Lake Louise World Cup | For her comeback, Sofia Goggia wins at Lake Louise

We take the same and start again. Queen of the downhill last year, Sofia Goggia started her season in the best possible way by dominating the Lake Louise downhill. Surprisingly more at ease in the sliding sections than in the Coach’s Corner or the Fall Away, the Italian was not as dominant as at the start of last winter, but she outstripped the Swiss Corinne Suter (+ 0”04) and Austrian Cornelia Huetter (+ 0”06) to claim the 18th victory of her career, the 13th in downhill. The French have disappointed.

Huetter’s Exceptional Fall Away

If she now dominates the sliding sections, it will be even more complicated to come and challenge her for victory. Accustomed to making the difference in the technical sections, these long curves that the Coach’s Corner or the Fall Away offer in the heart of the route of the descent of Lake Louise, Sofia Goggia this time widened the gap on the top and on the bottom of the route, on flat parts where she even allowed herself to be ahead of the queen in this area, Mirjam Puchner (4th at the finish, + 0”35).

Always as fair on the lines, never lowered by the movements of the ground, the Italian perfectly knew how to release when it was necessary to carve each curve to the maximum. But it was enough to get an 18th career victory, from the first run of the season. In very good shape, Corinne Suter even believed for a long time that she could pull off the feat, even being in the lead halfway through the race (- 0”04 at 4th inter) but she finally had to settle for 2nd place (+ 0′ ’04), just ahead of the surprise of the day, Cornelia Huetter (+ 0”06), author of a stratospheric Fall Away (0”36 times at Goggia!), with crazy trajectories. But that was not enough to deprive the Italian of her first success of the season.

Miradoli’s regrets

The French women were slightly disappointed on this first descent of Lake Louise. In any case in terms of the result for Laura Gauche with 26th place (+ 2”51) but even more so for Romane Miradoli. The Haut-Savoyarde will have regrets as the vast majority of her race confirmed her new status as a cador and seemed to take her to the top 5 (4th at 0”37 in the 4th intermediate). But the Frenchwoman left a little wide at the exit of the Fall Away and was forced to mark a big support, costing her all her speed, at the worst moment. Miradoli finally had to settle for 11th place (+ 1”28), far from his expectations.