Mikaela Shiffrin had not even placed on the podium in Italy before this race and then she goes and blows the rest of the field away by winning by 1.21 seconds ahead of Tessa Worley with Marta Bassino in third in a thrilling race. Petra Vlhova and Viktoria Rebensburg rounded out the top five.
Kronplatz was in perfect condition in the eyes of Shiffrin. She had spent the night before the race watching the video of last years winner and runner up, Federica Brignone and Ragnhild Mowinckel with two of the rising talents on the US team. Nina O'Brien and AJ Hurt. With the freeski on the hill cancelled due to conditions, Shiffrin was able to mentally prepare herself as well as educate her two teammates.
Having spent the Christmas break staying with the Moelgg siblings and her boyfriend, Mathieu Faivre, Shiffrin was also able to freeski the hill to learn its intricacies. "Free skiing is different to training on the slope," Shiffrin explained, "It was good to feel what terrain was like."
Shiffrin explained after the race that the first run was "maybe best run I have skied in GS," and that the second run, with a lead of 1.39 seconds, was not a case of trying to protect the win as this is "maybe most demanding slope we ski on women's side. The best way to ski it is to be aggressive."
With the rest of the field blown away by the performance of Shiffrin it was a race for second. Tessa Worley took the spoils for that acknowledging that it was "really exciting, we are a lot of girls able to get on the podium."
Taking third place was Italian Marta Bassino, delighted to be back on the podium for the first time since Lenzerheide almost a year to the day ago. This was her fifth career podium.
The race belonged to Shiffrin. While she explained that "Every time I go in the start I want to win, like every girl, last years not so well, wanted top prove to myself I could ski fast"
With this being her tenth win of the season so far, Shiffrin was asked if there was a competition between her and Marcel Hirscher for the most amount of wins this season. Hirscher sits on nine currently for the season so far and Shiffrin believes he will come out on top.
For Britain's Alex Tilley, a positive first run was matched with a positive second run and with the season that she has had so far, Tilley was a happy racer. This was the first time that she has finished in the points in Kronplatz and in taking 20th place, up from 22 after the first run, 11 more World Cup points were added to her season long haul. (Read what Alex Tilley thought of her race by subscribing to Racer Ready).
With Shiffrin back in the red bib for the World Cup leader in GS (and Overall), her plans regarding getting some rest in before the World Championships change from day to day.
Full results