“I think it’s stupidest in the classics”: Swiss criticize double pack on Lauberhorn

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Everything is ready for a ski festival on the Lauberhorn. The weather forecast for the weekend: cool and quite sunny. Fantastic weather is forecast for Saturday and the classic Lauberhorn descent. Yet the Swiss are not looking forward to the home classic after the first training.

The reason is the dense program. After his training ride, Niels Hintermann (17th) cannot understand why a canceled descent has to be overtaken in Wengen. “The shortened descent here is still one of the longest on the calendar.” Hintermann is critical of the schedule, especially considering that the speedsters will continue strictly next week with three races in Kitzbühel and two races in Garmisch at the end of the month.

Too bad about the classics?

Criticism that Odermatt shares. He says: “I think it’s stupidest with the classics.” What the fastest person in training on Tuesday means: Downhill classics such as the Lauberhorn or the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel should only have one winner per year. The energy balance is then added up: “Two training sessions, a short descent, a Super-G and then on Saturday the classic descent from above. And you want to accelerate everywhere, that’s actually too much.”

That’s why Odermatt doesn’t hold back during the first training. He won it by five hundredths ahead of the American Jared Goldberg. “I really wanted to be at the top because we only do that once in training,” says Odermatt, explaining why he didn’t use many tactics. “The starting bend was the most important bend for me today, because I have not always been successful in that in recent years.” For energy balance, he announces a “rather relaxed training” for Wednesday. And in any case it is not possible to drive “tactically” on this route.

The second fastest Swiss is Stefan Rogentin. In third place, the Graubünden lost 0.65 seconds to his teammate. Rogentin doesn’t want to know anything about ‘slowing down competition’. “A few of them may not push all the way at the start, but everyone is riding the Brüggli and the corners,” says Rogentin, who is satisfied with his training performance, even if the track was “even rougher” than he expected.

But that will also ‘work’ until the races. Everything is ready for a big ski festival – a tight program and two runs or not. Or as Hintermann puts it: “Then we can ride for this audience three times. That’s cool too.”

Source : Blick