I tried to figure out something about ladies Super-G but I came out with nothing.
As seen so far all the events of alpine skiing have been quite crazy, with all the favourites (but Hoefl-Riesch in ladies combined) flopping big and outsiders popping up everywhere.
That's all about this kind of events, where all that matter is being in one of the top three placements, so everyone push to 100% and the space between a big performance and a failure is very narrow, and failure in alpine skiing is also a line just 1 meter wider that results in few cents of second loss.
Only safe statement about what has happened so far is: "team Switzerland is in excellent form".
And Swiss have few good arrows to shoot in ladies SG: Gut, Gisin and Suter.
Hoefl-Riesch, Maze, Fenninger, Mancuso, Hosp among the others, while Goergl seems to be not liking this snow- she's always dangerous though-, Weirather is in the starting list but her forms should be vary bad after an injury in training that had her missing the downhill, same for Gagnon and Rebensburg -always struggling with health issues.
Opposing these last names is all I advice. With spring-time temperature an early starter winner is much possible, I'm not doing any specific name though as it didn't pay so far (I haven't posted the outcome of ladies DH, a bit late eh?):
I think there are more chances of a top 3 finish for those ladies: Cook and Goerlg in raising shape, Kaufmann-Abderalden and Kling revelations of this season.
Downhill slope has been describe as very though mostly because of the variations, words of US downhiller Steven Nyman (@BelieveinSteven):
Some compare the course to Bormio, some to Beaver Creek, surely is tough being like a very fast Super-G. Many athletes tried it in sections along the three training runs and are only putting the pieces together for the race.
Bode Miller was the most solid, but I wonder if going 90% (though not 100%) for three training runs couldn't have tired him. Big pressure from media and fans on him as well.
Also solid looked Austrian Matthias Mayer and Norway's flag bearer Aksel Svindal.
Outsiders names are Kueng (this season revelation), Italians Fill and Innerhofer and Frenchman Theaux. I'd call out of the battle for top positions Guay and Paris, both dealing with mid-season injuries and lacking of form.
From training results Carlo Janka looks like a possible dark horse.
Couldn't find any playable price son no bet, I'd only advice to oppose Guay and Paris.
I'll leave few graphs I made, I find it helpful to better understand one's shape through the season.
Place and final position in this season downhills
Miller's form was a crescendo, though his Super-G's results gives the idea much better
Svindal is just impressive
Guay DNFed in Wengen and missed Kitzbuehel
Fill's daughter was born few days before Kitz, he wasn't on with the head.
DNF in Beaver Creek
Found this interesting Swiss Janka and Defago peaked in Kitzbuehel, race closer to the Games (DH left, SG right)
Yep, this is pic is disturbing.
Neureuther in Germany uniform.
Missed last weekend, mostly because I knew weather conditions would have been tough and thought few would have race 100%, but actually it resulted in a nice weekend (or rather Sunday).
Now on to Sochi and the Olympics games.
Little could be said about the hills, though as usual for this kind of events are going to be easy (to boring) slopes.
Test races were held there in 2012 but I wouldn't relate too much on those results.
Anyway here are few videos.
Hans Knauss on Men's Downhill slope
And Mr.GS Ted Ligety trying Giant-Slalom's slope. This one is a bit more relevant as it happened only last year and Ligety exclusively trained on that slope. All this to add to the fact that this hill perfectly suits to Ted's style.
Schedule of the Games:
This week I'll try to make some graphs about main athletes results and forms, I had thought for long. Should give better idea of current shape of some of them.
Another good day yesterday, winning all the head to heads. Actually, I haven't seen what happened in slalom's run2 - I know it was strange, although not as strange as run1 setted by Papa Kostelic.
Feeling is that Hargin's peak form is either gone, or rather faded, or it's still there (he's stil a top performer) but he's bearing in his mind what happened in Adelboden when he couldn't hold the lead and dropped to 4th in the second run.
On to today's DHs - the biggest events of the tours.
