From Winterleiten, AUT
(December 21, 2024) – Maxmilian Pichler and Nico Edlinger broke the track record in the first race of the 2024/2025 FIL World Cup natural track season as they cruised to victory in a one-heat race.
Vorel Deac and Cornel Coca kicked things off with a strong slide from the first starting spot and set a time that wouldn’t be matched for a good while.
It wasn’t until Tobias Paur and Andreas Hofer slid from the ninth spot that the time fell, with the Italian duo out-sliding the Romanians by just over two seconds.
Paur and Hofer’s time lasted for just over a minute, as Pichler and Edlinger were next, and set a track record 1:04.26 in their run from the penultimate starting spot.
The final team off were Italians Matthias and Peter Lambacher. They set the quick start of the race, but couldn’t quite match either Pichler and Edlinger or Paur and Hofer, as they slid to third place.
Deac and Coca’s time was good enough for fourth, with Findland’s Isa Guzeloglu and Coskun Ercoskun in fifth. Slovakians Peter and Dominik Neupauer rounded out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start | Finish |
| 1 | Pichler / Edlinger | AUT | 10 | 4.39 | 1:04.26 |
| 2 | Paur / Hofer | ITA | 9 | 4.44 | 1:05.10 |
| 3 | Lambacher / Lambacher | ITA | 11 | 4.34 | 1:05.80 |
| 4 | Deac / Coca | ROU | 1 | 4.45 | 1:07.48 |
| 5 | Guzeloglu / Ercoskun | FIN | 2 | 4.59 | 1:08.26 |
| 6 | Neupauer / Neupauer | SVK | 8 | 4.40 | 1:08.84 |
| 7 | Halcin / Halcin | SVK | 3 | 4.77 | 1:08.86 |
| 8 | Hasek / Rydl | CZE | 7 | 4.62 | 1:10.70 |
| 9 | Kwiecinski / Hudy | POL | 5 | 4.62 | 1:12.07 |
| 10 | Plonka / Dawidowski | POL | 6 | 4.87 | 1:13.95 |
| 11 | Mercak / Janosek | CZE | 4 | 5.15 | 1:14.53 |