Schladming 2013 - Super-G Men

Day 2 at the world championships, and men in action.
This slope is not the same of ladies's one, for speed events.
Again, though, it's an easy one, without very hard section nor jumps... being wide many course can be set and course setting might be the key given it'll be done by Norvegian and Svindal's coach.

Last year's race isn't relevant. Late season race, with "rotten" snow, that early displayed mark. Low starting bibs were advantaged: 1st Innerhofer #8, 2nd Pinturault #5, 3rd Hirscher #2 (in one of his rare SG race), 4th Marsaglia #7.

Svindal is the big favoured and men to beat. He is SG Cup leader, in four SGs this season won three and made a second place.
Super-G is a strange discipline because it's a speed event but there are no time trial, there's a race inspection but you can't try gates at a race-like speed, so it's much about improvisation, it can be said you must know how to ski to compete in a Super-G. And actually Svindal know how to ski.

Behind Svindal there's Innerhofer. Beside being defending World Champion, and last year winner on this slope I don't give him so many chanches. He is in great shape but he may not like the snow conditions.

3rd favourite in Norway's no.2 Jansrud. Again he could be advantaged by the course setting (by his coach), but again he's been below the expectations so far in this season. He's often near the podium but no major results.

I see Reichelt as possible outsider. His raising form, the ability of austrian team in setting the skis (there will be different kind of snow on the course, I think only eskimos have a word to describe it all). He's one who can possibly put together all the technical elements needed in this race.

From the first group:
Klotz, is in good form but it's not a top racer.
Theaux, I like him, his aggressivity, but I don't trust him on this snow, sensibility more than angles will be required today.
Heel, about him I'd say the same of Theaux, though I think he's more overall skilled, I won't trust him but he's able of anything.
Mayer, being austrian, can be a possible outsider. And so could be for Streitberger and Baumann who, though, had a bad season... Championships focus for them? Who knows.
On this kind of snow canadians must be kept in high considerations.
Although their skills among turns aren't good enough there's their key racer Guay who's one of those able to give something more in important events.
And then there's Kostelic, who comes from three podiums in a row in three different disciplines: Slalom and Super-Combined in Kitz, and the city event in Moscow.
The croatian looks to be the one in the best shape, and although Super-G isn't his favourite discipline a good condition and confidence can drive to a good result, thing that actually happened in Garmish when Kostelic who the bronze medal in Super-G following that terrific january.

This said, here the picks:
Mayer to podium 1 unit @4 Lost -1
Reichelt to podium 2 units @3.5 Lost -1
Kostelic to podium 1 unit @11 Lost -1

Winner: Reichelt 1 unit @11 Lost -1

h2h Streitberger - Theaux - pick Streitberger 3 units @2.02 Lost -3
I don't really trust Streitberger, but I think Theaux won't like this snow  conditions.

-7
It's very disappointing to see a whole season work and "return of investmenst" to disappear in just two days.

Anyway there's to be happy for the analysis that were corrects.

Super-G podium on the Planai:
1) Ligety (USA), 2) De Tessieres (Fra), 3) Svindal (Nor)

The course was set like a real Super-Giant, so no surprise to see on the podium two Giant-Slalom specialist like Ligety and frenchmen De Tessieres. These two outsiders kicked my two "men" Reichelt and Mayer off the podium.

No excuses, both Ligety and De Tessieres made a great run and deserved their placements. Svindal recorded many "green" intermediate times but in the final section a little loss of balance and control resulted in a wider line and a loss of speed causing the 3rd placement.
De Tessieres displays the widest smile as he shouldn't neither race; GdT was the reserve of the french team, and only Clarey injury let him be in. As he said to Eurosport:

"Five days ago, I was down in the dumps at home. Unfortunately, Johan got injured. It's an odd feeling. But I really meant to do well, I was eager"  

No large smiles in two teams. Austria and Italy arrived with a great condition and great expectations.
Both came back withouth medals.
Austria still with no medals after the two Super-Gs. As Infostrada sport tweeted:

  Team Austria has had at least one medallist in the men's Super G race in 7 of the last 8 world championships. 

While Italy achieve the worst result of this season in Super-G: Innerhofer, 7th, couldn't defend Garmisch's golden medal; Marsaglia second in Super-G Cup Standing was 20th; and Heel was 22th


Video of the three best runs: Ligety, De Tessieres (at 1:47 min), Svindal (at 3:16 min, pay attention at 4:49)

Full standing (from FIS Official Site):