I think anything could happen in Kitz. But for the most part Bode looks like the one who should win (my humble opininion: Bode came back more for winning Kitz than for the Olympics). Svindal maybe his the best physical power and endurance -key elements on this long course. Reichelt's form has raised recently and so Kueng's. Last year winner, Paris, had problems getting back in shape after his crash in december, hardly he'll defend his title.
On ladies side Hoefl-Riesch is the one to beat, her form is terrific at the moment and she's in full run for the Cup.
Behind her the same lot: Fenninger, Weirather and Goergl.
I had good impressions from Mancuso yesterday, and I'm backing her today, she's getting closer and closer to the top, and so is the whole US team: almost every one scored a season best yesterday.
So I'm picking Leanne Smith over Marchand-Arvier: the frenchwoman lost the whole pre-season and came back to race only few weekends ago, all the missing time is sensible seeing her racing.
Also backing Merighetti, on her favourite course; I know Schmidhofer (bib #39) was 3rd yesterday but I think condition changed a bit for late starters: young US Jakie Wiles (bib #41) was 15th (first WC points for her) and Hungarian Miklos (bib #45) was 18th tied with Slovenian Ferk (bib #38)
The most important weekend of men's tour kicks off with the slalom. This is kind of special also because run 1 will be at 12 while run 2 at 17, big gap between the two runs. Note that run 2 will be a night run (watch out for Yuasa)
Pick from ladies' SG was a winner: Schmidhofer 16th finished more or less were I expected her, Ruiz-Castillo made me panic scoring the best intermediate time at Int1, but then she was awful and finished 30th.
Goergl won confirming her good form, and so Hoefl-Riesch close behind and getting more and more close to the Cup; good third place for Nici Hosp.
Maze and Mancuso looked in better shape, and so american Cook; on the other hand Gut, 19th, in falling down almost vertically.
On to men's picks.
Kristoffersen, though he'll start with a worse bib in run 1, is performing better than Moelgg.
Hargin and Neureuther are closer to their opponents than odds suggest. I think Hargin is in great form and that the bad result in Wengen was because of the snow conditions, that didn't let him ski aggressively as he does.
Veeeery long weekend for alpine skiing. Ladies racing 2 downhills and 2 super-gs replacing the cancelled races in Cortina last weekend, and replacing Garmish.
Men in Kitzbuehel, where from lack of snow we're passed to too much snow, and schedule is changed almost every 15 minutes. Main goal of the organizators is to save the downhill that is like the Wimbledon or Super Bowl of alpine skiing.
First the (shite) results from last weekend:
Market not offering big prices today, only found this bet.
Schmidhofer is quite solid in SG and was 2nd last year, Ruiz-Castillo is too up-and-down though she was 4th last year.
Small margins for a surebet on E.Fanchini - Lindell-Vikarby between bet365 and pinnacle
Very heavy saturday as both gender are racing on the best (imho) downhill courses of their calendar.
Open brawl in women's one, where I honestly don't know what could happen. Maze likes this slope, but Maria Riesch looks like the one to beat. Fenninger, Weirather and Kaufmann-Abderalden, though, have been the most solid so far, while Gut's shape has little faded and Goergl's one has raised.
To all this there's to add the cancelled training, and due to fog start has already been lowered.
In men's DH I think there might be surprises -read Svindal could not win this. The vinking in fact doesn't like this course and has never won here (he also crashed dramatically last year).
I couldn't say who could replace Svindal on the top step of the podium though; my names are: Innerhofer, who usually does well here, and so do Reichelt; same for Kroell but his form doesn't look the best; my dark horse would be Beat Feuz: the Swiss has won here in 2012 and his season has been decent considering he's skipped last season
Big weekend starting today with men's Super-Combined - one slalom run followed by a Super-G run.
Let me say Wengen is the best course of the Tour, or at least it's my favourite one.
Picks for the Super-Combi
I find a little strange that Kostelic is so widely favourite to win, he's payed 2/1 against Pinturault's 6/1.
Kostelic at the moment doesn't worth the top 20 in slalom (though in the 2 runs), and his Super-G isn't any better. Both Pinturault and Ligety are better than the Croat in slalom although less reliable, and maybe they're even better in Super-G.
