The Men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup races in Wengen continued on Saturday with the legendary Lauberhorn downhill. Previous night's snowfall and bad visibility prevented running on the top section of the course, so the start had to be brought down to the alpine combined start. That shortened the season’s longest downhill from 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) to 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles), lasting still almost one minute 50 seconds, a duration of a usual downhill run.
Starting with the bib No. 4, the 2011 Lauberhorn downhill winner Klaus Kröll of Austria set a time that turned out to be hard to beat. Starting with the bib No. 6, the 2013 winner Christof Innerhofer of Italy came close to the Austrian’s time, losing just by 0.07 seconds.
Those two remained as the top two after the first 15 skiers, with the group of seven top skiers starting next.
Italy’s Dominik Paris with the bib No. 17 split Kröll and Innerhofer in the lead of the race, missing Kröll’s time by just 0.05 seconds.
Starting after Paris was the downhill World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal. Aiming for his first win at the classic Lauberhorn downhill, the Norwegian cut into the gap set by Kröll throughout his run and crossed the finish line 1.52 seconds ahead of Kröll’s time.
Right after Svindal, last year’s winner Hannes Reichelt of Austria put up a great challenge against the lead time. That wasn’t quite enough to repeat the victory; he lost to Svindal by 0.19 seconds.
Starting after Reichelt, Travis Ganong and Guillermo Fayed couldn’t challenge for lead positions but finished their runs with big gaps of 4.15 and 2.98 seconds, respectively, behind Svindal. Fog in the middle section of the course was getting thicker as the race progressed, and after Fayed’s run the race had to be suspended due to the fog.
After a delay of 20 minutes, the race continued with Friday’s combined winner Kjetil Jansrud, concluding the group of seven top skiers. With fog still on the course, the Norwegian lost 2.13 seconds on his run, finishing the race in 12th place.
Three more runners could start after Jansrud’s run before the fog forced the race to be suspended again. At least five more skiers still had to start the race; there would be no official results and no World Cup points awarded unless, at the very least, 30 of the skiers started the race.
After a delay of over half an hour, the visibility allowed the race to continue again and the remaining 35 skiers could start. Those skiers didn't change the order on top, so Aksel Lund Svindal achieved his first Lauberhorn downhill victory ahead of former winners Hannes Reichelt and Klaus Kröll.
The 2012 Lauberhorn downhill winner, Beat Feuz, made his comeback in Wengen after a right Achilles injury. He showed competitive pace in the downhill race, finishing the race in 11th place, 1.98 seconds from lead, yet no more than 0.46 seconds from podium.
Svindal continues to lead the downhill World Cup. Reichelt climbed into a second place tie in the standings. Sharing second place is Guillermo Fayed of France who finished 22nd in Wengen. However, they are already 208 points from Svindal. The defending downhill World Cup champion Kjetil Jansrud is in fourth place, 241 points from Svindal.
Svindal also claimed the overall World Cup lead from Marcel Hirscher and now leads by 15 points.
Slalom on Sunday
The Lauberhorn weekend will conclude with the slalom on Sunday. Due to a difficult snow situation, the organizers weren’t able to prepare the traditional slalom slope, but for the first time the slalom has to be run on the bottom section of the downhill, like was already the case for the alpine combined slalom leg.
Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen won his third slalom of the season last weekend in Adelboden. Together with Marcel Hirscher of Austria, they have claimed the top-two positions in all of the slalom races this season.
This year’s slalom slope in Wengen is flatter than the traditional slope, which may hurt Kristoffersen. He won on the steep slopes of Val d’Isère and Madonna di Campiglio before Hirscher ended his winning streak on the flatter slope of Santa Caterina. Kristoffersen won again in Adelboden, on a slope famous for its steep final section.
The three-time defending slalom World Cup champion Hirscher is the two-time slalom junior World Champion Kristoffersen’s main rival. Another man who has shown pace to challenge for wins is Alexander Khoroshilov, third in the slalom World Cup standings. The 31-year-old Russian was leading the last two slalom races of Santa Caterina and Adelboden after the first run, finishing them in third place. If he can have two of his best runs, he’s capable of winning races.
Felix Neureuther is a two-time winner of the Lauberhorn slalom, last year and in 2013. However, this time the race will be held on a different slope so one can’t predict from old Wengen results. Besides, the 31-year-old German has suffered from back problems and been off form this season; the last three seasons’ slalom World Cup runner-up has made the slalom podium only once (third in Val d’Isère) and is fourth in the slalom World Cup standings, already 238 points behind the leader Kristoffersen.
Stefano Gross achieved a second place finish behind Neureuther in last year’s slalom, a week after his maiden World Cup win in the Adelboden slalom. After finishing last season in sixth place of the slalom World Cup, this season hasn’t been as successful for the 29-year-old Italian; he’s only 11th in the slalom standings. Fifth place in the Adelboden slalom was his first top-10 result of the season so he’s showing improved form. However, last year’s second place in Wengen indicates hardly anything as it’s a different slope this year.
The 2014 Lauberhorn slalom winner Alexis Pinturault of France had a good race in Adelboden where he finished fourth. However, he is very inconsistent in slalom; he is currently tenth in the slalom World Cup, which was also his final ranking last season. His slalom performance in Friday’s alpine combined didn’t raise expectations. Despite being one of the most accomplished slalom skiers in the race, Pinturault was only eighth-quickest in the slalom leg, setting an equal time with the pure speed specialist Dominik Paris.