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	10	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:23.96	0.00
2	4	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:24.16	2.50
3	22	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:24.18	2.75
4	19	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:24.51	6.88
5	16	53902	MAYER Matthias	1990	AUT	1:24.91	11.88
6	1	194364	PINTURAULT Alexis	1991	FRA	1:24.99	12.88
7	20	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:25.05	13.63
8	13	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:25.17	15.13
9	21	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:25.21	15.63
10	12	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:25.30	16.76
11	17	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA	1:25.35	17.38
12	14	102271	HUDEC Jan	1981	CAN	1:25.52	19.51
13	6	531452	BIESEMEYER Thomas	1989	USA	1:25.56	20.01
14	9	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:25.60	20.51
15	25	6530319	COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan	1992	USA	1:25.63	20.88
16	28	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:25.74	22.26
17	8	180570	ROMAR Andreas	1989	FIN	1:25.75	22.39
18	27	511139	KUENG Patrick	1984	SUI	1:25.88	24.01
19	32	103271	THOMSEN Benjamin	1987	CAN	1:25.93	24.64
20	11	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:26.00	25.51
21	7	192504	MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas	1984	FRA	1:26.11	26.89
22	23	294277	KLOTZ Siegmar	1987	ITA	1:26.27	28.89
23	15	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:26.30	29.26
24	36	201811	STECHERT Tobias	1985	GER	1:26.64	33.52
25	26	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:26.73	34.64
26	29	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:26.81	35.64
27	35	561217	KOSI Klemen	1991	SLO	1:26.83	35.89
28	24	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:26.89	36.64
29	46	180534	SANDELL Marcus	1987	FIN	1:27.01	38.14
30	31	561216	KLINE Bostjan	1991	SLO	1:27.02	38.27
31	33	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:27.04	38.52
32	39	501324	OLSSON Matts	1988	SWE	1:27.26	41.27
33	3	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:27.55	44.90
34	38	501439	HEDIN Douglas	1990	SWE	1:27.60	45.52
35	30	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:27.78	47.77
36	64	700830	ZAMPA Adam	1990	SVK	1:27.94	49.77
37	37	491151	DE LA CUESTA Paul	1988	SPA	1:28.48	56.53
38	49	92534	CHONGAROV Nikola	1989	BUL	1:28.61	58.15
39	45	410266	GRIFFIN Benjamin	1986	NZL	1:28.72	59.53
40	44	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL	1:28.93	62.15
41	55	150495	VRABLIK Martin	1982	CZE	1:29.30	66.78
42	53	410372	PREBBLE Nick	1993	NZL	1:29.35	67.41
43	77	30246	BIRKNER KETELHOHN Jorge F.	1990	ARG	1:29.99	75.41
44	58	380341	ULLRICH Max	1994	CRO	1:30.02	75.79
45	43	20267	ESTEVE Kevin	1989	AND	1:30.20	78.04
46	56	92570	GEORGIEV Svetoslav	1991	BUL	1:30.23	78.41
47	52	670052	KHUBER Martin	1992	KAZ	1:30.32	79.54
48	70	710320	LAIKERT Igor	1991	BIH	1:30.66	83.79
49	67	430472	KLUSAK Michal	1990	POL	1:30.82	85.79
50	74	700868	FALAT Matej	1993	SVK	1:30.85	86.17
51	51	380318	BRIGOVIC Sebastian	1992	CRO	1:31.00	88.04
52	57	90131	GEORGIEV Georgi	1987	BUL	1:31.06	88.79
53	71	660021	DANILOCHKIN Yuri	1991	BLR	1:31.08	89.04
54	73	670037	ZAKURDAEV Igor	1987	KAZ	1:31.32	92.04
55	75	40506	ROBERTSON Sam	1993	AUS	1:31.77	97.67
56	50	170131	FAARUP Christoffer	1992	DAN	1:31.90	99.30
57	62	30149	SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier	1980	ARG	1:32.02	100.80
58	76	670029	PIMENOV Taras	1984	KAZ	1:32.05	101.17
59	61	400235	WINKELHORST Steffan	1992	NED	1:32.14	102.30
60	81	690086	FESHCHUK Rostyslav	1990	UKR	1:32.76	110.05
61	66	40503	COULL Jackson	1993	AUS	1:33.08	114.05
62	68	380361	RODES Istok	1996	CRO	1:33.23	115.93
63	63	410334	PREBBLE Jamie	1991	NZL	1:33.76	122.56
64	72	550022	RODE Roberts	1987	LAT	1:34.35	129.94
65	80	690694	KOVBASNYUK Ivan	1993	UKR	1:35.98	150.32
66	78	110263	SUMPS Stephan	1988	CHI	1:38.42	180.84
Disqualified 1st run
	82	240139	KEKESI Marton	1995	HUN
	69	150743	BERNDT Ondrej	1988	CZE
	2	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI
Did not finish 1st run
	79	30283	FREEMAN CRESPO Ignacio	1992	ARG
	65	670058	KOSHKIN Dmitriy	1986	KAZ
	60	20324	OLIVERAS Marc	1991	AND
	59	910003	LINDNER Georg	1983	MDA
	54	410364	FEASEY Willis	1992	NZL
	48	400237	MEINERS Maarten	1992	NED
	47	491129	TERRA Ferran	1987	SPA
	42	400281	VAN HEEK Marvin	1991	NED
	41	400016	WANDERS Arjan	1978	NED
	40	481054	MURAVYEV Ivan	1989	RUS
	34	481705	GLEBOV Alexander	1983	RUS
	18	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR
	5	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA