The team is lead by speed coach Gianluca Rulfi and includes Werner Heel, Christof Innerhofer, Peter Fill, Dominik Paris, Sigmar Klotz and Stefan Thanei who are planning to complete four runs on the Saslong tomorrow. “These will be real speed events and we’ll be timing them to reach the maximum benefit from the training sessions” says Gianluca Rulfi. The Gardena-Gröden OC have gone to great lengths to ensure that the team is finding the Saslong in appropriate racing condition. “We are thrilled to host the Italian National Ski Team here in Gardena-Gröden and hope that one or the other will be able to land on the podium next week” states General Manager Stefania Demetz, continuing: “furthermore, we are thankful to the lift company Saslong and Dantercepies for providing access to the courses”. The Super-G training will start on Thursday at 8:00 am and finish at 10:00 am. On Friday, the racing athletes will be training the giant slalom and slalom on the Cir course in Selva-Wolkenstein as FIS rules forbid athletes from training on the actual racing course. Mr. Rulfi also explained that Heel, Thanei and Klotz will train the giant slalom while Paris, Fill and Innerhofer will focus on the slalom to prepare for the combination races. Patrick Staudacher and Hagen Patscheider have left for Austria today to take part at the Europa Cup race in Reiteralm this Friday. The World Cup races are scheduled for Friday and Saturday of next week with training runs on Wednesday and Thursday.