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Dec
29

Theaux dominates in Santa Caterina and it’s SuperInnerhofer time!

A year ago someone called the Deborah Compagnoni slope a course for women. Maybe it was, but the latest changes, and also the work of the former Austrian champion Hannes Trinkl have made it difficult, dramatic and charming. It’s a very hard track, full of difficulties of technique sorts. Only an athlete with a technical complete background could emerge.

The Frenchman Adrien Theaux, 31 years old, won in 1’47″29, the Austrian Hannes Reichelt follow him with + 1″04 and teammate David Poisson is third with +1″15. The dominator up to this moment of the DH season, the Norwegian Aksel Svindal didn’t feel like taking all the risks and is seventh (+1″61 behind the winner). His teammate Kjetil Jansrud is 21th (+2″87) and unable to dominate the humps of the Compagnoni slope.

But the real hero of the day is the Azzurro Christof Innerhofer, 4th +1″22 from Theaux and only 7/100 of a second off the podium. He could win, he was attacking so hard, he was in advantage, but shortly before the jump his head was in a door. The impact ripped the door, the orange flag got stuck in the hook of his glasses dragging a pole with him. The Azzurro dragged that pole for about twenty seconds, until Gimondi bend in the wood, but he could get rid of the flag only at the finish area. It was a huge air brake, but – above all – it was an impact that moved the glasses. Icy air in the eyes at more than 100 km/h is terrible. Inner rearranged the lenses as he could. He was great, also because despite the inconvenience, he never stopped attacking prooving that he believed in the victory. Bad luck, but now he also knows that he’s back on technical courses.

The Azzurri in general were unlucky. Peter Fill too was skiing great, he had good lap times, but in the upper part he lost a ski and found himself on the ground. Dominik Paris too could aspire to the podium, but in the final part at Gimondi bend he almost crashed and risked to compromise his performance. Werner Heel is 12th (+ 1″91) and Mattia Casse is 21st.