Marco Odermatt narrowly misses out on the podium at the super-G in Wengen and knows exactly where he made the crucial mistakes. Meanwhile, he has nothing but praise for first-time winner Giovanni Franzoni.
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- Marco Odermatt finishes fourth in the super-G in Wengen.
- The man from Nidwalden made two mistakes and therefore knows where he fell behind.
- Odermatt says to winner Giovanni Franzoni that he saw his run and knew it was the winning run.
Marco Odermatt finishes directly behind Franjo von Allmen in fourth place in the super-G in Wengen. While his team-mate von Allmen said that he could have dropped out if he had made a mistake, Odermatt also knows where he lost time: "It was actually a good race for me, but unfortunately I made two mistakes, one of which was a big one in the Brüggli-S. I knew that if I didn't make a mistake there, I would lose time. I knew that if I didn't come out of there with top speed, it would be difficult."
The overall World Cup leader explains that he took more risks in the key section by waiting longer to stand on his skis: "If you wait two hundredths too long at 110 km/h to stand on your skis, then you're two meters too late instead of exactly on the line."
Odermatt also didn't get a second passage the way he wanted: "I hit something in the Hanegg shot and was pulled out of position - that costs time at 140 km/h."
Praise for premiere winner Franzoni
In the end, Odermatt loses just over half a second to winner Giovanni Franzoni, who celebrates his first World Cup victory. Odermatt notes that he could have kept up with the Italian in terms of speed if he made mistakes, but that it wasn't enough.
Meanwhile, Odermatt has nothing but praise for Franzoni: "We were on the podium together in Val Gardena/Gröden. He's a cool guy." The 24-year-old surprised everyone in training: "I thought in the first training session that he must have missed a few gates somewhere. It then turned out that he hadn't." In the second training session, Franzoni again set a clear best time and was also the fastest in today's super-G. Odermatt comments: "He's definitely arrived now."
Odermatt immediately sensed that Franzoni's run was also strong today. In the finish area, the Swiss skier congratulated the Italian and revealed: "I told him that I had seen his run with the 1 and had already said at the top that this was the victory." Franzoni had already ridden well in training and had implemented this one-to-one: "With his speed from training, I knew that he would be difficult to beat."
Number 1 not a disadvantage for once
The fact that the Italian started the race with bib number 1 - which is normally a disadvantage in the super-G - definitely didn't hurt today: "Everyone would have liked to have taken the number 1 today," explains Odermatt. After all, the super-G is very similar to the downhill training sessions, and there aren't many options for a different start anyway.
The downhill continues in Wengen on Saturday. Will Franzoni strike again then? Odermatt himself at least knows what he needs to do differently: "Waiting too long in the Brüggli-S, that can't happen to me tomorrow."
And there is also a good omen from last year. Odermatt only came seventh in the super-G on Friday and won the downhill on Saturday.
