Dec. 3, 2001 – Big suspense for the first World Cup Downhill race

Today the two days’ training runs for the Italian team have been concluded on the Saslong course in Val Gardena/Gröden. Right afterwards, the complete team left for Val d’Isère where the Super-G is scheduled for Friday and the Downhill for Saturday. Three training runs have been run on the Saslong on the second day on the shortened course and top speeds of 124 km/h were obtained. Also at these training runs the Camel Humps were jumped by all participants.

Some additional preparation is done on the course’s upper part in order to have it ready for the two downhill runs on Dec. 14 and 15, 2001.

There is a lot of curiosity in the Italian team with regard to the season’s first downhill. “It is since October 18 that we haven’t been able to train on a real downhill course�, says coach Alberto Ghidoni, “so this will be an important chance to position ourselves.