KITZBUHEL, Austria: France’s Cyprien Sarrazin laid down a near-faultless run on Saturday to claim a second World Cup downhill victory in two days on the mythical Kitzbuehel course. Sarrazin’s fifth career victory came on the back of an electric descent of the 3.3km-long Streif course, widely regarded as the most exacting on the circuit, in 1min 52.96sec, pushing Swiss rival Marco Odermatt into second at 0.91sec.
Italy’s Dominik Paris, a four-time winner in Kitzbuehel with three downhill and one super-G, rounded out the podium, a further 0.53sec adrift, with just eight racers getting within two seconds of Sarrazin’s pace. As Sarrazin raced into the finish area, his eyes turned to the large electronic result board. With first place confirmed, the French racer ripped off his skis and jumped up on to the safety pads on the side of the piste, pumping his arms skywards and letting out an enormous roar.
Kitzbuehel is well known for the tens of thousands of knowledgeable fans who pack into the upmarket Tyrolean resort and Sarrazin’s show of emotion was greeted with a similarly gladiatorial response. "That really was ‘the’ run today,” said Sarrazin. "It was incredible, I enjoyed myself from top to bottom, I felt that there was speed. "I cross the line, I turn my head and I see that there is green for first place, so I scream.”
Sarrazin, who admitted to shedding a tear in bed after Friday’s victory, added: "Can we say I’m an artist? I don’t know but it’s just crazy, I really enjoyed it and showed everyone what I love doing. It was all good vibes. "For all those people who say it was one of the best runs they’ve seen, well that’s the best compliment they can pay me.”
Streak of form
The result confirms the amazing streak of form Sarrazin is enjoying, moving him to within six points of Odermatt in the downhill standings. The Swiss racer remains well in control of the overall standings. The 29-year-old Frenchman won the super-G and finished second in both downhills in Wengen last week, having also won the Bormio downhill at the end of December.
Before this season, Sarrazin was a relative unknown, with one parallel giant slalom victory to his name, back in 2016, as well as a second place in a giant slalom in 2019, both in Alta Badia. His victory in the opening downhill in Kitzbuehel on Saturday saw him become the first French winner in the discipline here in 27 years, Luc Alphand having won in 1997.
Sarrazin’s double also mirrored Alphand’s feat of two downhill victories in 1995. The last racer to achieve the double was Switzerland’s now-retired reigning Olympic downhill champion Beat Feuz, in 2021. Celebrities including Austrian bodybuilder/actor-cum-former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and American politician John Kerry were in the stands to watch the racing down the course on the Hahnenkamm mountain, named after a rooster’s comb.
A vertiginous start propels racers to 100km/h in the first five seconds and they quickly accelerate to motorway-coasting speeds of 140km/h further down the piste. Snakes and rolls send competitors barreling through a wide variety of terrain, in parts propelling them in the air, only for them to quickly re-align for icy traverses that test technical ability and mastery of well-honed equipment.
Odermatt came down with bib number seven and streaked to 1:53.87. It looked like that performance could well be the day’s marker. But Sarrazin had other plans. He followed his Swiss rival directly and overcame a nervy jump up top to lay down an absolutely dominant run in cold conditions and brilliant sunshine. He picked a fast, high line to go close to Austrian Fritz Strobl’s course record of 1:51.58 from 1997 to set Kitzbuehel alight. – AFP