Italian double in Crans-Montana, Swiss disappointment
Sofia Goggia beat Federica Brignone on Sunday on the Mont-Lachaux track during the World Cup downhill organized in the Valais resort. Three Swiss women in the top 10, but no podium.
Sofia Goggia made the “show” on the Mont-Lachaux track.
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Neither the difficulties of the “Ladies’ Streif”, nor the difficult conditions prevented the triumphal march of the Italians on Sunday on the Haut-Plateau. Sofia Goggia won the Crans-Montana downhill ahead of her compatriot Federica Brignone (2nd at 0”15) and the surprising Frenchwoman Laura Gauché (3rd at 0”41). Best Swiss, Joana Hählen signed a nice top 5.
Leader of the classification of the specialty, Sofia Goggia did not calculate, as usual, on the Valais track. The 30-year-old Transalpine, who had fallen on Friday during the only training session, made the difference on the bottom of the course by drawing perfect lines, thus erasing the small hesitations interviewed in the technical part. The 2018 Olympic downhill champion, however, trembled when Federica Brignone passed. The Valdôtaine, who is definitely at home in Crans-Montana, managed a superb end to the race, to finally fail a handful of hundredths from 1st place.
Gut-Behrami, Flury and Suter disappoint
If the big surprise of the day came from the French Laura Gauché, Joana Hählen (5th at 0”62) has, despite everything, surprised her world on the Mont-Lachaux track. Very aggressive, the little Bernese (1m56) took up a lot of time on the bottom by adopting a very direct line. Two other Swiss women lived up to expectations on the Valais snow. Defending champion, Priska Nufer (6th at 0”65) recalled that Crans-Montana was her favorite meeting on the World Cup calendar, she who equaled the best result of her season (6th in the downhill Cortina).
After disappointing World Championships near Courchevel / Méribel, Michelle Gisin (8th at 0”72) found colors on the Haut-Plateau. Quite the opposite of Lara Gut-Behrami (13th at 0”89), never really in the game, who was unable to erase the frustration accumulated during the last Worlds. The new reigning world champion Jasmine Flury (17th at 1”21) also remained behind due to a lack of commitment in her skiing. Bronze medalist two weeks ago in France on the queen discipline, Corinne Suter (20th at 1”59) also missed her subject, definitively losing any chance of winning the specialty globe at the end of winter. .
Even if no Swiss climbed on the box, the show was up to par and rewarded the thousands of spectators gathered at the foot of the Mont-Lachaux track. Because the day after the 24-hour postponement of the downhill, which resulted in the outright cancellation of the super-G, the fans feared that the fog would once again deprive them of the race. The capricious weather finally only delayed the start of the Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, bib No 1, by 37 minutes.
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