Kristoffersen returns to winning ways in Val d’Isere slalom
Despite sitting out the opening World Cup slalom in Levi, Finland, Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen didn’t miss a beat in his return to the discipline in Val, d’Isere, France, on Sunday as he took the decisive win with a total time of 1:44.54 seconds. Kristoffersen bested Austria’s Marcel Hirscher in second by an impressive 0.75 seconds as Russia’s Aleksander Khoroshilov returned to the World Cup podium in third, 1.92 seconds off of the pace.
Perfect weather and rock hard snow were once again on tap as racers took to the Face de Bellevarde for the morning’s run. A fast first run set proved perhaps a little trickier than expected as things were shaken up at the top of the leaderboard as yesterday’s winner, Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, bested the field and sat a comfortable 0.42 seconds ahead of Kristoffersen and 0.74 seconds ahead of Hirscher, respectively.
The second run’s slightly slower set provided for ample opportunity to shake things up as several racers took advantage of the conditions to make big jumps in the standings. Hirscher looked to have laid down a gem of a run as he crossed the line with an impressive 1.60 second advantage and waited for the remaining three racers to challenge him.
Kristoffersen was next on course and bested his Austrian rival every step of the way, making quick work of things and building his advantage to 0.75 seconds as he crossed the line chest pumping with excitement. Khoroshilov skied solidly, but could not quite match the pace, sliding into third, and Pinturault, with the possibility of back-to-back wins on home snow lingering in the air, made an early exit high up on the course, giving Kristoffersen his 10th career World Cup slalom win.
“It’s a really good feeling,” Kristoffersen said after the race. “With all that’s happened in the last month and a half, too, this is really good. I hope you can expect me to ski good. As long as I can do that, I’m happy.”
Kristoffersen has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Norwegian federation for the past month over a personal sponsorship and missed the opening Levi slalom as a result. Needless to say, he was happy to make a successful return to competition this weekend.
“I’m a little bit relieved,” he added. “It’s nice to slap some plastic again.”
Although Hirscher walks away from Val d’Isere with two more runner-up finishes, he admits he still has work to do if he wants to contend for wins week in and week out given the current form of his rivals in GS and slalom.
“You never can expect anything in alpine ski racing, especially not in the technical events, it is nearly impossible,” Hirscher explained. “From parts, it was an amazing weekend, from the positions, it was brilliant, but from the feelings I had during skiing, it was not the best weekend I’ve had so far in my career. Now Henrik is back and he is showing us who is the real big king in slalom skiing. I thought I have done a pretty good job during the summer, but right now I am searching for some slalom tricks to come closer to Henrik.”
Khoroshilov sat in second place after the first run and admitted that his second run just was not up to par compared to the skiing of Kristoffersen and Hirscher.
“First run was really great,” he said. “The second run, it was just surviving for me and maybe I think it’s not only for me, but I’m really happy I’m on the podium again. I had a really good feeling and in the second run it was just a little more bumpy so I was a little more stiff. Really, I was just braking and surviving.”
Khoroshilov’s comments were a common theme from racers over the weekend as extremely icy conditions combined with one of the most technically demanding slopes on the men’s tour made for a humbling two days of racing for many in the field.
It was a disappointing day for the American contingent as none of the five starters for the United States made it to the second run either by failing to finish the first run or not qualifying for the second. Head men’s coach Sasha Rearick was understandably disappointed with the performance, but was quick to see the upside to the team’s current situation.
“To me, it comes down to a confidence thing,” Rearick said. “This group, besides Chodounsky, is a young group. Not a lot of World Cup experience and a sense of these kinds of conditions and this kind of hill and they’ve got to step their game up. They’re doing well in training; I was pleased to see how balanced they were in training and at least they’ve got that platform right now to build on and the key in the next weeks here is to bring that balanced position into confidently skiing the ski clean and in the fall-line.”
The men’s tour now heads to Val Gardena, Italy, for downhill and super-G races Dec. 14-17.
