Yo, Adrien!

By Published On: December 29th, 2015Comments Off on Yo, Adrien!

Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal’s stranglehold on the downhill discipline this season was broken when Frenchman Adrien Theaux crossed the finish line today in Santa Caterina, Italy. Theaux took the victory with a time of 1:47.29 seconds, a full 1.04 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Austria’s Hannes Reichelt. Theaux was joined on the podium by another Frenchman, as David Poisson charged into third place, 1.15 seconds back. Svindal was forced to settle for seventh, 1.61 seconds behind Theaux.

The day started off with a literal bang as the first racer on course, Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, threw a shoe soon after kicking out of the starting gate and had to rely on his sheer athleticism to avoid crashing. The extreme North-facing slope saw very little sunlight and it was apparent from the get-go that today’s race would require a particular mixture of courage, strength, and skill in order to come away with the victory.

Theaux, running with bib 11, proved more than up for the challenge as he was able to attack the dark, bumpy, and fast track with precision and grace. Looking more confident than the rest of the field, Theaux managed to keep a clean ski tracking in key sections that bounced racer after racer around like rag dolls.

In contrast to his strategy during yesterday’s training run of conserving energy on the top section and attacking more on the bottom, Theaux instead attacked from start to finish and was rewarded with his third World Cup victory and first since 2013 when he was victorious in the downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway.

“I am very happy about my race today,” he explained. “It’s a fight everywhere on the race. When you cross the line, you don’t know your time, it’s impossible to know if you are fast or not. I am happy because I tried to push a lot on the top and, yeah, it was good. It was perfect.”

Reichelt managed to turn two very solid training runs into his first podium appearance of the season, but acknowledged that he felt a little uncomfortable today and came dangerously close to ending up in the nets during his run.

“Today, the feeling was not so good. I had some parts where I’m really lucky that I’m standing here and didn’t have a crash,” Reichelt said. “It was really a tough race today. I’m happy about the second place because Adrien made a really good job today, so I couldn’t reach first place today. That was the best skiing I had today.”

For Poisson, the day marked his first trip to a World Cup podium, with the closest previous result a fourth in the Kitzbuehel downhill in 2013.

“Since the beginning of the weekend the feeling is not really good because the slope is really, really difficult, really tough,” a satisfied Poisson said in the finish. “I’m quite happy with the way I skied because I needed a big run since the beginning of the season. I take a lot of pleasure from the ski, but I always made some mistakes so it’s not so good for the confidence. Today I said, ‘OK, normally the conditions are good for you so just go, just try, forget your brain.’ I’m quite happy because the run went not so bad with the conditions. It’s really tough, you can’t really say you enjoy it, but I know when it’s like that I’ve got a chance.”

For Theaux and Poisson, having two Frenchman on the podium was special for more than one reason.

“It’s two French guys. He’s my teammate and my roommate so it’s just amazing,” Theaux said. “When you win or do a podium alone it’s good, but it’s different because the other guys are not like this. Today is just amazing.”

Hands-down the most impressive performance of the day came from Italian Christof Innerhofer. About 45 seconds into his run, he drifted low and was heading too direct into a high speed jump. Skiing head-first through the panel before the jump, Innerhofer’s body ripped the panel and one of the poles out of the snow, pulling his goggle strap over his eyes in the process. After sailing over the jump blindfolded, he managed to somewhat adjust his goggles, only to realize that the panel and pole were still attached to his body.

Approximately 30 seconds later, Innerhofer shook the pole loose but had to ski the rest of the course with a bright orange downhill panel flapping in the wind behind him. The newly caped crusader managed to not only finish, but wound up an improbable fourth place, leaving all to wonder if he was on his way to victory if not for the interloping gate that hitched a ride on his back.

The top North American finisher was Canada’s Ben Thomsen in eighth, 1.63 seconds off the pace. The result was a significant step in the right direction for Thomsen, as his previous best finish this season was 21st in the Lake Louise downhill last month.

Travis Ganong was the best American of the day, and although he finished a disappointing 17th place after coming away with his first career World Cup victory at the venue last season, was still satisfied with his skiing and had some strong take-aways from the experience.

“I had an amazing run. I had a huge mistake on the bottom and I’m still only two seconds out, so I’m pretty happy with the way I was able to go from the first training run to the race day,” he said.

Also of note was the fact that the Austrian, Italian, and Canadian teams were afforded the opportunity to train on the hill in the days leading up to the official training runs. The rest of the field did not receive the invite, and it showed with five of the top-10 finishers coming from those three nations.

