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Ladurner and
Christ-Thomas win the last European race of 2011 and the IIDA
Overall World Cup with one step to go
Daniel confirms his
great shape this year and Séverine confirms to be simply unbeatable.
Angelo Vecchi, Alexandre Lebrun and Michelle Buchholzer complete the
podiums.
German Moritz Noerl crashes in the training runs and will not step
on the podium.
The IIDA world cup overall ranking is still hot for spots 2 and 3,
with four riders for two places. |
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On the fast 2.3km long course in the
region of Vienna, the 2012 World Championships candidate
organization showed to be ready for the big thing. Despite a few
adjustments still needed, Werner Zenleser and his crew did a really
good job. A safe course, a good number of riders (both superstars,
old glories and wannabes) and 28°C gave life to an funny early
September day of world class downhill.
Daniel Ladurner had no opponents. This year he had only one
non-perfect race, the World Championships! But the 28yo from
Feldkirch has definitely to be considered as one of the top 5
athletes in the history of the discipline (with Oscar Galliazzo, Luc
Lenoir, Gilbert Genoud and Harry Perna). Seeing him smoothly braking
at 80kph in Schoenberg was an unbelievably spectacular advertisement
for inline downhill.
His amazing style and absolute mastery of the technique of skating
are so great that he is able to make everything he does look easy
and effortless.
Schoenberg’s defending champion Angelo Vecchi of Italy, second this
year, has shown to be one of the candidates for the podium in 2012,
while 2010 IIDA World Cup winner Alexandre “Rollo” Lebrun had a
great day, too, setting an excellent 2’20”54 in the second run.
World Cup’s no. 1 after Chuyer, Moritz Noerl of Germany jeopardized
his excellent season crashing badly in the last practice run. A
fortunately not too serious injury kept him out of the race, pushing
him out of the 2011 world cup overall podium. He is only 20 by the
way, he will have time to learn that going full speed anytime and
anyway is not always the best choice.
2011 has been a great season for him, with the first WC victory,
another podium in Teolo and an excellent 5th place at the
world championships.
IIDA has welcomed for the second time a speedskating superstar.
Former member of the French national team Mathieu Grandgirard, the
only one able to push skating at 65kph, finished excellent 4th.
This race had a few other surprises, among which the absolutely
unexpected 7th place of the local mainly-slalom skater
Sacha Dragaschnigg, who, with a great 2nd run has been
able to improve his time of 2010 by 4 seconds!
Among women, as usual, the lot of participants did not find anys
erious challengers for Séverine Christ-Thomas’ empire, but 15yo
local star Michelle Buchholzer has shown once again to be a talented
rider to be considered for this decade.
As we have said above,
the 2011 IIDA world cup overall podium is not filled, yet. If Daniel
Ladurner is unreachable, Angelo Vecchi (currently 2nd)
and Alexandre Lebrun (3rd) are separated by 2 points. And
even Italy’s Davide Tacchini could finish second if he wins in
Bonelli.
The 36yo expert rider from Piacenza at the end of the race
unexpectedly announced he will not retire at the end of the season.
After two fourth places in the last two overall world rankings, he
will try to step on the podium one last time in 2012.
See you all in Bonelli Park, Los Angeles, California in the first
week on October for the 6th IIDA World Cup step! |
