Alpine skiing
Crazy race in Val Gardena: Mattia Casse wins – and Odermatt says: “I’m glad he survived the long tremors”
Quick fall and changing conditions: The Super-G in Val Gardena was crazy: The Italian Mattia Casse won. Marco Odermatt was pushed into third place by a surprise man.
Crazy Val Gardena. Nowhere else does the leader tremble for victory longer than at the foot of the Dolomite peak Sassolungo. The year 1993 is legendary: Marc Girardelli looked like the sure winner in the downhill for a long time. But then what happened again and again on the Saslong piste happened: the conditions changed. First the Austrian Werner Franz with starting number 52 overtook him. And then came Markus Foser. The Liechtensteiner drove to victory with start number 66
Marco Odermatt also achieved a podium finish in Val Gardena.
Bild: Gabriele Facciotti / AP
Foser said afterwards: “When the stars with the early starting numbers were out and about, I was still sitting in the hotel and watching the race on TV. I never thought for a moment that I could win.”
This year’s Super-G in Val Gardena wasn’t all that crazy. Nevertheless, changing conditions also mixed up the rankings on Friday. Suddenly the wind increased – and Mattia Casse began to tremble in the leader’s chair. And rightly so: Jared Goldberg with start number 26 came within a hundredth of a second of Casse and pushed Marco Odermatt into third place.
Casse: Cycling fan and training world champion
Odermatt said: “It’s no different here. The changing conditions are an opportunity for many, but also a shame for others.” You could also put it this way: Val Gardena makes some of the second or third guard feel elated. But the favorites regularly have to suffer here. Odermatt says: “I drove the race the way I wanted. I don’t know where I could have been faster.”
Casse celebrated his first World Cup victory at the age of 34 years and 10 months. But I didn’t need any luck with the weather. The Italian simply coped best with the very soft piste as it had snowed heavily during the night. Odermatt also emphasized this: “I’m glad that he survived the shaking. He is the deserved winner.” Casse, who is passionate about racing bikes in the summer and has also appeared on Italian television as a Tour de France commentator, wore start number 10. Odermatt started the race with number 12. Their conditions were identical.
So far, Casse has been known primarily as a training world champion, despite three other podium finishes in the World Cup. He finished a downhill training session in the top three 26 times in his career and was the fastest in training eight times. On Friday he was finally in the race.
Lars Rösti is in eighth place with start number 48
Odermatt creates completely different series. Of the last 18 Super-Gs, the man from Nidwalden has finished on the podium in 16, once he was fourth and once fifth. This clearly shows what skills he has. The Super-G is considered the most unpredictable discipline. Because there is no training. And technical skills need to be combined with speed skills.
In addition to Odermatt, other Swiss people also impressed. Stefan Rogentin finished fifth. Lars Rösti finished eighth with start number 48. This achievement is all the more remarkable because the 26-year-old had good, but not outstanding, conditions. And the Bernese was by far the fastest in his starting number range.
