Last year’s winner Beat Feuz has made it clear in the second training run of Lake Louise that he wants to win his first race as a father like Marcel Hirscher. The otherwise mostly bluffing downhill world champion from Switzerland set the best time on Thursday 1.17 seconds ahead of Dominik Paris (ITA). Johannes Kröll was the third best Austrian this time.
Because there will be three downhill trainings at the start of the speed season in Lake Louise, many runners used the second run for material tests. So did Feuz, who apparently managed a gold grip, and Matthias Mayer, who did the opposite. After 27th place and more than three seconds behind his Head brand colleague Feuz, the Super G Olympic champion quickly realised that the ski model, which had been strapped on for the first time, was out of the question for the race.
On Friday in the final test, the Carinthian, who last year had to admit defeat by only nine hundredths of a second here in Feuz, will again have something tried and tested under his feet. “Today I didn’t get enough of the ski shovel back at the start of the swing. This means that the ski goes straight ahead and I can’t ride the radius as I intended,” Mayer explained.
The Carinthian acknowledged Feuz’s fable time with a smile. “It was clear from the beginning that he was always fast here. I think he found his racing ski today, unlike me.”
On the other hand, Vincent Kriechmayr (10th) and his neo-brand colleague Max Franz (12th) did much better than Wednesday. “Yesterday I didn’t ski well. Tomorrow we’ll take another step and push a little bit harder to the limit, but it’ll only count in the race anyway”, the Upper Austrian explained his marching direction.
Kriechmayr had won in Aare at the end of the season. “It would be best to start as I stopped in spring,” is his wish scenario. “Lake Luise is a casual departure to start. Not the heaviest, but you shouldn’t underestimate it either,” he recalled the double lower leg fracture of Manuel Osborne-Paradis on Wednesday. The Canadian is said not to have been at the hospital in Calgary until about 11:00 p.m.
Kriechmayr even greeted the damper from the first training session: “That’s fine if you get a loop in the first training session. Then open your eyes. You learn more from that than from three quick workouts.”
Franz agrees. “Today I enjoyed skiing again”, said the Carinthian, who is behind in his training due to knee problems. “I like the slope down there,” said last year’s runner-up in the Super G. “Everything has to fit together here. I hope it’s like this again on weekends.”
Kröll, who is closely related to Austria’s last overall downhill winner Klaus Kröll, also rides like Kriechmayr and Franz Ski of the Fischer brand. “Although it was only a training session, I feel good overall,” said the Styrian. I try to make fewer mistakes every day.” Third place didn’t surprise him. “I immediately realized it was a good trip.”
Of course, everything was amazed by Feuz, who normally drives rather cautiously during training. “I tried to attack,” he said, explaining his second fastest time in training after the home world championship in 2017. The Norwegians who otherwise dominated Lake Louise were beaten. “The Swiss poacher has the moose a bit in front of his sights,” joked Hannes Reichelt.
The Salzburger knows Lake Louise isn’t “his” slope. “The 38-year-old said, “The backlog is still annoying. “I always have a lot to think about here.” But the direction of the march is correct. “Yesterday I blew two corners, today I blew only one.” To Feuz, he said, “He’s just very easy to get his hands on here.”
On Friday in the last training, five ÖSV pilots in particular will be busy. Otmar Striedinger, Daniel Hemetsberger, Christian Walder, Christoph Krenn and Daniel Danklmaier will compete for two starting places for the downhill on Saturday.