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Top 10
- Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
- Marcel Hirscher (AUT) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
- Alexander Khoroshilov (RUS) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
- Marc Digruber (AUT) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
- Stefano Gross (ITA) – Voelkl/Tecnica/Marker
- Michael Matt (AUT) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
- Manfred Moelgg (ITA) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
- Andre Myhrer (SWE) – Head/Head/Head
- Mattias Hargin (SWE) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
- Naoki Yuasa (JPN) – Hart/Nordica/Marker
Official Results
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | Diff. | FIS Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 422304 | KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik | 1994 | NOR | 51.67 | 52.87 | 1:44.54 | 0.00 | |
2 | 6 | 53831 | HIRSCHER Marcel | 1989 | AUT | 51.99 | 53.30 | 1:45.29 | +0.75 | 5.17 |
3 | 5 | 480736 | KHOROSHILOV Alexander | 1984 | RUS | 51.49 | 54.97 | 1:46.46 | +1.92 | 13.22 |
4 | 8 | 51395 | DIGRUBER Marc | 1988 | AUT | 53.12 | 53.77 | 1:46.89 | +2.35 | 16.19 |
5 | 1 | 293797 | GROSS Stefano | 1986 | ITA | 52.15 | 54.86 | 1:47.01 | +2.47 | 17.01 |
6 | 20 | 54170 | MATT Michael | 1993 | AUT | 53.62 | 53.50 | 1:47.12 | +2.58 | 17.77 |
7 | 14 | 292491 | MOELGG Manfred | 1982 | ITA | 52.91 | 54.30 | 1:47.21 | +2.67 | 18.39 |
8 | 7 | 501017 | MYHRER Andre | 1983 | SWE | 52.86 | 54.39 | 1:47.25 | +2.71 | 18.66 |
9 | 13 | 501111 | HARGIN Mattias | 1985 | SWE | 52.22 | 55.32 | 1:47.54 | +3.00 | 20.66 |
10 | 36 | 301709 | YUASA Naoki | 1983 | JPN | 52.99 | 54.58 | 1:47.57 | +3.03 | 20.87 |
11 | 12 | 511996 | YULE Daniel | 1993 | SUI | 52.44 | 55.32 | 1:47.76 | +3.22 | 22.18 |
12 | 26 | 511983 | AERNI Luca | 1993 | SUI | 53.14 | 54.63 | 1:47.77 | +3.23 | 22.25 |
13 | 43 | 6291574 | SALA Tommaso | 1995 | ITA | 53.37 | 54.46 | 1:47.83 | +3.29 | 22.66 |
14 | 11 | 290732 | THALER Patrick | 1978 | ITA | 53.60 | 54.33 | 1:47.93 | +3.39 | 23.35 |
15 | 19 | 192665 | GRANGE Jean-Baptiste | 1984 | FRA | 53.00 | 55.02 | 1:48.02 | +3.48 | 23.97 |
16 | 44 | 202451 | STRASSER Linus | 1992 | GER | 52.98 | 55.06 | 1:48.04 | +3.50 | 24.11 |
17 | 21 | 220689 | RYDING Dave | 1986 | GBR | 53.54 | 54.79 | 1:48.33 | +3.79 | 26.10 |
18 | 65 | 60253 | MARCHANT Armand | 1997 | BEL | 53.44 | 54.99 | 1:48.43 | +3.89 | 26.79 |
19 | 22 | 293098 | RAZZOLI Giuliano | 1984 | ITA | 53.68 | 54.95 | 1:48.63 | +4.09 | 28.17 |
20 | 15 | 191459 | LIZEROUX Julien | 1979 | FRA | 53.77 | 54.95 | 1:48.72 | +4.18 | 28.79 |
21 | 27 | 501116 | LAHDENPERAE Anton | 1985 | SWE | 53.57 | 55.94 | 1:49.51 | +4.97 | 34.23 |
22 | 32 | 700830 | ZAMPA Adam | 1990 | SVK | 53.78 | 55.77 | 1:49.55 | +5.01 | 34.51 |
