The men’s giant slalom in Santa Caterina has been postponed to...

        The snow masses thwarted the World Cup circuit this weekend.  The second men's giant slalom planned for Sunday in Santa Caterina in Italy has been postponed to Monday.  The start of the season of the speed competitions for alpine ski women in St. Moritz was canceled entirely.        
         
The giant slalom of the alpine ski men in Santa Caterina is to take place on Monday instead of Sunday.  As the race management announced in the morning, the safety of the athletes could not be guaranteed.  Even in the run-up, there had been concerns about the feasibility of the two races because of the forecast heavy snowfalls in the region.  The first giant slalom on Saturday went nonetheless, the winner was Croatian Filip Zubcic.
             

The races that were canceled in St. Moritz should be made up for, according to the women’s race director Peter Gerdol. In Val d’Isere this is not possible due to the long program, but January offers some opportunities, said Gerdol. Concrete replacement stations would be St. Anton, Crans Montana or Garmisch-Partenkirchen. At least one of the two Super-Gs should be made up for before the World Cup.

In St. Anton (January 9th / 10th) a downhill and a Super-G are currently scheduled. The rejection decision did not come from the FIS, stressed Gerdol in Switzerland. “They made it very clear that they would block the whole mountain. It is not possible to go up there. These things are more important than our races, you have to accept that.”

“The complete cancellation is of course very bitter. St. Moritz is a place where I really enjoy driving,” said Nicole Schmidhofer. “Everyone was so happy that it finally started. We have already seen the giant and slalom riders, it would have been our turn at last,” said the Austrian.

For safety reasons, the majority of the ski ladies did not return home until Sunday morning, despite the early cancellation due to the masses of snow. “It will be a longer journey because it is quite a long way to Styria”, explained Schmidhofer. You hope that at least one of the two canceled Super-Gs will be added. “Both will likely be difficult.”

It is not inconvenient for Schmidhofer that it only starts in Val d’Isere. “It’s going to be almost a Lake Louise week now and we’re going to start with two runs and a Super-G. That’s when things really get down to business,” said the happy 2017 Super-G World Champion, who is in the Canadian ski station last had been extremely successful with three downhill wins. “I hope that we can then ski in France with great weather and slopes.”

Despite her long World Cup time, she has not yet seen a World Cup race being canceled the day before due to the risk of avalanches. “There is always something new.”

                            Those: APA