Frenchman Mermillod-Blondin looks like the closer to them: he finished 6th in a "real" Super-G at Beaver Creek, and he also races in "real" slaloms although he has never qualified for a second run so far this season. He was 3rd in Kitz Combi last year and Kitz Combi has 2 runs of slalom.
Here last results from Flachau, thanks Daum who got out at 3 gates from the finish line.
Results of Altenmarkt DH, then (luckily?) I didn't have any other bets on Sunday's races.
Today Night Race in Flachau, to determine who's Yuasa among the ladies.
Previous slaloms were won by Shiffrin and Marlies Schild, two win both.
Few names showed enough consistency: Gagnon is solidly in the top 5 bot hasn't got a podium yet, today she's bib #1 and her coach is setting run 1, she comes from her first WC victory, everything seems to point in her direction; Nina Loeseth, although starting with high bibs scored three top10 finish; one last hot name is Bernadette Schild.
Maria Riesch has a good tradition in Flachau, but more than going for the win she'd rather go for points and increase her WC lead.
Picks for tonight.
Huge odds for Zettel and Nina Loeseth: although Zettel is underperforming in slalom she's got a good tradition here, Hansdotter is underperforming as well, so I think it's a very tasty price; as said before Loeseth is constatly in the top10, while Pietilae-Holmner before Bormio's 2nd place had a 20th place and didn't finish the other two slaloms.
Smaller stakes on Eklund and Feierabend. Hosp doesn't look good in slalom, she lacks of reactivity, of that fluency of movements you need in slalom (just look how she wasted over 1 second in the slalom run of the combined). Daum results are close to Feierabend ones, but Daum is achieving those results with better bib numbers than Feierabend, whom is improving: she was #45 in Levi at the start of the season.
Interesting weekend, mostly because one of my favourite courses - Adelboden, with its breathtaking hump from which you can see the standings in the finish area, best camera angle of the Tour imo.
Giant-Slalom on Saturday and Slalom on Sunday for the men.
Ladies with a Downhill on Saturday (after only one training run) and a Super-Combined made of Super-G and a Slalom run
Here's my picks, for now. All on Saturday's ladies DH:
Hoefl-Riesch is favourite to win, honestly I don't know this DH but I don't think it's like Lake Louise.
Anyway Weirather, Gut and Elena Fanchini look all top competitor to me (along with Fenninger, who's odds are too low, though) and I fancy those pricese, above all Fanchini's ones: in 4 DHs she's been 3rd twice, 5th and a DNF.
And so I fancy them in head to heads: Weirather over Riesch; Gut over Maze, who's still far from the best shape; Fanchini over Goergl who's got nice Super-G results but hasn't backed them in Downhill.
I didn't find any good price for men's GS; I also have difficulties to read trends going on there: Ligety isn't the one he used to be last year - Olympics preapration maybe the cause - so Hirscher is closer same for the other topo one Pinturault, who though seems to lack of "the peak" to win.
Got a day short in posting and betting.
So this post will be a bit obsolete, but anyway...
Opposing the US didn't work, they actually showed signs of improvements in saturday's downhill and peaked yeasterday with Vonn finishing 5th in super-g.
The most disappointing thing of the weekend was skipping all the bets on Weirather after friday's lost ones. For the second DH there were the same odds in Weirather - Fenninger h2h market, and likely there were also for the SG.
Men's double was lost by just .02s thanks to a big run of Jansrud.
Weekend turn from profit to a 1.2 units lost and a ROI of -2.85%
Season finally getting on the heart: there will be races every weekend, but above all the fight for the standings is flareing up as contenders becoming more defined.
Ladies. Gut held on her WC lead on a course not suitable for her, runnind defensively in the two DHs and hit ting as soon as she could winning the SG.
Maria Riesch rose to the 2nd position, she easily dominated the DHs, but a big mistake in the SG prevented her from another solid placement. Being a top competitor also in slalom potentially she's winning big points in every event (super-combis and city-events included), she's now favourite to win the Crystal Globe.
Tied in third place Weirather and Fenninger are solid competitors, they are skiing at Gut's level and it's just a matter of time before they step on the top of the podium.
