Perfect conditions in Soelden saw Lara Gut-Behrami take the early advantage in the first race of the 2021-2022 World Cup season. The rain that had been present earlier in the week had gone and the World Cup course on the Rettenbach glacier was looking in pristine condition. 616 days after the World Cup had allowed fans to watch the racing, the lucky few allowed up on the Glacier were treated to perfect conditions and a bluebird day. We are back racing and how we have missed it.
Gut-Behrami started 4 and produced a run that edged out Mikaela Shiffrin from the lead by just 0.02 seconds. Shiffrin had used bib 1 to good advantage but the small advantage Gut-Behrami has is just that, small.
After her run the Swiss racer, Gut-Behrami, explained "It's a beautiful slope. Today are also the best conditions for the start. I am very satisfied with my run. It is not always easy to implement the training achievements. I'll try to show a clean run again - the rest will then be seen."
For Shiffrin, she explained: "It was a really clean run. I felt very good. Then I saw Lara - she was maybe a little more active than me. But the start is really perfect."
Sitting in third, one of three Austrians in the top eight, is Stephanie Brunner. Brunner's run was full risk - a bit wide in the long turn in the upper part, but good at it with two tenths behind at that stage. Down the steep she was clean and caught the transition to the flat and moves up to third with 54 hundredths behind Gut-Behrami
Katharina Liensberger sits in fourth with Valerie Grenier in fifth.
Britain's Alex Tilley, starting bib 40, put her Kästle Skis down the hill and is sitting in 24th after the first run and is just 2.03 behind Gut-Behrami.
Picture of Lara Gut-Behrami from Zoom Agence, Picture of Alex Tilley from Team Evolution / Kaestle by AMARCSTER