Wengen specialist Hannes Reichelt lived up to his reputation right from the very first downhill training on the Lauberhorn. The Salzburger marked best time ahead of South Tyrolean Peter Fill (0.23 sec.) and the Swiss Beat Feuz (0.34). After the Föhnsturm the track was in a surprisingly good condition, but the Silberhorn jump still needs some adaptations.
The devastation caused by the storm with gusts of up to 200 km/h were all eliminated on Wednesday and the safety nets were installed along the track “There are perhaps two races where this is possible, that’s Kitzbühel and Wengen. Almost no matter what happens, the next day it looks normal again”, said Aksel Lund Svindal, praising the organizers who could count on the help of the military, civil protection and volunteers.
“You can feel that it was quite warm, the snow is different from what we were used to in January. But the track is in good shape,”said the Norwegian, who was 1.49 seconds behind in sixth place after a “not perfect ride”,”With starting number one in the first practice session it’s always a bit funny,”he said. Tuesday’s training session had been cancelled due to massive storm damage.
Reichelt said that you have to do something during the jumps (“These are still pretty good bucks”), but otherwise the piste looks quite good.”They have done a lot of work here. When you see how the VIP tent at Hundschopf looked upstairs, they just have a convertible tent now,”said the Salzburg man who has already been on the podium five times in the Wengen downhill run en suite and won 2015.
Romed Baumann (22. /+3.51) also wants to work on the slope:”The turns are often bulbous and not compact enough. I would wish for the Hundschopf to move the gate a little bit, and to dig up the silverhorn jump for it a little bit. You land pretty much on the flat,”said the Tyrolean, who also praised the organizers,”Respect for what they have achieved. We were sitting in the hotel the day before yesterday hoping the window pane wouldn’t come in, it’s already warped.”
Max Franz (7. /1,51) passed on the Silberhorn a further flight against his will “I thought to myself, in the part I take out because I am not sure if the jump already fits. I drifted over, pressed well and flew away. There’s been a scream coming out of me anyway. That was already very flat where I ended up,”said the Carinthian. The S-target will also be a challenge:”At 2:30, everything has to fit again in the skull.”
Vincent Kriechmayr (5. /0,82), who also wished for a change to the Hundschopf and the silverhorn jump, was able to cope with the problem of a little bit too steep. A lot of very long jumps have shown that this doesn’t pay off today. There was no one in the race yet, there would have been some bad pretzels at one race,”said the Upper Austrian. After the blow-dryer, it’s a madness that the slope looks so good at all. The army’s already kicking their asses.”
Like many others, Olympic champion Matthias Mayer did a sightseeing tour (20th/3th/3th, 28th)”It’s challenging from top to bottom”, the Carinthian commented:”The track will still be developed on Saturday, it’s still a training session tomorrow and Friday the combined downhill run. It’s gonna be different.”
After his cruciate ligament rupture last October, Carlo Janka was back with him for the first time:”I still didn’t have enough confidence to climb it, there are still sliding phases inside. I will train again tomorrow and then decide in the evening,”said the Swiss (21st). His team mate Feuz, who won the downhill race in Wengen 2012, put in a good performance to the hosts’ delight:”I didn’t know exactly what the ground is like, whether it’s quite beating, but I felt quite comfortable from the first moment.”
The Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, who refrained from competing in the combination on Friday, was not at the start. The winner of the Bormio combination – Mayer was sixth in the race – no longer intervenes in the ball fight. The little crystal will be awarded already on Friday.
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