One could have called the Stelvio an ice or mogul slope, one could possibly even have pointed out that the frozen rain of the past few days had meant that ice skating would work better than skiing on some sections of the route. Vincent Kriechmayr, however, chose a classic Upper Austrian dialect expression when he looked back on his victory run from Bormio: It was the “toughest” descent of the year, said Kriechmayr, and one “of course wanted to win it someday”.
A small advantage of the Austrian language is that a word like zach is always ambiguous. From the context of the downhill elite exhausted in the finish area, it became clear that Kriechmayr’s expression in High German could probably be translated as “arduous” or “challenging”. However, the small word can also be translated from the Upper Austrian with the term “tough” and therefore the statement can be made that the victory on the toughest downhill of the season went to one of the toughest downhill skiers in the World Cup.
At the age of 31, Kriechmayr has now won the classics in Val Gardena, Wengen and Bormio, and the traditional Swiss circuit twice. There are also eleven other victories, such as the Super-G competitions in Beaver Creek, Kitzbühel and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as well as two gold medals at the World Ski Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo last year. In other words: All that’s missing is victory in the really big downhill classic in Kitzbühel to complete his career record.
“It was definitely my best ride down there,” said Kriechmayr about his run in Bormio. The Austrian finished almost half a second ahead of Canadian James Crawford, which is why one could already assume after nine starters that Kriechmayr would have a good chance of winning: Crawford’s flawless and sometimes sensational run over the Stelvio could be countered with something this day probably enough for the top spot. Also to defend himself against Aleksander Aamodt Kilde: Kilde had won three downhill competitions this season, the other two (Gröden on a shortened route and now Bormio) won Kriechmayr. However, Kilde was not far away: He finished third ahead of the Swiss overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt.
The Germans have a hard time: a ski comes off at Schwaiger, Ferstl falls
Even after the first of two competitions in Bormio, the German downhill skiers have little to contribute to the season balance so far. Without the injured Thomas Dreßen and Simon Jocher as well as the sick Andreas Sander, only one of the remaining trio made it to the finish: Romed Baumann was 18th, while Dominik Schwaiger and Josef Ferstl failed in the upper part of the course. Schwaiger’s ride lasted 35 seconds before the outside ski came loose in a curve and he was just able to avoid a fall. “It’s annoying, a big disappointment,” said Schwaiger, who had to accept another setback after promising races at the start of the season.
However, Ferstl’s failure could have more serious consequences. After twelve seconds, the 33-year-old lost control, fell and landed in the fence, just barely avoiding an all too violent impact. The fall was still painful: “My knee hurts, I hope it’s nothing worse,” said Ferstl, who will undergo a medical examination before the Super-G on Thursday. After all, Sander could be fit again by then.
The toughest prevails: Vincent Kriechmayr on the way to victory in Bormio.
(Photo: Patrick Steiner/Gepa Pictures/Imago)
Baumann summed up his race in Bormio by saying that he had “too much respect” – with exactly the same respect for the icy Stelvio that the top drivers are able to discard more consistently than ever this winter. Kriechmayr is one of the small group of drivers who can prevail in their special discipline against the hard to beat Odermatt and Kilde.
From a German point of view, it takes sensations to do that, especially as long as Dreßen is out with a muscle injury: He thinks it’s possible to return to Wengen in mid-January, said Dreßen in a ZDF interview, then he wants to rediscover the fun of skiing. At the moment, the winter is too dreary for him: “It really hurts that I have to take a break again,” says Dreßen, who, as a native of Upper Bavaria, now lives in Upper Austria and therefore knows how zach life in the Ski World Cup is. At home on the sofa maybe even a little more than on the icy Stelvio.