“I only had three runs on the hill versus some of the other guys who have had seven, eight, nine, 10 runs in the last week,” explained Ganong. “So for us to catch up, it’s been good. It’s just too bad that they were able to train on this hill before the race. It’s not really fair, but it’s all good. It’s awesome that Theaux crushed it because he did not train on the hill, so I’m really happy that he won. That’s perfect. He deserved it for sure.”

A common theme emanating from the racers was how unique and challenging the Santa Caterina track is. The particular combination of terrain, speed, darkness, and off-rhythm turns provides a unique challenge not found anywhere else on the World Cup.

“I would probably say this is one of the toughest hills we ski on, it’s really hard,” added Ganong.

The men’s tour now takes a break until Jan. 6, when the relocated Zagreb slalom will now also be contested at Santa Caterina.

Fans can stay current on the World Cup circuit by downloading the new U.S. Ski Team iOS app powered by Ski Racing here.


The Scoop
By Hank McKee

  1. Theaux, Head/Head/Head
  2. Reichelt, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  3. Poisson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  4. Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
  5. Baumann, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  6. Kriechmayr, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  7. Svindal, Head/Head/Head
  8. Thomsen, Head/Head/Head
  9. Fayed, Head/Head/Head
  10. Sander, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  • Men’s World Cup downhill, Santa Caterina, Italy, Dec. 29, 2015. … It is the 14th of 45 races on the original men’s calendar with 30 remaining. … It is the fourth of 11 scheduled downhills. … It is the 19th World Cup at Santa Caterina, but the second holiday pre-New Year stop at the site, replacing the calendar spot neighboring Bormio held for nearly 20 years.  There have been five World Cup downhills at Santa Caterina, just one of them a men’s race, last season, won by Travis Ganong.
  • It is the third career World Cup win for Adrien Theaux, the first since March 2, 2013 at Kvitfjell. … It is the first French win of the season. … Winning margin is 1.04 seconds. … Top 14 are within two seconds.
  • It is the 35th career World Cup podium for Hannes Reichelt. … His 16th in downhill. … He placed sixth in his only other DH result at Santa Caterina. … It is his first podium of the season.
  • It is the first career World Cup podium for David Poisson … the eighth of the season for France.
  • Benjamin Thomsen matches his third best career result from Feb. 21 of last season at Saalbach. … His second best this season is 21st at Lake Louise. … It is the 27th best of 51 World Cup scoring results for Travis Ganong. … It is the fifth best of six scoring finishes this season for Steven Nyman.
  • Aksel Lund Svindal (seventh in race) passes Marcel Hirscher (did not race) for the lead of the World Cup overall standings 636-621. … Kjetil Jansrud (27th in race) is third with 411pts. … Ted Ligety (did not race) is eighth overall with 248pts.
  • Svindal holds the downhill standings lead 336-219 over Guillermo Fayed (ninth in race). … Jansrud is third with 174pts. … Ganong is eighth with 116pts and Erik Guay (did not start) is tied for tenth with 95pts.
  • Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 2158-1699 over Norway. … France is third with 1637pts. … The U.S. is fifth at 1015 and Canada eighth at 263pts.

