by h.harb » Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:28 pm
It's clear that the field is catching up to Ligety, no one had a clean run, Hirscher had a huge mistake, almost went down, Ligety made two smaller ones. Ted is leaning into the inside ski too soon in the arcs, like he does in slalom. Hirscher is more over the outside ski with this counter balance, before the falline. Training, and running Downhill and Super G, as I said earlier in the season, will not help Ted get results in the technical events.
Other observations, Hirscher's arcs were much tighter around the gates and he brought energy with the arcs for the release. Others were slipping and losing the outside ski. Also, many were separating their feet too far vertically , the inside foot too far away from the outside foot. You can do that if you have grip and can hold, if you can build more pressure at the end to tighten the radius. In this case, the outside legs was getting really long and the ski was not coming back in the bottom of the arc to tighten the radius. Lots of guys were losing the bottom of the turn due to this, TEd was one of them. Hirscher kept his inside tipping foot closer and stayed on the outside ski until it bend back. It looks like Atomic has finally brought him a ski that holds and is soft enough to bend into an arc.
I watched it once so far, but with more review new things will appear. Another observation, however, if you go back and review the footage, you will see that many are losing CA and CB as the turn gets across the falline, Hirscher increased both on his turns. Pinterault also did well with his aspect of technique or holding good technique. Pinterault had the least errors, most consistent run, but slightly slower. Right now Hirscher brings the most speed and most consistency, could win his 3rd overall World Cup in a row, not too many skiers have done that, while setting records for number of podium visits. He's the only skier who has a chance to even come close to Stenmark, if he stays healthy. Final thought, notice Benni is getting better in GS, 7th place. He's the only other Atomic guy, so Atomic has figured something out for their GS and slalom skis this year. Even with a 15% improvement in the ski's performance over last year is a hug improvement in results for Hirscher and Raich.