The Swiss Mauro Caviezel dominated the super-G of Val d'Isère, the first speed test of the Alpine Skiing World Cup season, where Alexis Pinturault succeeded in his bet to line up to take the lead in the general.
Norwegian Adrian Smiseth Sejersted and Austrian Christian Walder completed the podium, both climbing for the first time on the box, respectively 54 and 76 hundredths behind the leader.
Under incessant snow, Caviezel, 32, made a comeback, barely 6 months after a tear in his Achilles tendon, which he still remembered in training the day before.
"It's incredible," he says, first surprised by this victory. "I did not feel 100% and I still have work to do but it bodes well for the future."
Back on skis in mid-October, the eldest of the Caviezel brothers, holder of the small super-G crystal globe after a 2019-2020 season interrupted by the pandemic, won his first victory in this category.
"Mission fulfilled" for Pinturault
Excellent operation for Alexis Pinturault who takes the lead of the general classification thanks to a seventh place, allowing him to collect points and to distance the competition from the reigning winner Kilde (12th) and Odermatt (13th) who, until then , shared the first place with him.
"I find my bearings in super-G, I still have to progress on this type of low-technical profile, but the mission is fulfilled," said the Frenchman who does not plan to line up at Val Gardena at the weekend next.
“The race is placed on the calendar just before important races for me technically,” he says.
Head to Austria on Monday to continue training for the giant and the Alta Badia slalom.
Tricky conditions
Without an audience and in a station with a ghostly atmosphere due to the closed doors, the race had to be cut off from part of its route due to lack of visibility on the Oreiller-Killy track.
The test even had to be interrupted a good twenty minutes after two thirds of the riders had passed, before ending with increasingly thick flakes.
“It was dark,” said Johan Clarey, who finished 37th, and harbored a lot of hope for this first speed test of the season.
“We really couldn't see anything, it was difficult”, analyzed the one who can still feed ambitions for Sunday's downhill, after having achieved two podiums last year in this discipline.
Among the other French people Brice Roger (15th), Blaise Giezendanner (17th), Nils Allegre (22nd) and Nicolas Raffort (23rd) score points.
Roy Picard and Matthieu Bailet did not go to the end.
The weather should be better tomorrow and the snowfall will stop.
A parameter anticipated and assumed by the international ski federation which from Thursday had chosen to reverse the two events.
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