I'll limited the field of competitors to them. Maze and Shiffrin are more than 100 points behind Weirather/Fenninger, I'm about to rule them out with different reasons: Maze, as I said before, centered her summer preparation on the Olympics so she'll probably float mid-standing for another while, if form will eventually come she could have a Kostelic-like month although the lot of competitors has grown tougher in every discipline -hard task. Shiffrin runs for the win in slalom and giant-slalom, but though her regularity of results it's only two disciplines against Gut/Weirather/Fenninger's three and Riesch's four.
On men's side it's Svindal vs Hirsher again but with another character coming on the scene. Ted Ligety somehow increased the gap dividing him from the chasers in giant-slalom, and with solid super-gs and slaloms he could become an unexpected guest in the Cup fight.
Other interesting features: Bode and Vonn coming back, Janka and Jansrud as well.
Super-G surprise by Kueng (first Swiss win in centuries) and Otmar Striedinger
Italian speed team great form and GS team disaster, while France GS and speed are to be put back into perspective.
Here's the complete results of my yesterday picks.
Weirather let me down a bit, she got disqualified but her 5th place wouldn't have been enough anyway, although it was a confirmation of her form, 5th isn't that bad.
I can't actually say much about women's race since I haven't watched. I'll just say I didn't expect Fenninger this good on this course, maybe tough condition "helped" her, I mean she's a top performer in adverse conditions.
Hoefl-Riesch did what she was expected to do, Fanchini confirms her good period, my fault I didn't pay attention to her when in the reasoning that took me to pick Goergl for the podium.
Big luck with the boys - Paris finished in front of Franz by just .01s.
Svindal won proving he's the best. Only one training session on a new course (it wasn't the Bird of Prey, but a BoP-Raptor hybrid) it's a bit like racing a super-g, where Svindal excel even more than in downhill. Reichelt in great form, technically speaking he's flawless, Fill scored another good podium for the Ital-jet.
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Today ladies are re-running the downhill, while boys have a super-g
Here are my picks, I'm fiercely opposing US ladies, yesterda the best of them was Julia Ford from the B-squad, Mancuso was 26th and Cook, Smith, Ross and Vonn all finished outside the top30.
I'll re-pick Goergl vs Stuhec almost at he same odd of yesterday.
I'll give a chance to Spaniard Ruiz-Castillo against Moser, Moser finished .10s ahead yesterday, but I feel like Ruiz-Castillo deserve to be trusted a little where she does good from the training sessions as it happened last year in Meribel for her first career win. Moser is still too erratic.
In mens SG I'll only bet on a double picking two austrian, Reichelt and Mayer, both with a terrific season opening. Jansrud back from an injury as yet to find the better form, while Heel hasn't convinced me so far where the course becomes curvy.
I'm in danger to come out with few fingers burnt after today's DHs.
Luckily enough I still don't get much about mens fast disciplines, plus there's been only one training before the race.
I took this early this week, well before the starting list came out, thinking the odds were good because Franz would have got a bad bib. Actually Franz in bib #14 so a good one. Paris is still better than Franz but the difference in their level isn't as large as the spread in their odds here, a bad call, shit happens.
I went crazy with the ladies.
I believe Weirather is in top form (2nd in DH and 3rd in GS last weekend), she's already done good here in the past as well, reaching the top3 twice.
From training Hoefl-Riesch looks like the one to beat she loves the easy course (has won here in the past) but she often shows a bit of nerves when she's the favourite or she's put under pressure, plus her odds were too low; Gut in my opinion is too light for this course, while Vonn's shape is too doubtful.
Cutting off Gut, Vonn, Maze, Fenninger (for she's too light too), Cook (because what I wrote about the US team in a previous post), I found Goergl a possible name for a top3 finish, she's been under par so far but would have got the 3rd place in last SG if she wasn't disqualified for some unregularities in her skis.
On to the head to heads.
Already said enough about Weirather's form, while Fenninger usually here performs better the SG than the DH.
