Val Gardena 2006: A star says goodbye, a new one arrives

On December 10th, five days before the Super G, the FIS gave the green light for the two World Cup races to be held on the Saslong. The international ski association risked a lot because at the time of the commitment the meadows were greener than the “World Cup traffic lights”. The FIS trusted the weather forecast, which predicted a drop in temperature and would enable artificial snowmaking. The Vabanque game worked, the team of piste workers around Horst Demetz and Rainer Senoner prepared the piste in three days. At the team captains meeting On Tuesday, FIS race director Günther Hujara praised the Val Gardena OK: "I don't know where you got all the snow from in the last three days, but ten minutes ago the work on the slopes was finished and the Saslong is now ready for racing." A miraculous increase in snow must have taken place there.

Despite the precarious snow situation until a few days before the races, the slopes under the Sassolungo were more challenging than they had been for a long time. The route was nowhere near as icy as in other years; the difficulties lay mainly in the more pronounced hills in the terrain. The compression in the upper section of the route and the Ciaslat meadow were particularly challenging. FIS President Gianfranco Kasper summed it up on behalf of everyone: “The Saslong is in perfect condition. This route will be much more interesting if there is less snow on it." More interesting, but less dangerous. Overall, there were only a handful of crashes during the entire World Cup week with its two training runs and two races, all of which had a minor impact except for one. Stefan Guay, junior world champion in giant slalom, tore a cruciate ligament in his right knee during his departure in the first training session.

Until 2006, no US boy had been able to celebrate a victory in 49 World Cup races on the Saslong; of all places, Bode Miller ended this series of failures in the anniversary race. The flamboyant overall World Cup winner from 2005 won on the Saslong, although he was not allowed to spend the night in his beloved caravan, but “had to” make do with a luxurious hotel room. But even though Miller supposedly slept so badly in the hotel (Miller's quote: "I woke up at 4.45:25.000 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep"), Miller also secured the first-ever "Dolomiti Super Trophy", which was worth XNUMX euros.

Steven Nyman, on the other hand, celebrated his first major victory in the Ski World Cup. After Miller's American debut victory in the Super G, he immediately completed the US double with his success in the downhill made. While Miller won by a respectable margin ahead of Christoph Gruber (AUT) and John Kucera (CAN), Nyman was only two hundredths of a second ahead of the dominator of the training runs, the Swiss Didier Cuche, and the 2002 Olympic champion, Fritz Strobl (AUT). Despite Gruber and Strobl's podium finishes, the Austrians were the big disappointments of the Val Gardena weekend because they still had to wait for their first victory in the speed disciplines of the 2006/07 season. Fritz Strobl was still happy about his third place. Understandable, as he has finished in an ungrateful fourth place three times in the past and made it onto the podium for the first time this year. “This year I had luck on my side. After many fourth places, a hundredth of a second saved me third place,” said Strobl.

Val Gardena 2006 was also Kristian Ghedina's farewell. The most successful downhill skier on the Saslong (four victories each) is Franz Klemm. On December 16th, exactly 17 years to the day after his first race in Val Gardena, he drove over his declared favorite slope for the last time with his ski equipment from back then. Although Ghedina was “only” allowed to start as a forerunner, he still made his farewell run a spectacle for the spectators. Three years ago in Kitzbühel, Ghedina only dared to do a straddle; in Val Gardena, during his farewell run, he "straddle" when jumping over the camel humps and at the finish jump.

Maybe Ghedina’s “skiing spirit” lives on in Steven Nyman. In any case, a piece of Ghedina rides with the new winning driver: Nyman is looked after by Ghedina's service man Leo Mussi and it was probably Mussi who got the two hundredths of a second out of Nyman's skis that ultimately gave him his first victory.

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Val Gardena 2006: A star says goodbye, a new one arrives

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