After a 16 years break, this weekend the men’s World Cup circuit will make a comeback in Saalbach, Austria with a downhill and super-G race scheduled for the weekend. On Thursday and Friday, two downhill training runs took place on a course none of the currently active skiers had the opportunity to race on as the last men’s World Cup downhill took place here in 1994.

In training, Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud and Austrian Franz Max were the ones to beat on the challenging Schneekristall course as they managed to put down the fastest lines and not lose speed on the many tricky parts of the course.

The main characteristics of this hill are certainly the multiple jumps and abundance of interesting terrain, but also a very special surprise set up by Audi on the final jump. In the last weeks, an Audi has been built into the jump last jump so athletes take off on what from the top seems like a regular downhill jump only to fly over the car and land some 60 meters lower, close to the finish line. If the new ‘obstacle’ on the course might have intimidated some athletes and thrilled others, one in particular proved fearless. After testing the jump in the first training run and feeling confortable on it, French Adrien Theaux showed some cool freestyle skills on the second training as he pulled a spread eagle over the jump leaving the crowd delighted. It might not be a move he will be willing to pull on race day but it certainly made for a great introduction to the weekend.

Stay tuned, Saturday’s race starts at 11.30 CET!