Sensational surprise victory of the German Thomas Dressen at the Hahnenkamm race

Na, that was another race, sometimes you just don't know what to say. In much better conditions than yesterday but still overcast, Austrian veteran Hannes Reichelt starts the Hahnenkamm race today, Saturday. To estimate his time, which lit up at the finish, was simply still difficult, what was it worth? But his run already stood out as quite successful with the next riders. To the great surprise, the first Norwegian, Kjetil Jansrud, who had set his sights high, fluffed, but at the finish he had a fabulous gap of 0.89 seconds. Had Reichelt been that fast? The second Norwegian his compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal, who had shone in Gardena-Gröden and is in good form, but has never been able to win in Kitzbühel, was not to fare much better. At the finish he was still 0.71 seconds behind Reichelt, so the Austrian could really breathe a sigh of relief, as some of the really big competitors had stayed behind him. The Italians were less fortunate, Innerhofer risked everything and thus too much on the entry to the finish slope and was thrown into the net, and Dominik Paris also did not manage a convincing ride. Then came the Swiss Beat Feuz,who won the Lauberhorn race the weekend before. Should he manage the rare double of winning Kitzbühel and Wengen in a row? And his run was once again very strong, the intermediate times showed a small but clear lead, which he was able to maintain until the finish line, replacing the disappointed Hannes Reichelt from the winner's spot. Feuz was more than satisfied. Now they had to be patient. The French fluffed, even if Clarey had best time in some sections, but of course the time at the finish is decisive and the race in Kitzbühel is long and has many difficult sections. Many already saw Feuz as the final winner, then came the young talented Austrian Vincent Kriechmayer, who with bib number 16 plunged courageously into the race and lo and behold, one intermediate time after another was better than the time of the leader Feuz. Could he decide the race for himself and Austria? No, at the finish he got a little off the line and that was enough for him to cross the finish line 0.26 seconds behind.

The race was actually already over
Now the race was actually over. Who should still come here. Beat Feuz's victory was already a sure thing. Then the young German Thomas Dressen started the race, who had already shone in several races this winter with fabulous runs. And he had another small advantage over the riders before, because with him and the following riders the sun suddenly shone through and lit up the course. Did that give him a better view? Yes, that seemed to be the case. And lo and behold, to the surprise of the spectators, he was suddenly very close to Feuz at the first two intermediate times despite mediocre training results. And suddenly he was 0.2 seconds ahead of Feuz at the third split time and 0.51 seconds ahead at the fourth. From intermediate time to intermediate time the faster intermediate time lit up green on the TV, should the sensation succeed? At the last intermediate time it was only 0.18 seconds, could he save this to the finish. And indeed, the young German made it to the finish line with the fastest time, thus achieving what only three times a German downhill skier had succeeded in doing - Ludwig Leitner in 1965 & Sepp Ferstl in 1978/79 - to win the Hahnenkamm race. Yeah, kiss my ass, that's awesome, where can you find something like that. Everything was expected, but certainly not a victory by a German in Kitzbühel. Sensational! Very great class, this likeable young downhill skier from Bavaria, he simply deserves it!

Thomas Dressen writes German skiing history!

This talent writes German skiing history with this grandiose success and one thing is already certain, further strong results can be expected from him in the future, that is already apparent. The result also seemed to spur on his compatriot Andreas Sandmann, who also impressed with brilliant intermediate times and who only lost some time at the end and shot through the finish line in fifth place. He almost managed the double lead, which would then have been one of the greatest ski triumphals in German skiing history. So the course had now really become faster at the top and this was also felt by the Swiss Marc Gisin, who once again attracted attention with best times at the top, but lost the decisive tenths in the final passages. He thus took the surprising 5th place and pushed Andreas Sandmann one rank behind him.

All in all, it was a race that was hard to beat in terms of excitement and surprise and a sensational result, especially from a German perspective. We congratulate a happy Thomas Dressen for a super strong ride and his sensational victory. On the podium next to Thomas Dressen with the 2nd place were Beat Feuz, who should be more than satisfied with it and the oldest Austrian in the team Hannes Reichelt on 3rd place.