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Men’s Slalom in Alta Badia – preview

Well if Blardone did not show the rest of the field how to do yesterday, there will be some determined guys on the Gran Risa today looking to get their slalom campaigns back on schedule.  Kostelic, defending Slalom Champion and winner of the first slalom in Beaver Creek gets the show off at 10.30 with number 1 with the technical man in form Marcel Hirscher 2, Grange 3, Myhrer 4, Moelgg 5, Matt 6 and Deville rounding out the top 7 seeds. Will the winner come from the top 7? Hard to say as the field is strong and Alta Badia is steep and long.

When the likes of Reinfried Herbst and Olympic Champion Italian Giuliano Razzoli cannot make the top seeds then you know that slalom racing is damned competitive. New names are coming to the fore, like American Nolan Kasper (12) and Axel Baeck from Sweden (13).

Some of the World Cup winners from past seasons start with 14, Felix Neureuther; 15, Jens Byggmark; 16 Benni Raich; 17 Silvan Zurbriggen; 18 Ted Ligety; 19 Manni Pranger and on it goes. This is a field that is literally bloated with talent, old and new. It will be interesting to see how the two oldest racers go, Bode Miller (32 – born 1977) and the oldest man in the field Rainer Schoenfelder (39). Both know how to win slalom races but how will the body cope against the young guns?

The racing will be fast a furious and it will be intense as racers fight to get into the thirty.

British interest is with the current GB Slalom Champion, Dave Ryding. Ryding goes 65 and a lot is expected this season from the man from Pendle. He has had a long build up to this race. He broke a run of DNF’s in Europa Cup Slalom races with 34^th in the Europa Cup race in Pozza last week in a race that had many good World Cup Slalom specialist racers in it.  Ryding has raced in Alta Badia before; it was here that he made his World Cup debut in 2009.  This is his third start so hopefully it will be third time lucky.

Racing starts at 10.30 and is on Eurosport…