Mayer's side-swipe: “More races in front of TV than I drove myself”

“It has been extreme over the last ten years, but this year it has been taken to the extreme,” noted Matthias Mayer during the World Cup races in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. In numbers, this means that of the 29 World Cup races so far this winter, nine have been slaloms, eight giant slaloms and one a parallel competition, compared to five super-Gs and six downhills. So it's 18:11. There are still two giant slaloms and two slaloms left, as well as three downhill runs and two super-Gs. In the end the score is 22:16, so all the races still planned can take place.

So when Mayer says, “I sat in front of the TV at more races this winter than I drove myself,” then that can be understood as a small dig. “We had three speed races in the World Cup in January and two in February. That’s extreme considering we train all year round and then have a minimalist number of races in the main months.”

Kitzbühel in January and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February took place. The Lauberhorn races in Wengen were canceled due to Corona, but replacement locations were found for the two downhill runs and the slalom. The slalom went to Flachau, one downhill each to Kitzbühel and Saalbach-Hinterglemm, which also took over the Kvitfjell double of downhill and super-G.

“The races should be divided fairly.” Matthias Mayer The low number of speed races is not due to cancellations due to the weather or the corona pandemic, because not a single race has actually been lost so far. The reason lies rather in the original planning. And this has been criticized by the Speed group for years because it always favors the technicians.

“The races should be divided fairly. Otherwise you have to think about whether you should call it the overall World Cup or simply the Technical World Cup and the Speed World Cup. It is impossible for speed riders to compete in an overall World Cup,” says Mayer. He is fifth in the overall World Cup with 604 points as the best speed driver. Alexis Pinturault (FRA/1.034) leads ahead of Marco Odermatt (SUI/824), Marco Schwarz (AUT/718) and Loic Meillard (SUI/630). No chance as a real speed driver Like Pinturault, Odermatt also has good speed skills, but both of them get by far the most points in all their disciplines in giant slalom. “As a pure speed rider, you don’t make any meters in the overall World Cup,” says Mayer, whose RTL score is modest at six points. In order to seriously compete for the big ball, the Carinthian would need a strong third discipline given the current race division.

In the previous season, after eight triumphs in a row for Marcel Hirscher, the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde won the overall World Cup. And therefore a real all-rounder who scored good points in downhill, super-G, giant slalom, combination and the parallel competition. Because of the early end to the season, their pursuers Pinturault and Henrik Kristoffersen missed the technical races in Kranjska Gora to make up ground. The finale would probably have resulted in a three-way battle for the big ball.

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Mayer's side-swipe: “More races in front of TV than I drove myself”

Even in the 2020/21 season, no real speed rider will win the overall Alpine ski men's World Cup. This is primarily not due to the actors, but rather to the calendar and the unbalanced number of speed and technical races. That causes trouble.

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