Drama and excitement as World Cup closes
Neureuther and Schild win races as Herbst and Riesch take Crystal Globes in Slalom, Vonn and Janka take Overall
The best of the best came to fight it out with the main feature being the Gladiatorial Fight for the Crystal Globes. The script could not have been written any better as the chaser's hunted down the red bib holder in both the Men's and Women's events. Starting out first it was the men with France's Julien Lizeroux hoping to overturn the 43 point lead of Reinfried Herbst. Herbst has had a great season with four wins and yet Lizeroux was still in with a chance of snatching the discipline Globe due to his exceptional consistency in scoring points in every race in the Slalom World Cup season (was a feat that Alain Baxter achieved in 2001). In the Women's race, Kathrin Zettel was hunting down local girl, Maria Riesch who held a slightly smaller advantage of 23 points (Click here for report on the girls race).
The men's race, down the same slope that will be used for the 2011 World Championships, had twists and turns and ended with the fairy tale ending. Hans Christian Anderson could not have written a better tale as the main plot swung one way and then the other. The sub plot of the race win with Felix Neureuther winning on his home slope was as intriguing and exciting as the main plot. After the first run, Manny Pranger put the disappointment of the Olympics behind him to lead the way with a slender lead over Julien Cousineau from Canada. Neureuther was lurking back in fifth but the main interest was in Lizeroux and Herbst who were separated by two hundredths in places nine and ten respectively. With Kostelic, Zurbriggen and Raich all chasing third in the slalom standings, there was all to play for in the second run.
Kostelic was the first to show his hand following a very disappointing first run that saw him in 19th spot, just under two seconds off the pace. While he took the lead and held it for a while, his chance had gone. There was a moment of light relief in the tense atmosphere as Ted Ligety had one of the days that you want to remove from the memory bank as he straddled the first gate. Wanting to make a charge and grab some points for a top fifteen finish, Ligety was just too close and straddled. Still with the GS Crystal Globe in the pocket for the second time in his career, he has salvaged something for his season.
With eleven to go, this was when the season in Slalom came to a climax. Herbst, who was celebrating the birth of his new daughter Lily, had been suffering for four days with fevers and had been laid up in bed. He admitted afterwards that he had run out of energy about half way down on the second run and then just held on. Herbst took the lead and then had to worry about how Lizeroux could tackle the course. Lizeroux put in a tremendous run and snatched the lead from Herbst by a huge margin, over a second. Now it was all about damage limitation for the Austrian. Zurbriggen was up next and he split the two main stars of the show. Twenty points advantage was gone for Herbst. Moelgg and Raich both did little for themselves, Raich straddled and was out of the running for third in the standings. Then came the hometown boy.
Neureuther is a favourite of the crowd despite living in Garmisch yet skiing for the Ski Club Partenkirchen. "It is all one town really," he smiled afterwards. "When I was younger, we joked about it but now it is alright," he explained. Neureuther took the lead and with four to go he had the opportunity to reflect, "After the disappointment of the Olympics, this makes up for it as I have won the two most important races on the World Cup tour, here and Kitzbuehel," he explained. For years Neureuther has had to live with the tag of being his father's son, now he has the right to put the facts the other way around! While Janyk, Myhrer (who extinguished any glimmer of hope for Lizeroux as he slipped into second behind the German) Cousineau all came down, the gap between Lizeroux and Herbst did not extend enough to allow the Frenchman to overtake the Austrian and with Pranger looking to take the win, Herbst knew he had the Title.
Pranger did enough to take second in the race with Myhrer third but while Neureuther celebrated so to did Herbst. And with this ended the Men's World Cup with Herbst joining the list of Glove winners of Didier Cuche having secured the Downhill, Erik Guay the Super G, Ted Ligety the GS and Benni Raich the Super Combi Globe.
Next stop Solden in October....see you there!
Race result (FIS)