Official Results

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time Diff. FIS Points
 1  11  192746 THEAUX Adrien 1984 FRA  1:47.29  0.00
 2  16  50742 REICHELT Hannes 1980 AUT  1:48.33  +1.04  12.12
 3  25  191964 POISSON David 1982 FRA  1:48.44  +1.15  13.40
 4  3  293006 INNERHOFER Christof 1984 ITA  1:48.51  +1.22  14.21
 5  8  51215 BAUMANN Romed 1986 AUT  1:48.67  +1.38  16.08
 6  5  53980 KRIECHMAYR Vincent 1991 AUT  1:48.75  +1.46  17.01
 7  19  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund 1982 NOR  1:48.90  +1.61  18.76
 8  28  103271 THOMSEN Benjamin 1987 CAN  1:48.92  +1.63  18.99
 9  21  192932 FAYED Guillermo 1985 FRA  1:48.95  +1.66  19.34
 10  24  200379 SANDER Andreas 1989 GER  1:48.99  +1.70  19.81
 11  26  511529 GISIN Marc 1988 SUI  1:49.05  +1.76  20.51
 12  13  511313 JANKA Carlo 1986 SUI  1:49.20  +1.91  22.25
 12  9  292514 HEEL Werner 1982 ITA  1:49.20  +1.91  22.25
 14  10  53817 FRANZ Max 1989 AUT  1:49.28  +1.99  23.18
 15  7  194167 MUZATON Maxence 1990 FRA  1:49.29  +2.00  23.30
 16  14  191740 CLAREY Johan 1981 FRA  1:49.31  +2.02  23.53
 17  17  530874 GANONG Travis 1988 USA  1:49.41  +2.12  24.70
 18  29  54005 STRIEDINGER Otmar 1991 AUT  1:49.42  +2.13  24.82
 19  23  50753 KROELL Klaus 1980 AUT  1:49.67  +2.38  27.73
 20  40  194298 GIEZENDANNER Blaise 1991 FRA  1:49.68  +2.39  27.85
 21  47  990081 CASSE Mattia 1990 ITA  1:49.73  +2.44  28.43
 22  38  561216 KLINE Bostjan 1991 SLO  1:49.88  +2.59  30.18
 23  36  194542 GIRAUD MOINE Valentin 1992 FRA  1:50.02  +2.73  31.81
 23  34  53981 KROELL Johannes 1991 AUT  1:50.02  +2.73  31.81
 25  55  512042 KRYENBUEHL Urs 1994 SUI  1:50.05  +2.76  32.16
 26  18  533866 NYMAN Steven 1982 USA  1:50.06  +2.77  32.27
 27  22  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil 1985 NOR  1:50.16  +2.87  33.44
 28  42  294277 KLOTZ Siegmar 1987 ITA  1:50.17  +2.88  33.55
 29  37  561217 KOSI Klemen 1991 SLO  1:50.28  +2.99  34.84
 30  4  293141 VARETTONI Silvano 1984 ITA  1:50.41  +3.12  36.35
 31  50  511847 MANI Nils 1992 SUI  1:50.43  +3.14  36.58
 31  46  512124 HINTERMANN Niels 1995 SUI  1:50.43  +3.14  36.58
 33  39  934643 GOLDBERG Jared 1991 USA  1:50.70  +3.41  39.73
 34  43  180570 ROMAR Andreas 1989 FIN  1:51.12  +3.83  44.62
 35  41  103512 FRISCH Jeffrey 1984 CAN  1:51.33  +4.04  47.07
 36  20  291459 PARIS Dominik 1989 ITA  1:51.43  +4.14  48.23
 37  27  6530104 BENNETT Bryce 1992 USA  1:51.44  +4.15  48.35
 38  52  293550 MARSAGLIA Matteo 1985 ITA  1:51.58  +4.29  49.98
 39  31  560447 SPORN Andrej 1981 SLO  1:51.64  +4.35  50.68
 40  57  6290393 CAZZANIGA Davide 1992 ITA  1:51.69  +4.40  51.26
 41  54  511808 SCHMED Fernando 1991 SUI  1:51.74  +4.45  51.85
 42  30  533131 SULLIVAN Marco 1980 USA  1:51.84  +4.55  53.01
 43  53  54009 WALDER Christian 1991 AUT  1:51.98  +4.69  54.64
 44  56  110324 VON APPEN Henrik 1994 CHI  1:52.57  +5.28  61.52
 45  35  511981 WEBER Ralph 1993 SUI  1:53.77  +6.48  75.50
 46  32  103762 WERRY Tyler 1991 CAN  1:54.01  +6.72  78.29
Did not start 1st run
 44  380292 ZRNCIC DIM Natko 1986 CRO
 33  53933 SCHWEIGER Patrick 1990 AUT
Did not finish 1st run
 58  104096 THOMPSON Broderick 1994 CAN
 51  422310 SEJERSTED Adrian Smiseth 1994 NOR
 49  930024 MAPLE Wiley 1990 USA
 48  202196 BRANDNER Klaus 1990 GER
 45  194190 ROGER Brice 1990 FRA
 15  102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel 1984 CAN
 12  292455 FILL Peter 1982 ITA
 6  530939 WEIBRECHT Andrew 1986 USA
 2  150398 BANK Ondrej 1980 CZE
 1  422139 KILDE Aleksander Aamodt 1992 NOR

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About the Author: Sean Higgins

A Lake Tahoe native and University of Vermont graduate, Higgins was a member of the Catamounts' 2012 NCAA title winning squad and earned first team All-American honors in 2013. Prior to coming to Ski Racing Media, he coached U14s for the Squaw Valley Ski Team.