For the second day they tried their hardest to get a race done in the hill above Zagreb and for the second time, the weather gods deprived them of a race. Day one (Wednesday) saw high winds stop the race before a racer started and then on day two the race did start but the deteriorating snow conditions down the race line gave FIS no chance to finish the first run let alone the race.
Sebastien Foss-Solevaag used bib number 1 to great advantage in setting a time for the rest of the field to chase but it soon became obvious as gates started flying out and the ruts grew bigger and bigger with each racer, that this was not going to finish. Despite numerous attempts to get the race to a conclusion at least of run one, after 19 racers.
The hard work put in by the local organising body, the Croatian Ski Federation, was to no avail and although 19 racers did try to race the course, there was vocal criticism from some of the leading racers, notably Alexis Pinturault who felt that the course was dangerous and the race should not have even gone ahead.
Pinturault was justified in his criticism as the desire to hold a race has cost Victor Muffet-Jeandet his season. The French team announced that the Bronze medallist from Pyeongchang in the Combined had broken his ankle as he crashed out.
Pinturault wrote on Twitter: “Today was just too much @fisalpine, i’m just irritated and have a heavy heart for my friend.”
Luca Aerni tapped his finger against his head as he made his feelings known about whether the race should happen or not and Kristoffersen explained “These are no World Cup conditions, It is dangerous in some parts. Marco (Schwarz) and Loïc (Meillard) said the grass is coming through. For the spectators, I think, it looks weird.”
The balance between financial implications in getting a race run and racers health should always fall on the side of the athlete. One athlete injured is one athlete too many.
The race was finally stopped due to "unfavourable conditions and in the best interest of safety and fairness,” FIS announced.
Conditions had been poor for the women's race on Tuesday and discussions with the Men prior to the attempted race on Wednesday had seen only half the racers in favour of racing.
“It’s weird they have to ask the athletes,” said Kristoffersen, adding that only half of the top-ranked slalom racers wanted to start. “FIS needs to have enough knowledge to know how things are for a ski racer, for a coach, when you decide whether it is good enough to race or not.”
Kristoffersen went on to say that the quality of the snow was really poor and this may have been due to the amount of salt that was used in order to get there women's race off.
With the race cancelled it was off to Adelboden for the next stop and another Slalom on Sunday. There is a Giant Slalom on the Saturday first!
Britain's Dave Ryding was one of the racers to get to race and he wrote on Instagram after he had trailed in over three seconds off the pace of Foss-Solevaag: "I still hate salt, combined with moguls is even less fun and for 1 minute got me breathing out of my arse.. I think it looked as bad as it felt.
Oh to be a race organiser in these trying times!
With neither Major nor Taylor getting to race due to the race being cancelled, the chance to have raced at Berchtesgarden at a Europa Cup slalom may be rued. How quickly they could drive across remained to be seen.