The World Cup is back and for the first time the sprinters taking to the track on Saturday and Sunday in two super-Gs in St. Moritz.
The men are instead in Santa Caterina Valfurva for a weekend that plans the two giants who had been canceled in Val d'Isere due to lack of snow.
The snow, on the other hand, is currently falling abundantly all over the Alps and in St. Moritz the free skiing on the slopes of the previous day was canceled.
The blue Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone and Marta Bassino are trampling for this Swiss appointment.
In St. Moritz last year, Sofia obtained her last cup victory by beating Federica by just one cent.
It was a magical double that the Italians hope to repeat and maybe even improve.
"In Cervinia we trained very well. Last year I was beaten by Sofia for just one cent but this year I want to fight for the victory", the words of Federica Brignone.
Even more optimistic Sofia Goggia: "In this year many things have happened and I feel improved in many respects as a woman and as a skier".
The Piedmontese Marta Bassino, winner of the giant of Soelden, was also very positive: "In speed I am doing well. The St. Moritz track is exposed to the wind and the visibility is not always the best: but conditions are the same for everyone and therefore we must concentrate only on the quality of skiing ".
In St. Moritz there will be no Mikaela Shiffrin who has still deserted the world cup to train in the technical disciplines: she will be back in competition in a week in the two French giants of Courchevel whose performance has been confirmed by the FIS.
In St. Moritz, the Slovak Petra Vlhova, who has dominated the season so far with three wins and a third place in four races, will thus have the opportunity to further improve her position in the standings.
If we can be optimistic about the blue races, the same cannot be said about the men's ones.
The Italian gigantists - still absent Manfred Moelgg who is coming out of the after-effects of the covid and has just restarted training by focusing on the special - are veterans from the blow of the parallel of Lech: no one in the standings.
The desire for redemption is therefore great and understandable, especially for Luca De Aliprandini.
The Trentino is the n.1 of the blue giants and wants to prove that he is competitive, at least on the home track named after Deborah Campagnoni, even with the best in the world.
With him in the race, in addition to Giovanni Borsotti in particular, there will also be Riccardo Tonetti from Bolzano, who has suffered a broken hand.
And Alex Hofer will also take to the track thanks to the good tests in the European Cup.
We'll see.
