Vatra Dornei (ck) - It needed skills and also a little bit of luck to succeed in the difficult race after warm weather and rain had made the track soft and bumpy. However, at the end the winners were well experienced athletes. The doubles’ race was started as early as 8.30am and with another win, their 29th career win, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) secured their sixth overall world cup win. “Today it was important to slide with a lot of feeling, it was almost being an artist finding the way between bumps”, said Florian Clara. “We knew what the weather was like, it was the same for everybody and nobody’s fault. We knew from the training run that our package of equipment and skills worked well and in the race today we could tell early on that it was a good run.” Even after six overall world cup wins, Florian Clara is still fully motivated: “I still have fun racing, there is always a new challenge and we will start our preparations as always in summer. If we stay healthy we will be back next year.” In the internal Russian duel Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov were the luckier ones. They repeated their good training performance and finished second in the race as well as the overall ranking, 40 points ahead of fellow Russians Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev. More than just a third place celebrated the brothers Christian and Andreas Schopf (AUT). They see their third place as a real milestone for the future. “We always have been struggling with soft track conditions, so yesterday after the training run we really started from scratch and work from noon until after midnight. We changed the sled and used completely different runners. We had nothing to lose and used the new equipment for the race without any training. It felt comfortable right from the beginning and now we have something to build on for next year.” „I could get used to this”, laughed Evelin Lanthaler (ITA), who claimed the top spot on the podium for the second consecutive time now. “And I have been so nervous today, I think more than ever before. Not because of the possible win, but because the second place in the overall world cup.” She claimed both and serial winner Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) had to settle for the second place. She was cool about it: “The soft conditions are always a bit difficult for me, but I have won the overall world cup and I am satisfied”, said Lavrentjeva, who has won the overall ranking for the 11th time now. If the fact that her winning streak was broken just before she won her 50th world cup race is motivation enough for her to continue her career is to be seen. She has been talking about retirement for several years now, decision pending. “I hope she will be around next year”, said Evelin Lanthaler. “I am looking forward to compete against her, now that I have closed the gap between us.” Third finished Greta Pinggera (ITA), who by now has established herself in the group of possible winners of next year. „A lot of feeling for a smooth line around all the bumps“, described Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) which brought him his fourth career win, the second in this season. “It was a very difficult race, very different, but interesting”, said Kammerlander, who finished five out of six season races on the podium. In the overall world cup he ranks only 45 points behind Patrick Pigneter (ITA), who has won the overall trophy nine times now. He knows what his qualities are: “I am the most consistent athlete, no matter what the conditions are, I can adjust.” However, today’s season finale he entered carefully, even though he was leading with a 40 points advantage: “Under normal and predictable conditions this is no problem, but here you can lose everything in every curve.” His second place in the race was easily enough to secure the ninth overall win. Florian Breitenberger (ITA) finished third. He had a very clear goal: “I wanted to defend my fifth place in the overall world cup and now it actually became the fourth place. That I also finished on the podium is just amazing.” The secret behind his good performance in this season: “I somehow have found the necessary relaxed attitude. This is partly because I know I have excellent equipment and it also helps when you start well into a season. Also, I have less respect for some tracks, I do not hesitate to go full risk.” If he will be back next winter depends on his employer: this is Florian Breitenberger himself with his own one man painting company. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the team event will be held. The start time has been changed to 8.30am. Final Result GRM World Cup Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:21,16 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:22,78 3. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:22,92 4. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 1:23,28 5. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:23,51 6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:24,17 Final Result GRM World Cup Women: 1. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:17,82 2. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:17,95 3. Greta PINGGERA (ITA), 1:18,04 4. Maria AUER (AUT), 1:19,57 5.Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:19,60 6. Carmen PLANÖTSCHER (ITA), 1:20,26 7. Theresa MAURER (GER), 1:20,52 8. Svetlana ZARAVINA (RUS), 1:20,55 Final Result GRM World Cup Men: 1.Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:16,60 2. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:16,77 3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:16,85 4. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:16,96 5. Stanislav KOVSHIK (RUS), 1:18,15 6. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:18,34 7. Aleksandr EGOROV (RUS), 1:18,55 8. Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:18,76 Final GRM World Cup Overall Ranking Doubles (6/6): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 570 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 465 3. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 425 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 400 5. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT) 323 6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 251 7. M. Emin DELLALBASI/M. Sait OZCAN (TUR) 219 8. Bogdan MOROSAN/Gabriel CANDREA (ROU) 189 Final GRM World Cup Overall Ranking Women (6/6): 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 525 2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 439 3. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 405 4. Liudmila AKSENENKO (RUS) 302 5. Carmen PLANÖTSCHER (ITA) 298 6. Greta PINGGERA (ITA) 284 7. Christina GÖTSCHL (AUT) 254 8. Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO) 216 Final GRM World Cup Overall Ranking Men (6/6): 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 545 2. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 500 3. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 424 4. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 270 5. Stanislav KOVSHIK (RUS) 253 6. Aleksandr EGOROV (RUS) 241 7. Alex GRUBER (ITA) 234 8. Juri TALIKH (RUS) 229 Results Nation’s Cup: Women: 1.Sara BACHMANN (ITA), 2. Michelle DIEPOLD (AUT), 3.Daria MALEEVA (RUS) Men: 1. Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 2. Thomas UNTERHOLZNER (ITA), 3. Armin FOLIE (ITA) Doubles: 1. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT), 2. Pavel SILIN/Iwan RODIN (RUS), 3. Stanislav KOVSHIK/Ilya TARASOV (RUS)