Extraordinary Alexis Monney (24 years old)! On Saturday, the Friborg rider won his first World Cup success by taming the Stelvio, the demanding downhill track of Bormio in Upper Valtellina, ahead of the Bernese Franjo von Allmen (23 years old).
The rocket from Châtel-Saint-Denis reached the finish after 1’53”43 of effort, concentration and controlled risk-taking to achieve the very first victory of his emerging career at this level of the competition.
Monney also became the second Swiss, after Didier Défago from Valais in 2011, to triumph in the World Cup on a mountain which became a stage of the white circus in 1993. On a track that Gian Franco Kasper, president of the International Federation ( FIS) from 1998 until his death in 2021, compared it to the “La Scala theater of winter sports.”
Fear for Odermatt
He also became the first Friborg to reach a podium in 41 years (Jacques Lüthy in 1983). Starting with bib No. 18, Monney beat von Allmen, third to start, by 24 hundredths. The podium was completed by Canadian Cameron Alexander (3rd at 48 hundredths).
In an ideal world, Monney and von Allmen could have been accompanied by Nidwalden Odermatt (27) on the podium. But the world ski star made a mistake, suffered a scare, which caused him to lose time. During this scene, the airbag of the Swiss of the last winner of the general classification of the World Cup opened, which inevitably slowed him down. Infuriating because he finished 5th, 80 hundredths behind the winner, 8 hundredths from the box. He also beat, by 1 hundredth, the Valaisan Justin Murisier (32 years old), to be credited with a very good race (6th).
Swiss
