World Cup downhill in Bormio: Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin beats the favorites on the Stelvio – falls into the classic

With the fourth start, Sarrazin achieved the dream of running at absolute top speed, as his average speed was more than 112 km/h. No competitor was able to break his mark of 1:50.73 minutes over 3.6 km, even if Marco Odermatt was 0.09 seconds away from him. The Swiss double world champion narrowly missed out on his maiden World Cup victory in the top Alpine race and was delighted with “one of his best races ever” at the Eurosport microphone.

Sarrazin also celebrated at the finish: “I felt great from the first goal,” said the 29-year-old, who once won the parallel giant slalom at Alta Badia in 2016, but only finished in the top 10 in the top classification. Three times so far.

The third place was taken by Canadian Cameron Alexander (+1.23), and the best German Andreas Sander (19/+2.91), who opened the race. The 2021 World Cup runner-up was still smiling, especially as he was still suffering from the effects of a serious fall two weeks ago in Val Gardena. “I'm not that upset,” he said on ARD.

Romid Baumann was eliminated at the first corner, Simon Goucher was 21st (+2.98), and Josef Verstel was 39th (+4.01). Thomas Dressen did not start because he was ill.

In addition to Baumann, his favorite teammate Alexander Aamodt Kilde was also unable to conquer the traditionally challenging ice skating rink not far from the Stelvio pass: he stopped his ride because a stone had damaged one of the edges of his skate. Local hero Dominique Paris also didn't make it to the finish line after strong split times. But it was worse for Black: the World Cup leader lost control of the ball as he swung to the right, fell into the safety net and clearly injured his right leg. He was flown by a helicopter.

Black's fall affected his rivals. However, there was also praise for the winner, who last stood on the podium in the giant slalom at Alta Badia four years ago – in Val Gardena, fourth place was his best result to date in a downhill event. “I have never seen such a good performance in Bormio. It was very clean from top to bottom. And Odermatt too: unbelievable,” stressed Kildee, who finished second in the World Championship.

Bad luck for Sander: As the race went on, visibility on the normally dark Stelvio became increasingly better, and the times of competitors who started late improved. But the other Germans were unable to take advantage of this, in addition to the Swiss Justin Morisier, who finished fourth, ahead of the best Austrian, Vincent Krechmeier.

Sander also heard criticism from DSV Sports Director Wolfgang Mayer, who, after the German's sober results in Val Gardena, accused his downhill riders of being too passive: “They're called race drivers and they're not nice drivers.” That was “perfectly fine,” Sander stressed. However, Baumann went into the slopes “very motivated”, but was forced to swing a few seconds after the start.

In the overall World Cup final, Odermatt now has a clear lead over Schwarz, while Sarrazin has jumped to third place after nine races out of 41. The Swiss now also leads the World Cup downhill, although he is directly ahead of his first two pursuers.