Men's downhill Val Gardena/Gröden: Hot ride on the Saslong

This year's men's downhill really had it all, rarely had the riders been seen so challenged. Not only was the course more demanding, tighter, more difficult, no, the light conditions also had a strong influence on the intermediate times of the riders. Especially the Kammelbuckels threw the one or the other rider off (e.g. Steven Nyman (USA) or David Poisson (FRA)), but also the Ciaslat was difficult to ride and decided in the end about victory or defeat.

The first 10 drivers
The first 10 riders actually constantly replaced each other in the lead, one best time after the other fell. After the Slovenians Sporn and Perko, who finished the race in 41st and 28th place, followed the Austrians Scheiber and Mayer, who would end up in 15th and 14th place. After the two retirements of Nyman and Brice, Jan Hudec, who had finished 2nd in Super G a day earlier, followed and set a new best time. Then the Italians Heel and Fill followed as celebrated local heroes and took the lead. Starting with bib number 10 was Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, who skied the Kammelbuckel and the Ciaslat cleanly and set a new clear best with a gap of almost 8-tenths of a second. Frenchman Johan Clarey, who followed, also skied impressively and finished just 12 hundredths of a second behind Jansrud.

Changing lighting conditions
The light conditions began to change and in the upper part of the race the following racers suddenly, almost inexplicably slowed down. The American was already 0.9 seconds behind the leader Jansrud at the second intermediate time, but skied the Kammelbuckel and the Ciaslat so well that he was only 27 hundredths of a second behind Jansrud at the end, intermediate rank 3, final rank 5. Bode showed an impressive run and proved once again that he is serious about his comeback: Bode Miller is a force to be reckoned with again! In front of him, there were only two skiers left. One was yesterday's Super G winner Aksel Lund Svindal, who as usual put in a strong run and ended up in 4th place, and the other, somewhat unexpectedly, was the winner of the race, the likeable Canadian Erik Guay, who was unable to train over the summer due to a knee injury and subsequent surgery and was himself somewhat surprised and overjoyed about his 1st place.

Unexpected podium
So in the end there were riders on the podium who were not necessarily on the cards. Jansrud in 2nd place had not yet achieved a podium finish this season and had not yet closed among the top 10 in the downhill. Clarey is considered a strong skier, but this season has been very inconsistent so far and Guay also fell back into the top 20 after his 8th place in Lake Louise and only got back into the top 10 yesterday in the Super G with his 6th place, which must have given him some boost and a bit of race luck is of course always part of the equation. Erik Guay's performance today in Val Gardena/Gröden was excellent and he deserved to be the winner of the Val Gardena/Gröden Downhill 2013.

The Swiss downhill skiers
The best Swiss skier was Patrick Küng, who advanced to 6th place with an impressive run. The second best Swiss was Carlo Janka in 21st place. Beat Feuz, on the other hand, should not really be satisfied with his 29th place. The Swiss downhillers therefore still have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to have a say in the future when it comes to the lead, not to mention the Olympics.

Ranking downhill men, 20.12.2013, Gardena-Gröden

1 Erik Guay (CAN), 1:56.65
2 Kjetil Jansrud (NOR), 1:56.77
3 Johan Clarey (FRA), 1:56.89
4 Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR), 1:56.94
5 Bode Miller (USA), 1:57.04
6 Patrick Küng (SUI), 1:57.28
7 Manuel Osborne-Paradis (CAN), 1:57.45
8 Werner Heel (ITA), 1:57.51
9 Jan Hudec (CAN), 1:57.55
10 Peter Fill (ITA), 1:57.57

You can find the next races here.