Italy's Marsaglia Claims First World Cup Win in Beaver Creek With Audi Birss of Prey Super-G Victory
BEAVER CREEK, Colorado—There will only be one “first time” and for Italian Matteo Marsaglia, that time will forever be associated with Beaver Creek as the 27-year-old from just outside of Rome notched his first World Cup victory with a win Saturday in the Audi FIS Birds of Prey Super-G.
Marsaglia, whose previous best result was a fourth place showing in Super Combined at last winter’s Olympic test event in Sochi, blasted down a treacherous and icy course, that claimed 16 skiers on the day, to record the win in a time of 1:14.68.
“We are getting good pasta here in Beaver Creek,” joked Marsaglia, referring to the fact that teammate Christof Innerhofer captured Friday’s Birds of Prey Downhill. “I have been skiing well and I knew I could do well on this hill…maybe not this good. I took a lot of risks today on the top and the bottom steeps and hung on in the middle.”
Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal once again claimed the runner-up spot, 27-hundredths of a second off the Italian’s pace, while Austria’s Hannes Reichelt place third, 7-tenths of a second out.
“I have to guess that this was an exciting race to watch on television,” offered Svindal. I thought the course was really tough, but I had fun skiing it. When I saw that Matteo was in the lead by 7 tenths, I said that’s going to be very hard to beat.”
Just off the podium in fourth position was American Ted Ligety, 74-hundredths off the Italian’s pace. Other American finishes on the day included Tommy Biesemeyer tied for 18th, Brennan Rubie in 27th and Jaren Goldberg in the 30th spot. U.S. Ski Team hopeful Andrew Weibrecht was one of the victims of the course.
Marsaglia’s wins marks only the fourth Italian victory at the Audi FIS Birds of Prey World Cup Race Week since the event’s inception in 1997. That first year, Kristian Ghedina captured the inaugural Downhill competition.
The 2012 Audi FIS Birds of Prey World Cup Race Week concludes Sunday with Giant Slalom, with the first run scheduled for 9:45 a.m.
The 2012 Audi FIS Birds of Prey is a project of the Vail Valley Foundation. For additional information on Birds of Prey, visit www.bcworldcup.com.
--30—
About Vail Resorts
Marsaglia, whose previous best result was a fourth place showing in Super Combined at last winter’s Olympic test event in Sochi, blasted down a treacherous and icy course, that claimed 16 skiers on the day, to record the win in a time of 1:14.68.
“We are getting good pasta here in Beaver Creek,” joked Marsaglia, referring to the fact that teammate Christof Innerhofer captured Friday’s Birds of Prey Downhill. “I have been skiing well and I knew I could do well on this hill…maybe not this good. I took a lot of risks today on the top and the bottom steeps and hung on in the middle.”
Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal once again claimed the runner-up spot, 27-hundredths of a second off the Italian’s pace, while Austria’s Hannes Reichelt place third, 7-tenths of a second out.
“I have to guess that this was an exciting race to watch on television,” offered Svindal. I thought the course was really tough, but I had fun skiing it. When I saw that Matteo was in the lead by 7 tenths, I said that’s going to be very hard to beat.”
Just off the podium in fourth position was American Ted Ligety, 74-hundredths off the Italian’s pace. Other American finishes on the day included Tommy Biesemeyer tied for 18th, Brennan Rubie in 27th and Jaren Goldberg in the 30th spot. U.S. Ski Team hopeful Andrew Weibrecht was one of the victims of the course.
Marsaglia’s wins marks only the fourth Italian victory at the Audi FIS Birds of Prey World Cup Race Week since the event’s inception in 1997. That first year, Kristian Ghedina captured the inaugural Downhill competition.
The 2012 Audi FIS Birds of Prey World Cup Race Week concludes Sunday with Giant Slalom, with the first run scheduled for 9:45 a.m.
The 2012 Audi FIS Birds of Prey is a project of the Vail Valley Foundation. For additional information on Birds of Prey, visit www.bcworldcup.com.
--30—
About Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado, and Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company's subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com