2023-11-08 12:28:27
That’s it! After many twists and turns, the world’s best downhillers descended the Gran Becca from top to bottom for the first time in history. For the first training session for the Zermatt/Cervinia descents, which will therefore take place straddling two countries, it was the Austrian Otmar Striedinger who was the fastest, signing a time of 2’05”93, making this race, the second longest after Wengen’s descent on the circuit.
Niels Hintermann immediately felt at ease by signing the 3rd time of the day just 37 hundredths behind Striedinger, just behind the surprising Italian Benjamin Jacques Alliod who took 2nd place. Stefan Rogentin (8th) and Marco Odermatt (16th) are not very far from the top of the basket. Very good performance from Alexis Monney. Eight months after his right knee injury which prevented him from finishing the season, the Fribourgeois took a good 19th place, showing particular performance at the bottom of the route.
Christophe Torrent shows himself
In the internal race for one of the fixed places for the weekend, Christophe Torrent took a very good option. The Anzère skier, for his first in the elite, achieved a very good 27th time with bib 63! The Valaisan, 6th ranked Swiss in training, is only 7 hundredths behind the winner of the Downhill World Cup last winter, the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
Also for his debut among the pros, Gaël Zulauf also achieved a great performance. The skier from Pays-d’Enhaut finished in 35th place, not far from the top 30. The two French-speaking people were the fastest among the various Swiss athletes who could still claim one of the two or three tickets available in the Swiss clan.
Justin Murisier, who has a guaranteed place for both descents, is further down the table in 39th place. Arnaud Boisset finished 61st and Yannick Chabloz beyond 70th place.
Bad weather forecast
Still, this first test gallop could be the only one this week between Zermatt and Cervinia. Because we might as well say it right away, the weather forecast looks very bad over the next few days. Strong gusts of wind are forecast for the heights from Thursday to Sunday, not to mention snowfall which should disrupt the event tomorrow. MeteoSwiss is also announcing between 20 and 40 centimeters of fresh snow on Friday. To this must be added very cold temperatures at high altitude. As a reminder, the start is given at 3720 meters for an arrival judged at 2840 meters. And in case of bad weather, there will be no visibility throughout the Gran Becca.
JT
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