before almost all used their advantage: Henrik Kristoffersen set the best time, Straßer followed seven tenths of a second behind. “The real task,” he knew of course, “waits in the second run”: when the best start last and find a rutted slope that now also required qualities in mogul skiing.
Next time? “I’ll try it again the same way,” says Straßer
Stefano Gross made best use of the still stable track in the second run, the 36-year-old Italian, who recently carved through many valleys, set the best time after rank 26 in the first run. Gross saw how his colleagues lurched more and more violently over the snow after that, although they brought more and more lead with them: one second, one and a half, two. “Catastrophe” fell out of the mouth of the Austrian Marco Schwarz at the finish, in his initial anger. The Swiss Daniel Yule, fifth after the first run, apparently managed better not to be irritated by the conditions, he outbid Gross by eight hundredths of a second. Manuel Feller, apparently not only a connoisseur of wooden board driving, but also one for heavy special operations, added half a second to it.
And Strasser? The 30-year-old has tamed such pistes many times before: when the troughs around the gates are so deep and firm that you can find a foothold in them and even push yourself off them, almost like in a banked curve. And how he then threw himself onto this adventure slope on the Gudiberg. He swept over the starting slope like a lion, surfed over the bumps, not exactly gracefully, but it was fast, more than a second ahead of Feller. The 7,000 spectators in the valley sent a wave of ecstasy up the mountain, but just as it seemed to really swell, it died down – a carelessness and Strasser had lost control. It’s over.
There was still a demonstration from Kristoffersen, the leader after race one, who knows and loves such conditions from Norway: He plowed over the bumps as if they had shrunk by half for him, in the end he alone had a lead of 1.22 seconds Feller. Meanwhile, Straßer made an effort to reinterpret his perceived defeat as a success. “I approached the second run in such a way that I was fighting for victory,” he said, saying he had to take the risk. Then he listed what he was still carrying in his luggage for the upcoming races in January: “I’ve got good speed right now, I’m good on my skis,” he said, “I’ll do the same again in Adelboden try out.”
By the way, the forecasts there were up to the end: similarly warm and bumpy.