Val d'Isere/Alta Badia - results

Made myself a good Christmas gift this weekend (implicit meaning: Christmas comes only once a year!).
Got in all the biggest odds and biggest stakes.

The lost ones were actually conceptually losing ones: Moelgg still has work to do, though he didn't finish far from Richard; Nani DNF-ed but was far behind Luitz, who eventually scored a top10 placement prooving wrong my one-event-man definition of him.

Few words on Maze: she was out of the top10 but I saw flashes of the "old her", I think a mistake in run1, which stole her 1 second or so, mentally affected her even in run2, which was also affected by a long stop just befere her due to course manteinance. I believe January will be a great month for her, Kostelic-style.

I found Val d'Isere ladies GS very interesting: the slope his quite large with humps and inclinations of the ground left and right, and potentially allows to draw different courses, although the key passages are very similar to those of the DH (an hump after few gates and a compression mid-course were you need to bring speed before the final long flat). Unfortunately this year there was little snow, e.g. a hole formed at the height of the third gate and many athletes had difficult there (as said before Maze was stopped while they tried to adjust it).




      

Sun 22/12 - Val d'Isere and Alta Badia Giant-Slaloms

Results form the two downhills, a little 1.8u profit.
Fanchini crashed, it was a strange crash after a jump but not on the landing, her run was too short to be commented.
Maze, though, made a good run and was 2nd behind Kaufmann-Abderalden at her 1st career victory. Swiss team was all over placing also Weirather (not Swiss but training with them) Aufdenblatten and Gisin in the top10. Gut was 25th and Suter 17th, and this says much about the characteristics of this slope: it's quite easy, all that matters is being fast, there are few key passages which you have to prepare so to come out of them with the right direction and speed.

Val Gardena's downhill as expected was a question between Canada and Norway, placing a combined of 5 athletes in the top 10. Guay won in front of Jansrud and Clarey.

Picks for sunday's Giant-Slaloms

In short:
Shiffrin was slow in her last slalom, it could be the physical preparation.
Brignone looked good before going out in last GS. She even finished in the top30 in super-g meaning she's in good shape.
Maze was 2nd in DH but I'm still doubtful on technical disciplines.

In men's GS I'm opposing Simoncelli and Rychard for the same motivations: they're in a falling phase and the change of ski radius last season emphasized this fall.
Same could be said for Blardone, anyway Dopfer isn't too brilliant at the moment and I don't trust him on a single at a low price, so put it in a double with Raich which should beat Olsson, but again the price is too low.
Nani - Luitz is a tough head to head between two raising youngster, anyway to me Luitz is like a one-event-man (Val d'Isere) while Nani is doing good everywhere.

Val d'Isere and St. Moritz

World Cup back in Europe
Ladies in St.Moritz: saturday a Super-G, sunday a giant-slalom
Men in Val d'Isere: giant-slalom on saturday, slalom on sunday

Footnote of a post from last year:
"In St.Moritz the slope offers a good variety for the GS.
In Val d'Isere very narrow slope but well steep... strange comebacks in run2"

Val d'Isere last year was thrilling. 
Local hero Pinturalt scored his first WC win in the night slalom, it was special because he won a slalom before winning in giant-slalom, his favourite discipline.
In giant-slalom Hirsher won in front of Luitz and Ligety. Scandal was Ligety not winning, the features of this slope and the course setting made everybody think they've finally found a way to stop him - he won the next GS, in Alta Badia, with one of the most terrific performances I've ever seen (you'll easily find the video on youporn or nearby, for a skiing fan there it belongs).  
Luitz was at his first WC podium - a year later the best he's placed is 9th two weeks ago in Beaver's GS - he was bib #35 (his compatriot Neureuther was bib #36 and finished 4th). Luitz was placed 25th after the first run, scored the best time in run2 to recover up to the 2nd position, Nani made another interesting recovery from 29th to 10th place.
St.Moritz lost the super-combined.
Last year Vonn won the super-G ahead of Maze, who won the giant-slalom and the combi. 
Vonn is not racing this year, Maze isn't the absolute dominator she used to be.
St. Moritz isn't particularly fashinating, it's average on many levels: lots of turns and "S", but not technical or challenging, fast but not even close to Lake Louise, some jumps but it's not Cortina. It's like a bigger version of a giant-slalom. Being the actual leader of giant-slalom the same of super-g I'm expecting the same names at the top: Gut, Riesch, Weirather, Fenninger

Picked some bets earlier, prices tempted me.

First three picks refers to saturday's SG.
It's Weirather - Fenninger again and I still see Weirather ahead.
I see value in both Suter and Riesch prices. Riesch on this course could be closer to Gut, while I had priced Suter favourite against Goergl.

Lindell-Vikarby vs Fenninger is from the giant-slalom market and I think this price is ridiculus and won't last long - Pinnacle makes Fenninger 1.7 to Vikarby 2.1.