This is how his debut as an SRF expert went: How Beat Feuz was misled by Kilde

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

Beat Feuz was confronted with a basket at the beginning of his second ski career. When he asked Tom Stauffer, the Swiss men’s head coach, for a podium tip while inspecting the tracks, with the SRF microphone in his hand, he refused and drove away.

Feuz did not take the blow personally, laughed and moments later sat down in the reporters’ booth with the best view of the finish slope. It quickly became clear to every TV viewer that someone was talking who knew what was happening. The 36-year-old from Schangnau was able to classify each stage with crystal clarity and enhanced the analyzes with additional information about the athletes and with experiences he himself had on this downhill classic in Val Gardena, which he never managed to win.

“I was too hasty”

In the Ciaslat, the key point with four corners and thirteen nasty bumps, he is on a first-name basis with every wave. “A horror for every driver.” It was immediately clear to Feuz that Marco Odermatt with starting number 6 had achieved this place excellently. “This will be an absolute top result.” Odermatt raced to the finish with an intermediate best time.

But then came Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Feuz leaned out the window for the first split: “It’s going to be green.” But time glowed red. Kilde was nine-hundredths slower than Odermatt. Feuz insisted: “In the Ciaslat you cannot make up time on Odermatt. A victory will not amount to anything.” But Kilde was two hundredths faster than Odermatt at the finish. “I didn’t think that,” Feuz had to admit. “I was too hasty.”

Surprised by Bennett’s miraculous transformation

And yet Feuz was right in the end. Kilde missed out on victory because the American Bryce Bennett was later three-hundredths faster than the Norwegian. And during this victory ride came the best Feuz moment of the race. «I saw Bennett in training at Beaver Creek and at Zermatt. It was nothing to look at. That wouldn’t even have been enough for the European Cup. And now he comes to Val Gardena and wins. Unbelievable.”

The race was a spectacle, very exciting until almost the end, the conditions were brilliant and Feuz, as co-commentator and expert, was refreshingly good, in good spirits and well prepared. A pleasure to listen to him. In the middle of the race he also sent a WhatsApp message to a Swiss trainer on the slopes with the message that you could ski more directly in the upper part, which he immediately radioed to the start. Defeat Feuz, all the way there.

And how does he rate his debut? «An exciting, very cool task. But it’s hard for me to classify it now. I have to fix it first.” Conclusion: We look forward to his next performances.

Source : Blick