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Daniel Yule demonstrates his great class in Kitzbühel!
A Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have written the true story of Daniel Yule and his trainer Matteo Joris more cheesy. It was autumn 2012 when Joris, as a coach for the Italians, observed the then 19-year-old Yule for the first time during a glacier training session. The successful coach from the Aosta Valley shakes his head in sympathy and gives a devastating verdict: “This Yule is technically so bad that he will never have a chance of a top 30 placement in the World Cup.”
Three years later, Joris was hired by Swiss Ski as slalom boss. And the Italian manages with his ingenious training methods that even the hopeless Yule case develops into a top athlete. Between December 22, 2018 and December 22, 2022, the Valaisan won five World Cups.
“I would have had trouble explaining it!”
Until Sunday noon there is not much to suggest another great triumph. After the two eleventh places in Adelboden and Wengen, Yule is only seventh in the first run of the Hahnenkamm Slalom, 85 hundredths behind leader Manuel Feller. But then it is Matteo Joris of all people who is allowed to put out the final run. And he sets the goal combinations on this difficult slope exactly the way his protégé likes it best.
From 7th place to the top: Daniel Yule’s unleashed victory ride(00:31)
Yule takes advantage of this in a grandiose manner. Top shots like France’s Olympic champion Clément Noël or Norway’s shooting star Lucas Braathen lose a second or more to the 29-year-old. And because the local half-time frontman Manuel Feller threads in after a few goals, Daniel Yule’s sixth World Cup victory is a fact. “This victory is particularly good because I was under a lot of pressure before this race!” says Yule. Why? “I justified my mediocre results in Adelboden and Wengen by saying that my outfitter Fischer and I have a fundamental problem with soft snow conditions. That’s why I would have had to explain myself if I hadn’t succeeded on the icy surface in Kitzbühel.”
The special relationship with Ryding
But there is another reason why Yule is celebrating his second triumph in Kitzbühel after 2020 particularly enthusiastically – with last year’s winner David Ryding, one of his best friends took second place. “As the son of British immigrants, I’ve always had a special bond with Englishman Ryding. I can really laugh about everything with him. Dave also invited me to his wedding last summer.”
Before returning to Kitzbühel, however, Ryding suffered even more than Yule. “Because Dave never finished in the top 10 in the first five slaloms this winter, he hinted to me in a few WhatsApp messages after Wengen that he might be retiring from skiing soon. But now he’s proven that he can still unpack really fast turns at 36.” And the next slalom hit follows immediately. On Tuesday, the night race in Schladming is on the program in front of 50,000 spectators.
Attention ski fans! Now quiz and type races
The 2022/2023 ski season is in full swing and so is the “Blick Ski Trophy”: Answer questions every day, type ski races and crown yourself as ski champion. Lots of great prizes await.
To take part in the “Blick Ski Trophy”, you have to register here.
Have fun and good luck!
The 2022/2023 ski season is in full swing and so is the “Blick Ski Trophy”: Answer questions every day, type ski races and crown yourself as ski champion. Lots of great prizes await.
To take part in the “Blick Ski Trophy”, you have to register here.
Have fun and good luck!