French skier Allegre upsets favorites in World Cup super-G for 1st career win. Odermatt places 4th

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — French skier Nils Allegre sped to his first career World Cup victory Saturday as two late starters upset the higher-ranked favorites at a tight super-G on the classic Kandahar course.

Wearing bib 18, Allegre beat Guglielmo Bosca by 0.18 seconds after the Italian finished and spent two minutes hoping for what would have been his maiden win.

Allegre and Bosca, both 30-year-old veterans on the Alpine skiing circuit, denied the Swiss team a 1-2 finish. Loic Meillard led season dominator Marco Odermatt by 0.03 after the top-10 ranked super-G racers had completed their runs, but Meillard ultimately trailed Allegre by 0.25 in third.

“It was great, it was just like something go out of me,” Allegre said in tears in a course-side interview when asked about the moment he finished. “I’m 30 years old, it’s my 102nd start today, so... I never stopped believing in me and today everything (went) in the right direction.”

The Frenchman had not finished better than fourth before, most recently last month at a downhill in Val Gardena where we was bumped off the podium when American racer Bryce Bennett took the victory as a late starter.

Parse.ly - related stories

Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami retiring after upcoming Olympic season

 

Skiing standout Marcel Hirscher eyes the Olympic season in return from injury and retirement

 

World Cup skiers promised at least 10% rise in race prize money next season

 

“It’s a good day, I had a perfect feeling on my ski from the top to the bottom, I feel really confident on it, I can push a lot,” Allegre said.

The Frenchman’s near-flawless run extended Bosca’s wait for a first victory. But the Italian runner-up was quick to take the positives after getting onto the podium for the first time.

“In the last races of super-G I was close to the podium, like in Val Gardena and also in Wengen. So, I was confident that I can ski fast. But coming down and seeing the green light was actually amazing,” Bosca said.

The result came just over six years after the Italian broke his left lower leg in a crash at a European Cup race in Austria. He needed several surgeries and two years of recovery before returning to top-level skiing.

“Coming here and scoring a podium makes me satisfied so much, it’s really what I was aiming (for) when I came back after the injury. So, it’s like a fulfillment for me now,” Bosca said.

Overall World Cup leader Odermatt’s fourth position ended his series of 12 straight super-G podiums, a feat previously only achieved by Austrian great Hermann Maier two decades ago. No male skier has ever had a top-three result in 13 consecutive super-Gs.

“A weird race today with small time differences,” Odermatt said. “That’s because it was a very, very easy and a short super-G, a simple course. In these conditions you cannot make the difference anywhere.”

Allegre continued the strong run by the French team, led by Cyprien Sarrazin, in men’s speed events this season.

In his breakthrough speed season, former giant slalom specialist Sarrazin won one downhill in Bormio in December and two in Kitzbuehel last week. In Wengen, he was runner-up twice and won the super-G. On Saturday, he finished 0.64 behind Allegre and outside the top 10.

“We get a good result for everybody in the team. This way we try to continue and push more and more and more,” Allegre said. “We are one team and it really helps us in the good days but in the bad days, too.”

After days of rain and mild temperatures, the course, surrounded by green fields, was weakened and organizers used salt to harden its surface.

Allegre said he benefitted from the conditions with “the salty snow.”

“The first part was not really good, the snow was not really compact on the top,” the Frenchman said. “I said to myself in the finish area before seeing my time that maybe I was not that fast because I didn’t feel really great. But it was the wrong thing.”

The top 13 finished within seven-tenths of a second of Allegre’s winning time and included Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle as the top American finisher in 10th, and Swiss skier Franjo von Allmen, who started 44th and placed ninth as the course held up well.

Another super-G is scheduled for Sunday.

___

More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing