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.
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.
First, sorry I haven't been posting in past two days, it's hard for me to write up previews and postviews and do picks, that often go bad, and all....
Super-combi today: one run of dowhill starting at 12 (CET), and one run of Slalom at 18.15 so night event. Both runs on the original slopes. Key fact, slalom's course setter is french team, and so Pinturault's coach.
Starting list, remembering that slalom's run will have an invers order of the top 30 from downhill's run. 1 150495 VRABLIK Martin 1982 CZE Elan 2 194190 ROGER Brice 1990 FRA Rossignol 3 6530319 COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan 1992 USA Rossignol 4 30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier 1980 ARG Atomic 5 510997 BERTHOD Marc 1983 SUI Salomon 6 660021 DANILOCHKIN Yuri 1991 BLR 7 150398 BANK Ondrej 1980 CZE Elan 8 510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan 1981 SUI Rossignol 9 180570 ROMAR Andreas 1989 FIN Atomic 10 50625 RAICH Benjamin 1978 AUT Atomic 11 53902 MAYER Matthias 1990 AUT Head 12 294277 KLOTZ Siegmar 1987 ITA Nordica 13 511352 VILETTA Sandro 1986 SUI Salomon 14 192746 THEAUX Adrien 1984 FRA Salomon 15 291459 PARIS Dominik 1989 ITA Nordica 16 51215 BAUMANN Romed 1986 AUT Blizzard 17 192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas 1984 FRA Salomon 18 511313 JANKA Carlo 1986 SUI Atomic 19 293006 INNERHOFER Christof 1984 ITA Rossignol 20 421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund 1982 NOR Head 21 194364 PINTURAULT Alexis 1991 FRA Salomon 22 380260 KOSTELIC Ivica 1979 CRO Fischer 23 561217 KOSI Klemen 1991 SLO Atomic 24 92534 CHONGAROV Nikola 1989 BUL Volkl 25 90131 GEORGIEV Georgi 1987 BUL Atomic 26 430429 BYDLINSKI Maciej 1988 POL Atomic 27 534562 LIGETY Ted 1984 USA Head 28 480736 KHOROSHILOV Alexander 1984 RUS Fischer 29 700830 ZAMPA Adam 1990 SVK Salomon 30 293550 MARSAGLIA Matteo 1985 ITA Rossignol 31 501439 HEDIN Douglas 1990 SWE Head 32 491129 TERRA Ferran 1987 SPA Rossignol 33 400281 VAN HEEK Marvin 1991 NED Salomon 34 20267 ESTEVE Kevin 1989 AND 35 530165 BRANDENBURG Will 1987 USA Fischer 36 400016 WANDERS Arjan 1978 NED 37 400237 MEINERS Maarten 1992 NED 38 531452 BIESEMEYER Thomas 1989 USA Rossignol 39 20324 OLIVERAS Marc 1991 AND 40 670052 KHUBER Martin 1992 KAZ 41 561216 KLINE Bostjan 1991 SLO Stoeckli 42 170131 FAARUP Christoffer 1992 DAN 43 670037 ZAKURDAEV Igor 1987 KAZ 44 380341 ULLRICH Max 1994 CRO 45 491151 DE LA CUESTA Paul 1988 SPA Salomon 46 430472 KLUSAK Michal 1990 POL Head 47 550022 RODE Roberts 1987 LAT 48 710320 LAIKERT Igor 1991 BIH 49 670029 PIMENOV Taras 1984 KAZ 50 670058 KOSHKIN Dmitriy 1986 KAZ 51 700868 FALAT Matej 1993 SVK 52 690086 FESHCHUK Rostyslav 1990 UKR 53 30283 FREEMAN CRESPO Ignacio 1992 ARG
I've pointed out the hot names, being both runs on the original slopes the chances to win are equally distributed among downhiller and slalomist, obviously those with more overall skills are even hotter, and in this case the field is limited to Raich, Ligety, Pinturault and Kostelic.
Kostelic is favourite to win, he's ran the real downhill beside the training, but close following him there's Pinturault and Ligety.
The frenchmen might have the advantage of his coach setting the slalom's course, and also the fact that he's probably the best slalomist.
But Ted Ligety deserves equal attentions. The american seems to enjoy these slopes, his abilities and Giant-Slalom skills, his own characteristic style, the position of the external leg in large range turns, seems key elements to ski -or shred, like Ted would say- on this slopes.
In both previous combined in this season, Wengen, and Kitz, Ligety didn't reach the finish line, of the downhill in Kitz, of the slalom run in Wengen when making a good run, but bad luck he lost a ski when he was three/four gates away fron the finish line.
The importance of this event, together with the high confidence coming from an already won medal, can cheer him and keep him away from cheap mistakes. It's really hard to think him not reaching the podium also in a far-from-perfect-scenario. Winner: Ligety 1 unit @7Won +6
h2h Baumann - Mermillod-Blondin - pick Mermillod-Blondin 3 units @2Lost -3
The frenchmen was third in the classic combined of Kitzbuehel (combined with 2 slalom runs).
Anyway he is a decent slalomist sure better than Baumann while the gap between these two can be little after the downhill, as Baumann isn't in great form and wasn't even choosed for the real downhill race.
Svindal's current price (around 12) looks good for a trade, expecting him to have 2, maybe 3 seconds advantage after the downhill run.
Completely wrong the pick against Baumann, who's apparently worked around this event.
