Lake Louise : Aleksander Aamodt Kilde mate déjà la concurrence, Johan Clarey 6e

The boss was there. Winner of the small downhill globe last year, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde started his title defense perfectly by winning the first downhill of the season, in Lake Louise. A real physical monster, the Norwegian made the difference on the sliding section at the bottom of the course to win ahead of the Austrian Daniel Hemetsberger (+ 0”06) and the Swiss Marco Odermatt (+ 0”10), his 14th career victory. Best Frenchman, Johan Clarey takes a nice 6th place (+0”88).

7th downhill success for Kilde

He had never won at Lake Louise before? It is now done for Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Taking full advantage of the withdrawal of bibs after the postponement of Friday’s downhill, the Norwegian inherited the 6 and exploited it perfectly. In brighter conditions for the leaders, the combined Olympic vice-champion has always been excellent, like the flat part of the top of the route (19th time in this section). But when he snaps, Kilde can be stratospheric. And that’s what happened on the bottom.

Very right on the lines in the Coach’s Corner, very inside, the Norwegian came out with maximum speed for the sliding part of the bottom of the course, where he stuck more than two tenths to all his opponents. It was enough to get ahead of the amazing Daniel Hemetsberger, dazzling on the top (- 0”35 at 3rd inter) before coming to bow narrowly. Same results for Marco Odermatt. The Swiss had long thought he could grab his first downhill success, but he gave up on the bottom to settle for 3rd place (+0.10). Kilde offers him the 7th success of his career in downhill and already takes control of the discipline.

Théaux, positive feedback

On the French side, Johan Clarey will – again – have to wait to hope for his first success in the World Cup. Excellent start, best time after thirty seconds of racing, the 41-year-old Frenchman unfortunately got stuck in the technical section, with two small faults which deprived him of speed on the bottom and condemned him to 6th place (+ 0 ”88). A solid result to start his season.

Three other French people scored points, with 23rd place (+ 2”21) for Maxence Muzaton but, above all, 15th place (+ 1”72) for Matthieu Bailet with his bib 28 and 29th place (+ 2 ”45) of Adrien Théaux, for his first race after his serious injury last year.