«

»

Dec
28

The “eagles” are shaking – the the Italians show their teeth!

Credits: PentaPhoto

Bormio (SO), December 28 – The “Alta Valle” is very “azzurra”! The Italians “fly” in the second training run on Stelvio too, and are in the top 3 after the Austrian racer Klaus Kroell who has got the best time (1’56 “13.) Christof Innerhofer is just 5 centiseconds behind him. He is probably the most complete DH racer of our team at the moment. In 2008 italy dreamt thanks to the racer from South Tyrol who won after beating Kroell and another Austrian “giant” – Michael Walchhofer.

There are three other Italian racers who are firmly in the top 10: the 23-years-old Dominik Paris , 3rd best timing ( + 0″46), Werner Heel, 5th (+ 0″52), and Siegmar Klotz, a little more than one second. A curiosity: Paris, Heel and Klotz were all born in Merano. Silvano Varettoni‘s performance has been a good one too (19th + 2″10.) Peter Fill saves energies and gets to the finish line with +2″53, but he is ready to fight in order to beat his personal record on Stelvio, a second place behind the ubiquitous Walchhofer (the only one who has won three times in Valtellina) in 2006.

The competition could be a fight between birds of prey and cockerels, i.e. the Austrian eagles (Puchner, Streitberger and Reichelt have done well today), the “lammergeyers” of our Alps and the French, who haven’t pushed that much today. The recent races have confirmed that the Italian DH team is complete and ready to face the World Cup challenges; and not surprisingly there are people who start comparing the current team to fast racers of the 1990s such as Ghedina, Runggaldier, Perathoner, Vitalini and Fattori. They’re those who’ve won the most, at the moment but Inner and friends have everything in order and want to prove that they can succeed. Here, at home. On Stelvio slope.

Final results of the second official training:

1. Klaus Kroell AUT 1’56″13
2. Christof Innerhofer ITA +0″09
3. Dominik Paris ITA +0″46
4. Joachim Puchner AUT +0″52
4. Werner Heel ITA +0″52
6. Georg Streitberger AUT +0″89
7. Andreas Romar FIN +0″97
8. Siegmar Klotz ITA +1″02
9. Hannes Reichelt AUT +1″26
10. Didier Defago SUI +1″29