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
The strange results that come out at the end of the season plus today's thick fog not encouraging picks, although there are some tempting odds on head to head.
The slope is almost the same for both gender, only few gates are different.
It's a very technical slope with many turns and close to none slippery section.
Here's a video of the race back in 2011
Back in that day men's podium was: Theaux, Puchner, Svindal.
Ladies' podium was: Mancuso, Gut, Goergl.
As I said yesterdayI think the odds on the two favorites, Maze and Svindal, are too low for what they've done in this discipline so far this season.
Here's my winners: Ladies Gut to win 1 unit @7
She'll have the biggest suppurt being the star of the swiss team.
2nd place in 2011, but I won't say she's grown since then, still she should be the one that knows better this slope and being so hard it also suit to her aggressive style.
Fenninger to win 1 unit @6
She's in great shape winning last two races, a giant-slalom and a super-g, that prove her technical skills.
She's also the one that better performs in tough condition and with bad visibility.
Men Paris to win 1 unit @10
Well, Actually I don't know why I've picked him... sensation.
There's the say that many turns aren't for him, but I don't think so, he's Kitz champ and silver medal at the world championships where he made an acrobatic change of direction while flying. He's powerful and mad enough to win everywhere.
Kroell to win 1 unit @9
He must be one of the most disappointed of this season being with no wins.
Still he is 2nd in downhill standing, thank to his constancy of results, and leads a special standing made by ski-database.com, based on total time:
CORRECTED RANKING NQ, DNF, DSQ, DNS, POS>30 receive time of last pointed plus 0.01
Races completed: 8
Total Race Lenght: 24.441m
POS
RACER
TOTAL
DIFF
1
Klaus Kroell AUT
14'36.53
0.00
2
Aksel-Lund Svindal NOR
14'37.85
-1.32
3
Dominik Paris ITA
14'37.89
-1.36
4
Christof Innerhofer ITA
14'39.21
-2.68
5
Hannes Reichelt AUT
14'40.31
-3.78
6
Adrien Theaux FRA
14'40.50
-3.97
7
Erik Guay CAN
14'40.97
-4.44
8
Werner Heel ITA
14'41.84
-5.31
9
David Poisson FRA
14'42.95
-6.42
10
Romed Baumann AUT
14'43.29
-6.76
11
Georg Streitberger AUT
14'43.91
-7.38
12
Travis Ganong USA
14'44.11
-7.58
13
Manuel Osborne-Paradis CAN
14'44.23
-7.70
14
Jan Hudec CAN
14'44.40
-7.87
15
Joachim Puchner AUT
14'44.44
-7.91
16
Patrick Kueng SUI
14'45.00
-8.47
17
Peter Fill ITA
14'45.10
-8.57
18
Benjamin Thomsen CAN
14'45.14
-8.61
19
Didier Defago SUI
14'45.70
-9.17
20
Andrej Sporn SLO
14'45.85
-9.32
Being the disadvantage being wide enough (58 points) he is much in nothing-to-lose situation.
He is an excellent turn maker.
Both races were cancelled.
So... Vonn won DH globe by 1 point.
Svindal won DH globe, but Hirscher is closer to the Overall.
Hoefl-Riesch won fair play title.
Riesch won the 2011 Overall on Vonn by just 3 points because of the cancelled Super-G and Giant-Slalom at the finals (also in Lenzerheide).
