ASPEN — Italian Peter Fill said Tuesday that he would need “a little bit of luck” to eke past Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud and clinch the overall World Cup downhill title.
Fill’s third-starting position on a course that softened with each passing minute Wednesday morning on Aspen Mountain was fortuitous but the 34-year-old veteran’s aggressive charge down America’s Downhill on Wednesday at Aspen’s World Cup Finals was more than enough to make up a 33-point deficit and claim the crystal globe. Fill’s second-place finish Wednesday earned him 80 World Cup points, delivering his second consecutive downhill overall title by a slim 23 points.
The first skier down the course, Italy’s Paris Dominik claimed the win on the season-ending race in 1 minute, 33.07 seconds. Fill finished 0.08 back, followed by Switzerland’s Carlo Janka at 1:33.25. Jansrud finished 11th.
Jansrud, 31, was the only man to win two World Cup downhill contests this season; Fill, who had the fastest training time Tuesday, didn’t win any of the season’s downhill races but found the podium five times. On Wednesday, he was the oldest competitor to race down the plunging course. That experience paid off, with a strong performance on the lower, more technical half of the grippy course.“No victory this year in downhill then I pick up the thing that counts and thatap the nicest thing,” Fill said. “Today was a special day for Italians. I think we have the best team.”
The Ides of March brought warm temperatures that baked Aspen’s water-hardened course, creating a granular surface much different than the icy courses of Europe. That buttery feel challenged both racers and their ski techs, who tweaked and adjusted tunes and waxes to adapt to the sticky snow.
“I was pushing really hard at the start. The low part was really technical. I tried to put some GS turns out and it worked out really well,” Fill said. “You have to be a complete skier to win at Aspen.”
American Travis Ganong sliced within centimeters of the course’s gates in an effort to overcome the soft snow with aggressive lines, but his 15th starting position late in the morning made the challenge almost impossible. Ganong, who struggled in training on Monday and Tuesday, finished 17th. Few racers improved over previous racers and those who did, like 16th position Janka and 20th position Canadian Manuel Osbourne-Paradis, who finished fourth, found success on the lower half of the course with patient turns that avoided heavily-weighted skis that bogged in the softening snow.
Maine’s Sam Morse, whose gold medal last week in the junior world ski championships in Sweden earned him his first-ever World Cup start, went last in the 23-man field and struggled through the softening flats atop the course. Morse was the most familiar with the Aspen course, having raced it twice last year, including the 2016 Nor-Am Cup.
“I thought I skied the flats better. The snow was a bit softer today and I needed it harder to pull it off,” said the 20-year-old, who finished 21st after his first-but-not-last World Cup race. “This is unbelievable. No better way to make your World Cup debut than on home soil.”
Morse leaves Aspen on Thursday for Canada’s Nor-Am Finals, hoping his first appearance on skiing’s grandest stage would fuel a win.
“I definitely have the momentum, but I’ll be pretty fatigued,” Morse said.
