Before the Christmas break, Felix Loch suffered the first setback of his hitherto strong winter. For Olympia, however, the Berchtesgadener remains the big favourite.
Left gang, right gang, at the end Felix Loch only shook his head and waved off. Germany’s flagship toboggan and Lake Placid, it just doesn’t fit. The Olympic champion has already won on almost every track in the world, but this ice chute in the US state of New York remains a blank spot.
On Friday it was only seventh place in the World Cup. It was the first setback for Loch in the Olympic season – before the Christmas break of all times.
The winter had started so well. Third place, two, and then three times in a row. After the messed-up previous year, Loch got back on track in time. And not only on the home tracks in Winterberg and Altenberg, but also in Calgary, Canada. But for Lake Placid, his father, national coach Norbert Loch, had already warned against a possible disappointment.
To top it all off, Felix Loch also had to watch his young opponent Roman Repilow burn a track record into the ice chute on Mount Van Hoevenberg in the second run and secure a superior victory.
Last year, the Russian had already dethroned Loch as overall winner of the World Cup last year and is also expected to play in Pyeongchang/South Korea (9th place). till 25. February) Loch’s biggest rival in the battle for gold.
But also the other athletes of the Bobsleigh and Sled Federation for Germany (BSD) missed the podium. The best German on the Olympic track of 1932 and 1980 was Johannes Ludwig from Oberhof in fourth place. Andi Langenhan (Zella-Mehlis) finished tenth, Ralf Palik (Oberwiesenthal) finished 18th, Christian Paffe (Hallenberg) 26th.
“I believe that this was a pointer to the Olympic qualification,”said Ludwig after the race on ZDF. After all, behind the overall leading hole (501 points) there are two more tickets for the Winter Games for the German men. After Lake Placid’s sprint on Saturday at 6.05 pm, the national coach wants to decide. It is likely to be tricky, because in the overall World Cup Palik (294), Ludwig (259) and Langenhan (257) are close to each other in places five, six and eight.
“I’ve missed the start of the Olympics two times now. I hope it’s enough now,”Ludwig continued:”I’ve never been this good here before.”
The world champions Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken showed how to do even better with the two-seaters. The dominating duo from Ilsenburg and Suhl won by more than half a second ahead of the Austrians Peter Penz/Georg Fischler and the Canadians Tristan Walker/Justin Snith and celebrated their fifth victory in the sixth race.
The Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (Berchtesgaden/Königssee) only finished seventh, the former dominance is gone.
After the turn of the year, the pressure is on Loch and the “Bayern-Express”. Then the World Cup circus will stop at the Königssee (6th/7th floor) right in front of their front door. Via Oberhof, Lillehammer and Sigulda it’s already on its way to Pyeongchang – and thus to the all-decisive season highlight.