Close to 50 Austrian media representatives traveled to Val d’Isère this week to attend the second round of alpine ski racing here with the hopes they would report another Austrian triumph after Hermann Maier’s impressive double win here last weekend.
On the other hand, only a handful of Italian journalists came after a disappointing season start for the Italian "Squadra Azzurra" and the fact that no Italian has won here since Michael Maier in a downhill in 1985.
At the end of the day though, it was the Italians who celebrated their greatest team result in downhill in more than 10 years, while the Austrians faced one of their worst days in years.
Three Italian skiers finished ahead in this fourth downhill of the season, raced on cold and fresh snow, while the best Austrian was only 5th. Hermann Maier, the great dominator in recent weeks was 16th, his teammate Stephan Eberharter, the leader in the downhill standings, didn’t score any points at all after finishing in 38th position.
Also far behind was Norway’s Lasse Kjus, the winner here in December 1998. Kjus was a modest 41st.
There was no glory either for the US colors: Bode Miller, the slalom skier, was the best downhiller in 26th position, just ahead of Daron Rahlves, 28th. Chad Fleischer finished 43rd.
Michael Maier, now one of the trainers of the "Squadra Azzurra," had good reason to celebrate the day with his racers. He sang the Italian hymn with his racers and enjoyed the moment intensely.
"I think that the Austrians, and many other favorites, are basically no longer used to cruising on natural, fresh snow which requires another attitude than the hard pack man-made snow which covers now most of the ski runs," Maier said. "Some ski reps may have made some wrong decisions in the way they prepare the skis of their leaders. On this kind of snow, the Italians are often very fast."
"This success doesn’t mean that the Austrians are down, they just had a bad day here...Those kinds of races occur once in a while in our sport...."
For a long time it seemed that Kristian Ghedina, who just came back from a long rest recommended by his doctors after he injured his back last summer, was winning his 13th World Cup race. He had a nice lead over the most established specialists who started just behind him. None of the top experts, such as Maier, Eberharter, Kjus or Fritz Strobl could get close to him. Then his teammate, Alessandro Fattori, using the same brand of skis, took off and improved his intermediate times. At the end of his run, the 27-year-old racer from Parma, Italy, beat him by 32/100.
Half an hour later, the young Roland Fischnaller, who has never reached to top-20 in his World Cup career, had the run of his life and completed the Italian triumph with his 3rd place finish. Three other Italians also finished in the top-15!
"It’s a great day for us because we had such a poor season start in North America," said Fattori. "It’s a great day for me and my family, which has always been behind me. It will bring some momentum to the team and hopefully also to the country."
A World Cup racer for seven years, Alessandro reached several 4th places in the past, including one at Kitzbuhel on the treacherous "Streif Piste."
But he never followed up this excellent result in downhill, though was quite solid in Super-G.
Ghedina, one of the most charismatic downhill skiers on the tour, was just glad to be back on the podium after three months of recovery. "This success doesn’t mean that the Austrians are down, they just had a bad day here and we an excellent one," he said. "Those kinds of races occur once in a while in our sport. It makes it more interesting for everybody. It’s in two months that we will need this kind of weather at St. Anton..."
Hermann Maier, the main character on the men’s circuit, didn’t lose his smile after his race. "I had a good race, just not fast enough," he said. "It’s not too bad – I have won a lot of races so far."
He will for sure fight back Sunday for the giant slalom.
— Patrick Lang, World Cup Correspondent
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