Goergl 1.83 against Stuhec is ridiculus to me, I won't hide that I still have to understand what Stuhec is (technical, slippery, a mix of these) anyway she's still got difficult to find the top10 and her results are a roller coaster.
Aufdenblatten (along with the Swiss team) is in decent form she hasn't got a good relation with this course though while Merighetti finishe inside the top10 several times. The main reason behind this pick though is that Aufdenblatten is bib#1 so starting with no infos about the course.
Picked Marchand-Arvier over Fischbacher for the same reason of above, Fischbacher in #3, plus the high odds. And also because this course better suite to MMA, with many long flat section.
The tremble has to be staked with ease although made by large favourited: Sejersted did good in training, while Goggia is maybe too light for this course; Riesch is the favourite for the final win, Maze is in clear difficulties and this is not her kind of course; both Fanchini and Suter are in great form, but Suter is more a SGer than a DHer, she prefers technical courses to flat ones.
In men's tour music didn't change from last year: Ligety still winning with margin on chasers in GS, same for Hirscher in SL, Svindal won in SG, and Paris the DH.
Overall
The fight for the Globe once again looks limited to Svindall, king of the fast disciplines, and Hirscher, king of the tech, with the austrian again andvantaged by the number of events (9 slaloms and downhills, 8 giant-slaloms, and only 6 super-gs, + 2 super-combi and a city-event).
Ligety should find more solidy in either slalom or super-g, or maybe he just should use better super-combies as he's one of the most completes and yet he scored 0 points in kombies lat year.
Pinturault potentially has the podium in his legs in slalom, but he lacks of consistency. Frequency of results there could turn him into a new Hirscher.
Kostelic looks far behind these. He is still fighting for top position in slalom, but the field there is wide and the points he is going to lose are more of those he is going to win there. Super-G and downhill hardly are taking him big points, above all compared to the risks he is taking competiting in those after all his knee surgery he underwent.
Comebacks: Miller, Lizeroux, Feuz
Some big names came back this year. Honestly I can't see they win or find placements at the very top of the standing (at least not in the short period) but anyway for me it was a great pleasure to have them back as they all at some point in the past have represented the best of their specific discipline, or of skis in general - guess who am I talking about?.
Age isn't on Miller and Lizeroux's side while Feuz once he'll have scratch off the rust should become relevant again.
Up-and-comers
Vinking Henrik Kristoffersen, 19 yo, surely deserve the first mention. He was the surprise of Levi reaching his first WC podium behind Hirsher and Matt. Away from the major tour, he's backing that astonishing results with other good placements in European Cup and leading the overall standing.
Compatriot Sebastian-Foss Solevaag, older than Kristoffersen but with less WC starts, was another surprising youngster. 9th place in Levi where he was bib #55, and doing good in EC as well: 3rd and 2nd place in two slaloms.
Harder to find top-performing youngster in the fast disciplines, where maturity seems to arrive later.
Austrian Matthias Mayer grabbed 2nd place in SG and 13th in DH in Lake Louise, though he already is full-time part of the OSV from few season.
Freasher names are France's Brice Roger and Austria's Otmar Striedinger who got two top 20 placements in Lake Louise.
Back blogging; I have few thoughts to write down about what's happening on the World Cup. A decent amount of races already completed some trending becoming evident.
Maze doesn't amaze anymore
Unrecognisable in giant-slalom and in super-g where she showed some lethargic movements, a little sparkle came with a 3rd place in Levi's slalom.
She's collected just 130 points and is 7th placed in the Cup standing.
My humble opinion is: she's aiming the Olympics, her form will come later this season.
This and Vonn still out make the fight for the Crystal Globe interesting. Although some young guns are make it interesting anyway.
Young guns: Gut, Shiffrin, Weirather
The hot names of the moment.
Gut is finally proving her talent. Three wins on the first three races and a solid lead in the Overall Standing, then out during the first run of the GS... she's still kind of unbeaten so far.
Shiffrin won the opening slalom starting the new season from where she left, but as proof of her growing up there's her first GS podium. In very short she'll rule both technical disciplines -Hirsher teaches that they're enough to win the Globe, do your math.
