Alpine ski World Cup 23/24: Cyprien Sarrazin outclasses Marco Odermatt to win Friday downhill at Kitzbühel
The Frenchman scores his third win of the season in a thrilling race on the Streif course, with Italy's Florian Schieder second and Swiss favourite Marco Odermatt third.
Alpine Skiing
It turns out Marco Odermatt is stoppable after all.
Not one but two skiers proved that on Friday (19 January), as France's Cyprien Sarrazin – the eventual winner – and Italian Florian Schieder knocked the Swiss Alpine skiing superstar down into third in an "extra" downhill race on the famous Hahnenkamm mountain in Kitzbühel, Austria.
The start of the FIS World Cup race had been delayed an hour due to poor visibility and light snowfall, with even colder conditions expected to set in for the traditional classic Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday.
But when things finally got underway, a group of four skiers in the span of fiver racers made this one of the most thrilling Kitzbühel downhill races in memory.
Sarrazin and Schieder each dropped Odermatt down the order after the Swiss had knocked off early leader Cameron Alexander of Canada.
Odermatt, tenth to take to the Streif downhill course, even looked like finishing outside of Alexander's time at points. Having gained half a second on the Canadian at the top of the course, Odermatt gradually lost time on his descent and needed a big final two sectors to take the lead in 1:56.09.
The next man up, USA's Ryan Cochran-Siegle, threatened to take that lead away immediately but ended up one one-hundredth of a second the wrong side of Odermatt's time.
Then came Schieder. The 28-year-old has never won a World Cup race and has just one podium to his name – a second place here on the Hahnenkamm last year.
The Italian lost time at the top of the course off the Mausefalle jump but picked up speed even through the flat and continued gaining time on Odermatt, eventually crossing the line 0.29 seconds faster, the equivalent of 8.29 metres.
It seemed Scheider was set for a first career win, but two racers later Sarrazin dashed his dreams with a blistering run of his own. Having been slower than Scheider through most of the race, the Frenchman made up two tenths of a second in the final two sectors of the course to win by a narrow 0.05 seconds, or just 1.43 metres.
The result is Sarrazin's second downhill and third overall win of the season, after victories at Bormio (downhill) in December and Wengen (Super-G) last week.
Further down the order, there was a remarkable career-best ninth place finish for Switzerland's Arnaud Boisset, who recorded his first World Cup top-10 on the back of finishing 14th in the Wengen Super-G. Boisset was the 53rd skier to take to the Streif on Friday.
Kitzbühel, FIS World Cup: Results from men's downhill, 19 January 2024 (top 10)
- Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA) 1:55.75
- Florian Schieder (ITA) +0.05
- Marco Odermatt (SUI) +0.34
- Ryan Cochrane-Siegle (USA) +0.35
- Cameron Alexander (CAN) +0.46
- Dominik Paris (ITA) +0.58
- Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) +0.60
- Justin Murisier (SUI) +0.83
- Arnaud Boisset (SUI) +1.11
- Nils Allegre (FRA) +1.13