Women´s and Men´s World Cup in Soelden 2007

Ski2b 27.07.2007 14:23 Uhr

The alpine skiing World Cup traditionally gets underway on the Rettenbachferner in Soelden. For the tenth time already Soelden in Tyrol, Austria, plays host to the FIS Ski World Cup on October 27rd and 28th.

First Race 2005 with Slovenian Winner
Last year, rain and warm temperatures in October made the race impossible. The Opener therefore had to be cancelled.
In 2005 28.000 spectators flocked to the glacier to cheer their heroes on during the weekend.
On Saturday, the 22th October, the women opened the World Cup Season 2004/2005. After the first heat Tanja Poutiainen from Finland looked like the winner, but a real kinky second heat made last year´s World Cup winner of giant slalom drop back. So Tina Maze could celebrate her fifth World Cup victory. The fifth best time of the second heat was enough to advance as far as the first position.

'Herminator' Hermann Maier won for the third time
A very exciting race was battled out by the men. This time Hermann Maier beat past year´s champion Bode Miller. In the second heat US-Boy Miller was already one second in front of Maier but in the last sector he gambled his margin away and became second. Austria´s Maier couldn´t believe his luck and celebrated his victory more euphoricly than ever.

Soelden - The town
Soelden is the compact energy of winter, a World Cup location and one of the most well known ski and snowboard centres in Europe, all in one. There are 33 lifts serving 140 kilometres of slopes on the Gaislachkogl, the Giggijoch and the Oetztaler glaciers. The town lies at an altitude of 1,377 metres, (4,200 feet), and has an absolute snow guarantee, due to the height and the Rettenbach glacier. Soelden is on top of that a meeting point for the international snowboarding scene and offers a legendary aprés-ski.

The Race
The unique thing about the World Cup start in Soelden is that the men and women both compete in World Cup races at the same venue. Even the starting and the finishing lines are the same, only the course layouts are different. On the World Cup slope, on the Rettenbachferner, all sorts of technical refinements are built in, so top class ski-racing can be observed. The 10,000 to 15,000 spectators that are expected will have a good view of the whole course from the finishing area. The course is extremely steep with an average gradient of 35.6 %.

The race data
Start, men: 3,048 m
Start, women: 3,048 m
Slope length: 1,140 m
Height difference: 368 m
Average gradient: 35.6 %
Steepest gradient: 61 %
Smallest gradient: 17 %
Finish: 2,680 m

Programme for Soelden:
Saturday, October 27th:
Giant slalom, women

Sunday, October 28th:
Giant slalom, men
Ski2b.com will of course offer a live-ticker service on both days. On Saturday and on Sunday we will be present from 9.15h until the end of the event.

Contact
SC Sölden
c/o: Ötztaler Gletscherbahnen
Wohlfahrt 400
6450 Sölden
AUT

Phone : +43 (5254) 508
Fax : +43 (5254) 50 81 20
Email :
Website : www.soelden.com