Weirather more than a Tina 2 looks like Gut's double, they trains together indeed. Technically speaking Tina is less aggressive on turns than Gut but has better flat sections. 3rd place in Beaver's GS was her first podium in that discipline, made even greater by the fact she was bib #29, so she's lot to work on her Starting List.
Team talk: US, Norway.
The aspect that probably most intrigues me of this sport it's the [with Gandalf voice - it sounds a bit philosophical and I had a teacher who... long story, nevermind] duality Team-Athlete: it's true that you're on your own out on the slope, but that is just a drop in the sea of training either on slopes and in gyms (plus other pre-season exercises like running and cycling), all shared with teammates. So when you leave the starting gate you put on course your individual value, your liking or disliking the slope, the course setting, other mental factors and so on, but beside this there's a big slice of the pie made by training, which is the same for you and your teammates. It's not uncommon seeing few flags of the same nation gathering at some point of the final standing of a race.
For example tennis is individual, and training is individual too. Pro-tennis players have their own staff and there aren't groups of players with similar trends. Yet Errani and Vinci since they started working together showed "similar" progress and reached their career best rank almost at the same time.
All this to say that I love talk teams.
US have to thank Shiffrin, who all alone saved the USskiteam on home soil from what looked like a Little Bighorn. Although she has to be considered more by herself than as part of a team -sorry, Resi!-, where US really team-up is in fast disciplines: Vonn and Mancuso are top racers while Smith, Ross and Cook are solid teammate worth of top10 placements. The best this bunch has done is Cook's 19th place in DH.
The most probable explanation to this is their preparation that has to be centered on the Olympics, this would be typical of the US above all of Mancuso: she better performs on biggest stages like Olympics or World Champs than on tours stages - she's won more Olympics medal than Vonn, to say.
Opposite form is showed by the Norway team, or Vikings as they're nicknamed. Actually they're not at the very top but this is a young team and after few years passed fighting for a top30 placement now they're finding the top10 with some continuity.
Ragnhild Mowinckel was the one showing the greater improvement, previous to her 8th place in Beaver's GS she scored great results in some "warm-up" events held in Copper Mountain. Almost all those events were won by Lotte Sejersted, on the World Cup satges she probably was the most disappointing though, with only a 10th place in Super-G.
The elder Loeseth, Nina, was 12th in Beaver's GS backing her 7th place achieved in Levi. She's recorded a 1st and a 3rd place in two Nor-Am GS kept this week.
The younger Loeseth, Mona, remained in the old continent competiting in European Cup record a win and a 4th place in GS and a win and a 2nd place in SL.
Other team worth mentioning are Swiss (+ Weirather), with solid team either in fast and tech disciplines, and Canada.
South American Cup went on in La Parva (Chile) with a Super-G and a Super-Combined (by adding a slalom run to the SG time) for both men and women.
Men's Super-G
Another German youngster on the top of the podium but surprisingly this time is not Ferstl, who has been detronized by fellow countryman Klaus Brandner -a regular in European Cup though with no top10 placement, and one WC appearence (59th in Garmisch last season).
Frenchman Theaux completes the podium leading the French troupe which has placed many skiers (including few new names) here and there within the top20.
Slovenian Sporn is 10th while Perko 12th.
Argentinian Cristian Javier Simari Birkner 16th is the first South American, but it's not good news as Ferstl overcame him in the SAC standing, and he might lose his first SAC overall since 2000.
Men's Super-Combined
Super-Combined has always been a bit in the limbo, on the verge of cancellation, but there are few specialists of this discipline, Mermillod-Blondin, winner here, is one of those - he had few podiums also in WC, including Kitzbuehel this year. Another specialist is Zrncic-Dim who was 3rd.
Ferstl held strong his 2nd position, there weren't previuos relevant results neither in slalom or super-combined from him.
4th the young Frenchman Valentin Giraud Moine, who was 14th after the SG; followed by Cristian Simari Birkner, but as said wasn't enough to seize Ferstl and now the Cup is in danger.
