Val Gardena: Franz pushes Svindal off the throne – Innerhofer convinced

So far, Max Franz has achieved two second places in the downhill and a third place in the Super-G in the World Cup. A victory? None. See you Saturday. Starting the race with starting number 26, he was only 0,23 seconds behind the leader Svindal in front of the Ciaslat meadows, who had made a major mistake during his journey there. Franz took advantage of the Norwegian's only mistake, was ahead by 35 hundredths of a second and ultimately saved 0,04 seconds of his lead at the finish. The first Austrian downhill victory in Val Gardena since 2008 (won by Michael Walchhofer) was therefore perfect.

"I still can not believe it. “That’s fantastic,” said Franz, who was already running fast during training in Val Gardena, and was still struggling for words in the ORF interview a few minutes after the race. Svindal, on the other hand, was disappointed. “There would have been more. But if you make a mistake like the one on the Ciaslat meadows, then you shouldn't be surprised if you don't win. Congratulations to Franz,” said the Norwegian, self-critically and at the same time as a fair loser. The American Steven Nyman came in third.

Innerhofer with the best result in Val Gardena In recent years, Christof Innerhofer was usually happy if he was able to score any World Cup points in the Val Gardena downhill. A 22nd place from 2010 was his best result to date on the Saslong – until Saturday. The Gaiser lost over a second at the beginning, but made up seven tenths on the Ciaslat meadows and was ranked 13th. A small birthday present for Innerhofer, who turned 32 on Saturday.

For Peter Fill and Dominik Paris, however, the Val Gardena descent went completely wrong. The Castelrotto native ended up in 22nd place and achieved his worst downhill result since the failure in Santa Caterina a year ago. The Ultner couldn't be satisfied with 25th place either.

Werner Heel, who has worked his way up to position 58 with starting number 32, only narrowly missed the points. He was 30 seconds short of 0,15th place.

FIS World Cup, men's downhill in Val Gardena: 1. Max Franz (AUT) 1.56,60 2. Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR) +0,04 3. Steven Nyman (USA) +0,41 4. Adrien Theaux (FRA) +0,44 5. Erik Guay (CAN) +0,56 6. Aleksander Kilde (NOR) +0,61 7. Travis Ganong (CAN) +0,62 8. Bryce Bennett (USA) +0,63 9. Nils Mani (SUI) +0,65 10. Guillermo Fayed (FRA) +0,73

13. Christof Innerhofer (ITA/Gais) +0,77 22. Peter Fill (ITA/Castelrotto) +1,23 25. Dominik Paris (ITA/Ulten) +1,31 30. Mattia Casse (ITA) +1,57 32. Werner Heel (ITA/Walten) +1,72 37. Emanuele Buzzi (ITA) +1,84 50. Henri Battilani (ITA) +2,66 55. Paolo Pangrazzi (ITA) +3,75

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Val Gardena: Franz pushes Svindal off the throne – Innerhofer convinced

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