The Kitzbüheler Streif on skis is a risk, unless you are a spectator and concentrate on skiing down the so-called Parallelstreif outside the safety fences. Towards the end of this descent, the amateur skiers turn a curve and end up at a second starting point. It is somewhat hidden on the edge of the forest on the Ganslernhang, or as the ski racer Linus Straßer once called it: the “Schweinsberg”.
It was almost exactly three years ago when Straßer carried out his personal rebaptism, and many people were surprised by it. Shouldn’t this slope be his local mountain, since he lives with his family in Kirchberg, seven kilometers away?
In fact, the story took a turn when Linus Straßer won the Kitzbühel slalom a year ago. The Schweinsberg was history. Straßer won the trophy, which the people of Kitzbühel presented in the form of a chamois, and so the whole season turned out well for Straßer. Three days later he also won the night slalom in Schladming – and almost the overall ranking.
German ski fans, who have not been spoiled for success recently, are likely to be concerned this World Cup winter with the question of whether history is now repeating itself.
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Similar to last season, things are not going well for the man from TSV 1860 Munich. After several failures before Christmas, Straßer recently stabilized: fourth in Adelboden, sixth in Madonna, those were his two best results, but 13th place in the overall Slalom World Cup is hardly his goal after second place last winter. The annual double whammy of Kitzbühel and Schladming could once again become a turning point, depending on how well Strasser and the Ganslern harmonize this time.
Three days before the slalom race, the 32-year-old is sitting at home in Kirchberg, not in the living room, but in the hotel where the few remaining drivers from the German Ski Association are staying. Despite everything, Straßer seems noticeably happy, as if the home advantage had replaced the worries of the past few months with positive thoughts. He could have gotten worse, for example through an injury. “I’m glad I’m not a downhill skier, because I would always be sick before Bormio,” explains Straßer. Then he devotes himself to the Ganslernhang.
What follows is almost like an excursion into the animal kingdom, but this time Straßer approaches it via the fawn trophy from the previous year. “The chamois is a pack animal, I still have room for more,” said Straßer and soon proved to be just as metaphorically variable as when carving on the slopes. Skiing is like a puzzle, says Straßer. “It’s often just small things that are still missing.” What stood out for him last winter, perhaps in his best phase of his career, “was the middle position above the skis”. At the moment he is “more often getting into the phase where I lose her”.
Recently he has fallen into involuntary reserve less frequently
By this, Straßer means the rider’s position over the ski as he curves around the slalom poles. Ideally, the runner moves in a high-low movement that occurs through the knee joints. The posture of the upper body should remain as calm and in a light position as possible – despite all the blows and ice furrows. However, there are plenty of reasons to involuntarily fall behind, such as when an invisible chunk of ice disrupts your skiing line, or when deep holes in the track cause the tips of your skis to rise. Before the turn of the year, this happened to Straßer more often, but recently it has happened less frequently. He feels that “things are getting better step by step, that I can get a better handle on it.”
The Streifabfahrt on Saturday (11.30 a.m.) is traditionally considered the highlight of the Kitzbühel weekend. However, anyone who saw the many falls during the Super-G on Friday might be left wondering. There are likely to be significantly fewer helicopter flights at the slalom on Sunday (10:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.). That doesn’t mean that slalom races are harmless, on the contrary, Linus Straßer knows that, he too has intervened and dropped out more than once, that’s the evil of this discipline. With the small positive side effect that a cruciate ligament rarely tears. The narrow spaces between the goalposts act like a speed limit.
From a German perspective, slalom is actually increasingly developing into the more than secret Alpine supreme discipline, starting with the era of slalom artist Felix Neureuther, who continues to shine beyond skiing even after his career ended – or even casts a shadow on all those who came after him . “My childhood was more influenced by downhill skiers,” says Straßer. In his first memories he “didn’t even know there was a slalom”. The German slalom riders Fritz Dopfer and Neureuther were his companions and companions for a long time, but “no one really influenced me.”
Skiers are still sliding and turning past the Ganslern slope without paying much attention to it. This piste, which has always been a special place for Straßer. Here he learned to ski. Straßer is not only a Munich ski lion, but also a member of the Kitzbühel Ski Club. And he doesn’t just live here, he also lives here with his daughter and his wife, with whom he was having lunch in Kitzbühel one day after last winter, as he often did, before they both strolled to the so-called Legend Park. “There is a big board with the winners, I was already registered with the Germans,” said Straßer. At that moment he looked up at the Ganslernhang. “It was difficult before,” says Straßer. “Now it was a very peaceful feeling, I have made peace.”
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