The double for the Swedish racer Eirik Hystad Solberg, who repeated his triumph from yesterday and secured victory in the second Giant Slalom competition of this European Cup in Soldeu in the Grandvalira ski area. Solberg posted a time of 2:31.02, in a frenetic race where he made a mistake on the second run, but nevertheless, still came away with the victory, finishing only one hundredth of a second ahead of the second placed skier, French racer Alban Lezi Cannaferina. Third place on the podium, +0.27 behind, was taken by Mattias Roenngren, who came second yesterday. Regarding the participation of the racers from the Andorran Ski Federation (FAE), Bartumeu Gabriel finished in the TOP 30, specifically in 28th place, and in doing so accumulates his first points in the European Cup, while Àlvar Calvo wasn’t able to finish the first run. With these three points, Gabriel is ranked 68th in the discipline standings, led by Mattias Roenngren. The Catalan racer Aleix Aubert, who finished 10th yesterday, didn’t make it past the first run, with his team-mate Albert Ortega suffering the same fate.

After having stepped down from the top of the podium, Solberg was very pleased: “it has been great to come away from here with the two victories. The course is extremely technical and the conditions are demanding and tough, so that makes winning here even more incredible.” For his part, the Andorran racer, Bartumeu Gabriel, who didn’t hide his satisfaction from having achieved his best result in the European Cup, declared that he felt much more comfortable today than yesterday, and stressed that the course layout was “brutal”. In this regard, he applauded the work that had been done in preparing the Avet course.

When it comes to the results achieved by the local athlete, the CEO of the Andorran Ski Federation (FAE) Carles Visa acknowledged that, although “we are aware that we are still a little way away from achieving big results in the Giant Slalom, we have the feeling that we are edging closer and closer to the points zone.” In terms of the organisation of the event, Visa emphasised the experience that the entire team has, and acknowledged that “everything has been very easy and this is proof that the organising committee and the volunteers have done a very good job”.

Highly-rated organisation

The Chief Executive Officer of the Organising Committee, David Hidalgo highlighted the fact that “the FIS and the teams have congratulated us and their feedback is the most important thing for us. We are now starting to get used to the fact that we are on the calendar every year, but this really is extraordinary. If you had said this to us a few years ago, we would have thought it was impossible, but here we are now.”  Also in the same spirit, the Sporting Director, Santi López, reinforced this point, affirming that the team is very well-established, and that they have been able to deliver a world-class event, something that all the ski teams have acknowledged.

The Minister for Culture, Youth and Sports, Mònica Bonell, pointed out that “the celebration of the FIS Alpine Skiing European Cup competitions in Soldeu, one of the most important events this year, cements Andorra’s position as a benchmark in the organisation of top-level sporting events. The impeccable conditions on the course and the smooth running of both the race and everything that surrounds it reflect the commitment and professionalism of the teams that work in the ski station. This is whilst also giving us a new opportunity to demonstrate the hospitality that characterises us as a country.”

Efficient preparations, exceptional conditions

This year, one of the aspects that has improved the efficiency of the preparation of the Avet course has been the adoption of Snowsat, a state-of-the-art system that allows intelligent snow management. This innovative system uses GPS technology and sensors to measure snow thickness in real time, in this way optimising the use of natural resources. This device provides detailed information on the amount of snow available at each part of the courses, allowing the snow groomer drivers to distribute it efficiently and decreasing the amount of artificial snow produced. This translates into significant savings in resources such as water and energy, contributing to sustainability and reducing the impact on the environment. With this technology, the organisation has halved the costs. The average snow thickness on the Avet course for the two days of competition was at 70cm when the FIS requires a minimum of 45-50cm.

In order for it to be possible to get the competition area ready, some 40 people from the teams for snowmaking, snow grooming, ski patrol, infrastructure and races were all involved, among others.

Over the two days of competition, there were an average of 70 racers from 15 countries participating. The organisation of the European Cup has involved around 200 people, 100 of those being volunteers.

The FIS Alpine Skiing Men’s European Cup was sponsored by Andorra Turisme, Creand Crèdit Andorrà, the Municipality of Canillo and Altavista, among other collaborators.