(Garmisch-Partenkirchen) French skier Nils Allègre claimed his first career World Cup victory on Saturday, as two late starters surprised the top-ranked favorites in a tight super-G on the classic Kandahar course .
Wearing bib 18, Allègre beat Guglielmo Bosca by 0.18 seconds after the Italian finished and spent two minutes hoping for what would have been his first victory.
Allègre and Bosca, both 30-year-old veterans, deprived the Swiss of a double.
Loïc Meillard was ahead of season leader Marco Odermatt by 0.03 after the two members of the top 10 of super-G finished, but Meillard was ultimately 0.25 seconds slower than Allègre.
” I am 30 years old. It was my 102e departure today, said Allègre, in tears. I never stopped believing in myself and today everything went in the right direction. »
Bosca was positive following his first podium.
“In the last super-G races, I was close to the podium, like in Val Gardena and Wengen,” he said. I was confident that I could ski fast. »
A little over six years ago, the Italian broke his left leg during a fall in the European Cup in Austria.
It took several operations and two years of convalescence before returning to high-level skiing.
Odermatt’s fourth place, the overall World Cup leader, ended his streak of 12 consecutive super-G podiums, a feat previously achieved only by Austrian great Hermann Maier twenty years ago.
All skiers of the top 13 finished at most seven tenths of a second behind Allègre’s time.
Canadians Jeffrey Read, Cameron Alexander, James Crawford, Riley Seger, Brodie Seger and Kyle Alexander finished 20e23e25e27e28e and 40erespectively.
Another super-G is planned for Sunday.