23 | 4 | 54320 | SCHWARZ Marco | 1995 | AUT | 52.68 | 57.47 | 1:50.15 | +5.61 | 38.64 |
24 | 28 | 511902 | ZENHAEUSERN Ramon | 1992 | SUI | 53.11 | 57.42 | 1:50.53 | +5.99 | 41.26 |
25 | 23 | 421860 | NORDBOTTEN Jonathan | 1989 | NOR | 53.61 | 58.58 | 1:52.19 | +7.65 | 52.69 |
26 | 16 | 193967 | MUFFAT-JEANDET Victor | 1989 | FRA | 53.37 | 1:00.60 | 1:53.97 | +9.43 | 64.95 |
Disqualified 1st run | ||||||||||
39 | 291318 | TONETTI Riccardo | 1989 | ITA | ||||||
Did not qualify for 2nd run | ||||||||||
68 | 561244 | KRANJEC Zan | 1992 | SLO | ||||||
64 | 512063 | BONVIN Anthony | 1994 | SUI | ||||||
60 | 194207 | THEOLIER Steven | 1990 | NED | ||||||
59 | 6531063 | GINNIS AJ | 1994 | USA | ||||||
57 | 54252 | RASCHNER Dominik | 1994 | AUT | ||||||
56 | 550054 | ZVEJNIEKS Kristaps | 1992 | LAT | ||||||
51 | 561322 | HADALIN Stefan | 1995 | SLO | ||||||
48 | 192506 | MISSILLIER Steve | 1984 | FRA | ||||||
47 | 481327 | TRIKHICHEV Pavel | 1992 | RUS | ||||||
42 | 380334 | VIDOVIC Matej | 1993 | CRO | ||||||
41 | 511908 | SCHMIDIGER Reto | 1992 | SUI | ||||||
38 | 103865 | PHILP Trevor | 1992 | CAN | ||||||
37 | 320266 | JUNG Dong-hyun | 1988 | KOR | ||||||
34 | 150644 | KRYZL Krystof | 1986 | CZE | ||||||
33 | 103729 | READ Erik | 1991 | CAN | ||||||
31 | 511127 | GINI Marc | 1984 | SUI | ||||||
30 | 194262 | BUFFET Robin | 1991 | FRA | ||||||
25 | 201896 | STEHLE Dominik | 1986 | GER | ||||||
Did not finish 2nd run | ||||||||||
29 | 421669 | HAUGEN Leif Kristian | 1987 | NOR | ||||||
18 | 54063 | FELLER Manuel | 1992 | AUT | ||||||
9 | 194364 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | ||||||
3 | 201702 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | ||||||
Did not finish 1st run | ||||||||||
70 | 54106 | BREITFUSS KAMMERLANDER Simon | 1992 | BOL | ||||||
69 | 30388 | BIRKNER DE MIGUEL Tomas | 1997 | ARG | ||||||
67 | 700879 | ZAMPA Andreas | 1993 | SVK | ||||||
66 | 30266 | GASTALDI Sebastiano | 1991 | ARG | ||||||
63 | 6190403 | NOEL Clement | 1997 | FRA | ||||||
62 | 202437 | LUITZ Stefan | 1992 | GER | ||||||
61 | 512182 | MEILLARD Loic | 1996 | SUI | ||||||
58 | 194664 | RIZZO Maxime | 1993 | FRA | ||||||
55 | 502015 | JAKOBSEN Kristoffer | 1994 | SWE | ||||||
54 | 54233 | LEITGEB Richard | 1994 | AUT | ||||||
53 | 934502 | ANKENY Michael | 1991 | USA | ||||||
52 | 103676 | BROWN Phil | 1991 | CAN | ||||||
50 | 512138 | SIMONET Sandro | 1995 | SUI | ||||||
49 | 511899 | ROCHAT Marc | 1992 | SUI | ||||||
46 | 53889 | HIRSCHBUEHL Christian | 1990 | AUT | ||||||
45 | 934523 | ENGEL Mark | 1991 | USA | ||||||
40 | 290095 | BALLERIN Andrea | 1989 | ITA | ||||||
35 | 930160 | KELLEY Robby | 1990 | USA | ||||||
24 | 501101 | BYGGMARK Jens | 1985 | SWE | ||||||
17 | 534508 | CHODOUNSKY David | 1984 | USA | ||||||
10 | 422082 | FOSS-SOLEVAAG Sebastian | 1991 | NOR |