Filip Zubcic secured the second race win of his career as he came from sixth after the first run to win in Santa Caterina while first run leader Zan Krancek dropped trot second while Marco Odermatt took third overall and the lead in the Giant Slalom World Cup. Loic Meillard and Alexis Pinturault rounded out the top five finishers.
The second run was much more turny than run one and many felt that this was set by the Swiss coach for the benefit of Marco Odermatt and logic Millard who were second and fourth after the first run. With the racing line about three metres wide, those racers that did not stay on the hard packed centre, lost time quickly. With this being one of the shortest Giant Slalom courses, this gave racers little opportunity to recover time when mistakes were made.
Henrik Kristoffersen was one of the big casualties when he went off line when challenging on the second run. A great top section was undone as the Norwegian drifted into the soft snow and his chances went with this. Kristoffersen had been in eighth after the first run. bWhen Kristoffersen's challenge ended, it was still Adam Zampa who lead in the finish area. Zampa's brother, Andreas, one of two racers who started in the 60's to make the second run, had been first down the course and gave his brother a great course report that he was able to utilise.
Zubcic had been in sixth place after the first run, 0.69 behind, yet gave the run of the day to go into a huge lead of over a second. It was not the fastest run on the second run, that honour went to Erik Read, but it was the most significant as it set a marker for the remaining five racers to aim for.
One by one they attacked the time set by the Croatian and one by one the time stayed the fastest. Ford dropped down, then Meillard went just under seven tenths behind Zubcic. A small mistake by Pinturaukt saw him take a place provisional podium place before Odermatt nudged him down a place.
Then it was a case of Kranjec on courses against Zubcic in the finish. The light stayed green all the way down for the Slovenian and while the gap was getting closer, it was still green. By the last marker, the first run leader was still ahead by 0.12 yet by the time he had crossed the line, it was the Croatianb, Filip Zubcic that was celebrating his second win on the World Cup tour.
Fresh snow continued to fall through the race and this played a role in the race. maybe the racing line was a little too narrow for some racers but Zubcic dealt with the varying grip down the course the best. He stayed on the racing line and was rewarded.
After the race Zubcic explained "It is great. To be on the podium, to win the race is incredible for me. Maybe I am a specialist in difficult conditions. I am really strong though, I can say that."
Britain's Charlie Raposo crashed out on the first run.
Full results