Other nice comebacks from the British duo Crawford-Baldwin, 20th and 21th in the order after SG and American Roberts, a slalom specialist from US university circuit, who recorded the best time of the run and raised to 10th place from 27th.
Women's Super-G
Tina Weirather geared up to win the Super-G, preceeding Fabienne Suter and Lara Gut in a podium not so different from those of the World Cup.
Then there's a long plot of Swiss skiers broken by a girl from a B French team, followed by Ilka Stuhec who has showed consistency here in SAC.
Women's Super-Combined
Weirather and Suter manteined the placements they achieved with the SG while Kaufmann-Abderhalden stepped on podium also thank to another slalom letdown from Gut. She couldn't be defined as specialist of the Super-Combined but she is better in slalom than the average downhiller.
Good runs for Stuhec, Strachova -formerly Zahrobska- world class slalomist, and young Russian Yakovishina consistently in the top 10 here in Chile.
I'll leave with few videos:
As I mentioned it before: Lara Gut crush in super-combi at the World Championships in Garmish.
I'm sorry but I can't help but think the crush is funny.
Vail-Beaver Creek 2015 are taking shape, and women's speed track has just been named Raptor (because 'murica). Link
In La Parva took place some speed events valid for the South American Cup, but which involved some names of relevance also for the World Cup.
Men's downhill 1
Josef Ferstl finished in the top 30 only twice in WC, 9th in Garmisch, 30th in Kvitfjell. He has some good placements, with some wins and podiums in European Cup though, and also was 3rd in DH standind in 2012.
Brice Roger, scored several top 30 placements last season in WC and also was 15th at the Championships in Schladming. A good up and comers
Not much to say about Russian Alexander Glebov, he can easily dominate National Champs but no important results on main tour.
Just down the podium Clarey leads the group of France's veteran which includes Fayed, and out of the top10 Bertrand, Theaux, W-Champs DH bronze Poisson, Mermillod-Blondin and W-Champs SG silver De Tessieres.
Other interesting names: UK's hope Crawford and Baldwin, who's found several top10 finish here in Chile; Slovenia's Perko and Sporn
Men's Downhill 2
Josef Ferstl doubled the succes, followed by his countryman Andreas Strodl who hasn't competed since 2011.
France scored a good team-result: Theaux was 3rd, Clarey 5th, Bertrand just behind, while Fayed, Poisson, Mermillod-Blondin and De Tessieres ended inside the top 20. Roger didn't race.
Good 4th place for combined specialist Zrncic-Dim and the two Britons both in the top 10
Women's Downhill 1
Swiss team makes big thing from the start placing all the atlethes in the top 10.
4th placed Joana Haehlen is the only new name, she has never raced
in WC, some good placements in European Cup and couple of medals at the Junior Champs.
Good 3rd place for Slovenian Stuhec, and two Russian novice Yakovishina 10th followed by her countrywoman Bedareva, both class '92.
All Ferk and Brodnik from Slovenia and Weirather from Liechtenstein finished inside the top 20.
Women's Downhill 2
Switzerland still dominating. Gut didn't take part as well as Weirather.
Another top 10 finish for Stuhec and Yakovishina while Bedareva was 11th again.
Gisin showed great appreciation for La Parva on her blog, even though internet and news have some difficulties to make their way up there.
It may look like I've abandoned the blog, and in fact I have... but the White Circus silently goes on, mostly Down-under, and our heroes are getting ready to entertain us on the bigger stages, lets see how.
Ivica Kostelic at the trapeze
Maroney may be not impressed by Kostelic's gymnastic skills but she'll be impressed at his collection of knee surgery that has now reached and gone beyond the double figure. In Italy there's the saying "hundred of these days" to wish something to be long lasting, I'm not sure this is the right occasion to say it.
Anna Fenninger the Quick-change artist
Sadly she forgot how to put on her boots and needed help
The aMAZEing Tina the illusionist
Last season she flew on her skiis, for the next season she'll push it a step further.
The Italian team in the cage with lions and tigers
Well, not really a scary wild beast... it was Alonso, a fox.
Little Miss Sunshine (aka Mikaela Shiffrin) applied as comician
