Svindal shines through fog-plagued 86th Lauberhorn downhill

WENGEN, Switzerland – Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal is quite simply a force to be reckoned with in downhill this season. Of the five World Cup downhill races contested so far, he has claimed victory in four. His only slip up was a seventh-place finish last month in Santa Caterina, Italy, on a fairly unfamiliar track. Today in Wengen, Svindal captured his first ever Lauberhorn title, clocking a time of 1:48.79 seconds. Austrian Hannes Reichelt was the only racer who came close to touching Svindal’s time, finishing 0.19 seconds back in second place. His Austrian teammate Klaus Kroell was third, a distant 1.52 seconds off the pace.

Heavy snowfall of about 15 centimeters overnight forced the course crew, including members of the Swiss army, to work tirelessly throughout the morning in order to clear the track and get racing underway on schedule. By the end of inspection, clouds began to clear, giving all hope of blue skies for the remainder of the day.

However, Mother Nature was once again not on the World Cup’s side as heavy fog began to roll in just over half way through the top-30 racers, forcing multiple course holds and causing frustration for competitors.

Svindal managed to miss the fog – just barely – as he was one of the last racers to start before visibility became too much of an issue to continue on schedule. The variable conditions did not faze the big man, however, as he effortlessly skied into a commanding lead, crossing the finish line to the cheers of the Swiss faithful.

“It feels good, I’ve been chasing Wengen for a while,” Svindal said. “Been fast here but didn’t really have the margins on my side but it was nice to pull it off today.”

“The conditions are sadly not fair, so obviously a win feels much better when it’s fair for everyone,” he added about how he and Reichelt were able to just miss the heavy fog. “We didn’t have the best conditions either, but they were good enough so we were able to be fast. I think that of course it’s not a perfect day, but then again the two of us were far ahead of the pack. Hopefully that means that I deserved the win. But yeah, a good race.”

Reichelt, who was the defending Lauberhorn champion, kicked out of the start just as the fog was rolling in, but managed to charge through to the runner up spot, mere hundredths from the victory.

“I can say I love this hill and this slope,” Reichelt said. “Today was really a tough race with the visibility. I was really on the limit from the start to the finish area. I think it was one of my best runs, but Aksel had a better one. In Langentrejen, there was fog. It was really tough to see the next gate and I said to myself, ‘Ok, you have to risk that.’ I had to just focus on skiing fast.”

For Kroell, his third-place finish is his first trip to the podium since a second place in the 2013 Lake Louise downhill. Starting with bib four, Kroell managed to miss the weather completely and looked to have set a winning time until Svindal took to the course.

“It was a long time ago, the last time I was on the podium, so I’m very happy with the result today,” Kroell said. “My run was really good and I skied good today. The difference today was I made no mistakes, my skiing was really good. Confidence is back for sure.”

The next racer to leave the start following Svindal and Reichelt was American Travis Ganong. In the span of just one racer, the visibility through the middle Langentrejen section of the course became so bad that Ganong had to rely on the blue dye lines as guidance to make his way down the track. Ultimately finishing an uncharacteristic 42nd, the World Championship downhill silver medalist didn’t mince words with how he felt the situation was handled.

“Coming out of the tunnel, I couldn’t see anything for the next 30-40 seconds. Not even one gate ahead of me. I had zero visibility. I saw the fence on my left side, and I could see the blue dye by my skis, but I couldn’t see any gates. Zero gates,” a frustrated Ganong said in the finish. “It’s just so dangerous going that fast and not being able to see where your next turn is going to be or where you have to go. It’s just an unfortunate situation, the FIS did not have the forethought to flag us and stop us because it’s super dangerous. … It’s an outdoor sport, we have to expect that, but safety is the number one thing that FIS is always talking about and they completely blew it today.”

After the racer following Ganong left the start, a “stop start” was called by officials and the race was held twice to wait for conditions to improve. Following the hold, no racers were able to come down with competitive times.

The top American finisher on the day was Steve Nyman, who finished just outside of the top 15 in 16th place. For Nyman, a troublesome upper section and an untimely bobble approaching the finish made the difference today.

“I had three very good splits, so you have to focus on the positives and keep building,” Nyman explained. “I’ve been skiing really fast, but I’ve been making a lot of really big mistakes. Coming out of the Haneggschuss, the fastest part of the course, I got rocked there and lost a lot of speed, so that wasn’t fast either. I just have to build on the good and hopefully perform better next year.”

Following Nyman in the top 30 for the Americans was Andrew Weibrecht in 21st, Jared Goldberg in 27th, and Marco Sullivan in 30th.

The Wengen slalom is scheduled for Sunday with first run action starting at 10:30 a.m. CET.

The Scoop
By Hank McKee

1. Svindal, Head/Head/Head
2. Reichelt, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
3. Kroell, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4. Paris, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
5. Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6. Poisson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7. Theaux, Head/Head/Head
8. Janka, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9. Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10. Franz, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

• Men’s World Cup downhill, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 16, 2016. … It is the premier race of the 86^th Lauberhorn. … It is the 18^th race of 45 on the original World Cup schedule … the fifth of 11 scheduled downhills. … It is the 43^rd World Cup downhill hosted by Wengen. … The annual crowd exceeds 20,000 spectators for this race. … Race is halted at racer 22 (Kjetil Jansrud) and racer 26 (Maxence Muzaton) due to fog.
• It is the 31^st career World Cup win for Aksel Lund Svindal … his sixth of the season and fourth of the season in DH. … It is his first victory in any discipline at Wengen. … The winning margin is 0.19 of a second. … Top two finishers are within the same second. … Top 11 within two seconds.
• It is the 36^th career World Cup podium for Hannes Reichelt … his second of the season, both in downhill. … It is his fourth podium at Wengen and third second-place finish, all in downhill.
• It is the 24^th career World Cup podium for Klaus Kroell … his first of the season. … Kroell won the DH at Wengen Jan. 15, 2011 and was second in 2013.
• It is the third best DH result at Wengen for Erik Guay, his best a fourth in 2013. … It is his seventh best placing of the season. …  It is the fourth best DH finish at Wengen for Steven Nyman and matches his third best finish of the  season. … It is the second best result in a Wengen DH for Andrew Weibrecht, bested only by a 13^th Jan. 16, 2010. … It is his fifth best finish of the season. … It is the fifth best career World Cup finish for Jared Goldberg. … His third score of the season. … It is the ninth time Marco Sullivan has scored in the Wengen DH.
• Svindal regains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 816-801 over Marcel Hirscher (did not race). … Henrik Kristoffersen (did not race) is third overall at 571pts.
• Svindal handily controls the downhill standings 436-228 over Guillermo Fayed (22^nd in race) and Hannes Reichelt (also 228pts). … Travis Ganong (42^nd in race) is 10th in the downhill standings with 116pts.
• Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup standings 2738-2256 over Norway. … France is third with 2094pts. … The U.S. is fifth at 1097 and Canada ninth at 291pts.

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