ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
BORMIO
OneTOUGH TEST
DIDIER DEFAGO ACES THE
NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT BORMIO
DOWNHILL FOR THE WIN BY HANK MCKEE
The Stelvio Pass is extreme. It is the highest paved mountain
pass in the eastern Alps and features 48 hairpin turns that have
changed very little since they were first laid out in the 1820s. It’s a
great driving road. Car racing monarch Sterling Moss once crashed
there.
Neighboring Bormio borrowed the name of the pass for its downhill
course. The course does not feature hairpin turns, and it is not a
pleasure to “drive,” as the European ski racers say. It takes a bull of
a man to race the course.
The Stelvio twists down the crest of a ridge. It is bumpy, a condition
made worse this year by low snow levels. Visibility is never good,
and the course unfolds before the racer like a maze, presenting test
after test after test with no pulls off for rest or consideration. It takes
commitment to race the Stelvio — and no small amount of either guts
or total disregard for self-preservation. Many World Cup racers con-
sider it the toughest downhill on a circuit whose soul is built around
tough downhills.
With little snow and gray skies on Dec. 29, the annual running of the
bulls was as brutal a test as ever. The best-conditioned athletes on
tour said their legs were burning after training runs. No one was will-
ing to risk much before race day and even then, there was the matter
of staying on course. Plus, by World Cup standards, the course was
considered soft, throwing another difficulty at skiers conditioned for
harder surfaces.
