Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is the outstanding athlete of the 53rd Saslong Classic. Just one day after his super-G triumph, the Norwegian followed up in the downhill classic and raced to his third victory overall at the foot of the Sassolungo/Langkofel mountain.

In bright sunshine, Kilde left the competition behind snatching a first place with a time of 2:01.45 minutes. With his second downhill victory in Val Gardena/Gröden after 2018, the winner of the 2019/20 Overall World Cup joins his compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal: the Saslong record holder had triumphed in both speed events on the Saslong in 2015 and to date was the only racer to achieve this feat in one and the same year.

Behind Kilde, Ryan Cochran-Siegle surprisingly finished in second place. The 28-year-old US American lost only 22 hundredths to the Norwegian and thus climbed onto a World Cup podium for the first time in his career. Previously, Cochran-Siegle's best result in the World Cup was a fifth place in the Alpine Combined in Bormio 2019. The podium was completed by Switzerland's Beat Feuz - for last year's winner of the downhill crystal globe, it was the third top-three finish in Val Gardena/Gröden.

Italians are trailing behind

Fourth place was tied by Kjetil Jansrud of Norway and U.S. skier Bryce Bennett, 62 hundredths behind. Co-favorite and Val Gardena/Gröden specialist Jansrud thus just missed his twelfth podium on the Saslong. Behind the duo, the winner of the first downhill training, Jared Goldberg from the USA, finished in sixth place.

Italy's speed specialists had to settle for minor roles in their home race. As the best local athlete, Dominik Paris finished in 15th place. In addition to Paris, only one other Italian collected World Cup points with veteran Christof Innerhofer finishing in 28th place. The third South Tyrolean in the bunch, Florian Schieder did not get closer than 48th place.

The complete list of results of the downhill is available here.