Marcel Hirscher goes from strength to strength as he added another Slalom World Cup race win to his tally, his 63rd World Cup win across Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super G, City Events and Parallel GS races. Loic Meillard followed up his podium in the Giant Slalom to take second again with Henrik Kristoffersen taking third in a race that had almost all the elements being taken into consideration.
Hirscher was the class act on the first run to lead from Michael Matt with Kristoffersen in third and Felix Neureuther fourth. The top seven seeds made it into the top eight spots with Clement Noel jumping into seventh from bib 17. Conditions were tough on the Tristan Glasse Davies set course, a course he had set the night before, before the snow had fallen over night. Once the first seven had been down the times started to deteriorate and while Britain's Dave Ryding battled in to a ninth place after the first run, the margin of qualification, 5.60 seconds was huge.
There was a fifteen minute delay to the start of the race for more preparation for the course to try and make it last the whole race. With the first run having deteriorated the longer the run went on, the race organisers wanted to make sure that the two Austrians leading the 100th World Cup slalom race to be held in Austria would have as good an opportunity to compete as the earliest racers.
As on the first run, the course did break up. the mix of steep, flats and then another steep into the finish, gave plenty of variation for the course setter and then the racers.
Stefan Hadalin, going fifth on the second run used his early start to the maximum to post what would be the fastest time on the run (and comfortably fastest too). The Slovenian would eventually finish eighth. Hadalin held the lead until Manuel Feller came down from being in 17th spot and just held on to his 1.6 second advantage. It was going to be nip and tuck all the way and even the race leader was not a cast iron certainty for the win at this stage.
Into the top ten and it was the man of the weekend, Loic Meillard who was keeping the race leaders seat warm. Second place in the Giant Slalom and Meillard was having a weekend to dream of. Having only once been to Saalbach before the weekend, and that to race in a Super G he explained in the press conference after the race, Meillard was on a roll.
Meillard had been in 12th after the first run and posted the eighth fastest second run time to take the lead.
With the conditions starting to be more rock and roll than what the racers are used to, Schwarz, Pinturault and Ryding all struggled to post competitive times. A TV break gave the course crew time to give the course one last major bit of attention.
Yule edged closer to Meillard but was behind, Clement then went 0.01 behind him. Myhrer and Zenhausern failed to trouble the top end of the leaderboard.
The excitement was brewing all the time and after his first run that had shown much of what he is renown for, hopes for Felix Neureuther were high. I mistake cost him dearly and hi slipped right down the leaderboard and out of contention.
Three to go.
Kristoffersen came down and slipped in behind Meillard and after the race explained that he would have to look at the video to see where he had lost time as he did not feel that bad. He had liked the hill for both races, explained after the race.
The question of whether he would remain on the podium depended on how either of the two remaining racers at the start would fare.
First up was Michael Matt and Matt lost time go joint with Yule in the finish with just Hirscher to go. An 8000 sell out crowd waited for Hirscher to head on to the course in anticipation.
With over two seconds advantage on Meillard, Hirscher managed to raise the noise generated all the way down. Time was being jettisoned at each split but "I was on the limit," Hirscher explained. Hirscher was not so forthcoming as to the state of the course after the race saying it was on the limit for being possible.
What was noticeable during both runs was how many racers actually spend time training on rutted courses. Those that did, managed to fight their way into promising positions. Kristoffersen explained after the race that the preparation had been necessary that had delayed the race.
When Hirscher crossed the finish line the lead had dropped to just 0.38 seconds.
The consequence of this was Hirscher winning his 63rd race on the World Cup and becoming the most successful Austrian World Cup racer of all time. This was something that he is proud of but realises that there will be another racer in time that will surpass his achievements.
28 Slalom wins for Hirscher yet he does not feel that he will still be racing when, and if ,they win the selection to host the World Championships in 2025! Many will breath a sigh of relief at hearing this perhaps!
Now it is on to Madonna di Campiglio on Saturday...it was a quick exit for all those racing!
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