Italy's unheralded Giovanni Franzoni on Friday won the World Cup super-G on the classic Wengen course, the first Italian to achieve the feat.
    It is his first World cup win.
    Garda-born Franzoni, who will be 25 on March 30, skied the legendary Lauberhorn course in 1:45.19.
    Austrian Stefan Babinsky came second in 1:45.54, and Swiss Franjo von Allmen, who had won last year, third in 1:45.56.
    In the even more iconic downhill on the Lauberhorn, only three Italians have triumphed on the world's longest ski run: the legendary Zeno Colò in 1948, Kristian Ghedina in 1995, and Christof Innerhofer in 2013.
    Franzoni's victory comes two weeks ahead of the Winter Olympics at Milano-Cortina.
    "I'm shaking," Franzoni told Rai TV.
    "It's been a strange week so far, but I felt I was fired up.

I was really nervous at the start, but here I told myself 'either I go or I don't go.' I made the difference on the turn where three years ago I fell and suffered a serious injury; fate intervened." "It's incredible," he said.
    "If at the start of the year they had told me I'd finish third in Val Gardena and first here, on my favorite slopes, I never would have believed it.
    "After the serious injury I suffered here three years ago, I'm trying to enjoy the races: it's adrenaline-filled and incredible, I don't get this kind of feeling anywhere else.

I come out of the gate telling myself 'enjoy it, focus on skiing and having fun.' "I think the work of the last few years is coming through," he continued.
    "Nothing happens overnight. Now my present has changed. It's fantastic to have another guy my age on the podium (Von Allmen, ed.): I've always tried to catch up with people like him, and today I surpassed them. Your mind plays a huge role; when you start believing in things, everything changes." Finally, Franzoni made a promise for Saturday's downhill: "Even if I'm tired, I'm aiming for something big."
   

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