Kitzbühel (Austria) (AFP)

Major exploits on the Streif.

The Swiss Beat Feuz has registered his name for the second time in three days on the prestigious list of the Kitzbühel downhill (Austria), where the Frenchman Johan Clarey (2nd) became the first quadra on a World Cup podium.

In this race, which was postponed by one day due to the weather, Feuz beat Clarey by 17/100 and the Austrian Matthias Mayer by 38/100.

The bells of the Gothic Church of Kitzbühel ring even in the arrival area, where the absence of the public due to the health crisis makes them audible.

"It may be the Devil or it may be the Lord but you're gotta have to serve somebody", Bob Dylan sings into the PA.

The Devil is this indomitable track, the most famous and the most dangerous in the world, between its overhanging, its impossible turns and its jumps that sent the Swiss Urs Kryenbühl to the hospital on Friday.

The Lord is the Swiss Beat Feuz.

The best descender of recent years (triple holder of the globe of the specialty) with a massive physique and unique plump on the circuit, once again dominated a track which took time to offer itself to him (four second places before this year) .

Like Friday, he "cut" like no one else the bottom of the course and his last traps to keep one breath ahead of Johan Clarey who, like him and some of the first bibs, was able to benefit from a ray of sun piercing the Tyrolean clouds, a boost of fate.

Monstrous on the first two thirds of the course, impregnable on the simpler parts of "gliding", the French veteran saw his lead gradually nibbled by the Swiss, and nodded in disappointment as Feuz passed the line.

- 3rd consecutive podium for Mayer -

Clarey's first World Cup victory is not yet for this time, he who signs his 8th podium, the 3rd in Kitzbühel (3rd in the downhill in 2017, 2nd in the super-G in 2019).

But the Frenchman will be able to console himself by becoming the first skier to climb on a podium of the world circuit at more than 40 years old, which he celebrated on January 8, a priori an age where one takes care of his old bones rather than them. swing at over 140 km / h on a twisted ice with boards at the foot.

And this, while he had fallen heavily in training Thursday upon landing the last jump.

Behind him Matthias Mayer got his third consecutive podium in Kitzbühel after his victory in 2020 and his second place on Friday.

Matthieu Bailet achieved a new top-10 (9th) after his 7th place on Friday.

Nils Allègre is 19th, Maxence Muzaton 21st, Nicolas Raffort 25th and Brice Roger 27th.

The Swiss Marco Odermatt (10th) achieved his first top-10 in his downhill career and is 251 points closer to the leader of General Alexis Pinturault, who joins the speed specialists for the super-G on Monday.

© 2021 AFP