Like the Italian girls yesterday, today´s men´s event ended with a clean sweep for the Italian team. The winner was once again Anton Blasbichler, who, with this second win in the second race, seems to start the season with exactly the same winning streak like last year when he won the first four races. “No, I really do not concentrate on a streak. I bet as soon as I did that, I would fail just in the next race. I go from race to race and just try to give my best,” he says. He believes that the secret of the Italian superiority lies in the diversity within a team. “We are a good and well balanced mixture of young and old, we get along well with each other and motivate each other.” He also found praising words for the organizers:” With weather conditions like that, it was really a tough race. Sure, there were some holes in the track at the end of the race, but the track workers made a good job and there were fair conditions for everybody.”
A strong life sign was seen from Florian Breiterberger, who has had troubles to keep up to the expectations that had been put in him during the past two seasons. Today he was runner up after Blasbichler. “I have been working hard these past two years and I never had any doubts that one day I would end up on the podium again.” It amazingly happened on a day when the odds were against him: “I have never been any good on smooth tracks like it was today. But maybe it was a bit of an advantage that I have been racing here four years ago already when the conditions were exactly like today.”
Third became Martin Psenner, who took full risk and managed to improve his ranking from 4th to 3rd after the second run. “I had two really bad flaws in my run and I knew that my only chance would be to take the final curve at maximum speed. I am more than happy that this really worked out well.”
Marcus Grausam, Germany´s top athlete, was quite satisfied with his race. Ranked 10th after the first run, he managed to win two places in the second run and finished 8th. “I am satisfied with my result, a top-ten result was my goal, I had a good second run. I like a soft track, so I felt quite comfortable here.” When seeking an explanation for Italiy´s superiority, he finds the answer in the material: “For the time being there is nobody who can compete with the Italians. Not even the Austrians. We are working hard with our material and will try to close the gap.” The results of theses efforts will be seen next week already. The RED BULL World Cup will be continued in Oberperfuss (AUT) with a double World Cup, starting on Thursday, January 13th.

Photo by: Bernhard Kogler