Henrik Kristoffersen overcame the warming conditions in Kranjska Gora to win his second GS race of the season as Lucas Braathen and Marco Odermatt shared second place. The result confirmed Odermatt as the Tour Globe winner in Giant Slalom for 2022. The top five were rounded out by Loic Meillard and Stefan Brennsteiner. Britain's Charlie Raposo finished 27th to score his first classic World Cup Giant Slalom points in his career.
Alexis Pinturault posted the fastest first run time, just one hundredth of a second ahead of Braathen but could not match the time set by Kristoffersen on the second run as he slid down the results to 11th. For the last nine years Pinturault has won at least one race on the World Cup Tour across all disciplines and he will not have a better opportunity to continue this run and match the record of Alberto Tomba in winning for eleven years on the bounce. Pinturault is on ten at the moment.
With the course holding up well and with fans back in the finish, unlike when the women raced in Kranjska Gora earlier in the season, this was World Cup racing back at its best. With places at Maribel / Courchevel at stake as well as the Giant Slalom Globe, the calculations were out for each and every racer.
Young Italian Fillipo Della Vita, fresh from winning the silver at the World Juniors, took the early headlines with a stunning second run that saw him go from going 27th, with Charlie Raposo, to 25th with the 5th fastest second run.
Raposo put in a solid second run and was in the mix before a small error on the steep that cost him but he still help on to score his first World Cup points in the classic form of the discipline. Raposo has made great strides this season and his performance in the Parallel race in Lech back in November has now been backed up with a 27th place in the main races. The man has stepped up and let his skiing do the talking!
First Loic Meillard produced a stunning run to take the lead with the fastest second run time before Odermatt showed his sheer brilliance in taking the lead. from seventh after the first run, Odermatt showed just why he has been so good this season. He may only be 24 but he has had a season that goes down as one of the great seasons in the history books. With two races to go he haas only dropped 40 points, two second places (both behind Henrik Kristoffersen, the only other man to win a race this season!)
With Lucas Braathen just 0.01 behind Pinturault, he gave it his all and with Kristoffersen hoping for more places between him and Odermatt in the race for the Globe, when Braathen came down into second, he hoped this was enough but it was joint second. Unless Pinturault could squeeze in between the two then it was game over for the globe.
Pinturault has shown flashes of brilliance this season but has not been able to put two runs together to secure that illusive win and today was another of those days. A great first run and then unable to master the changing conditions for run two as he tumbled down the results to 11th.
For Charlie Raposo, 27th was solid. Of course he would have liked to go higher in the results but the confidence he will take for taking that first result is immeasurable. With another race on Sunday, the goal is to back it up and with this start lowering his FIS points to make it into the thirty.
With the GS Globe now secured for Odermatt and Kilde not racing this weekend due to a sore knee, Odermatt could secure the Big Globe with a strong finish in the last regular season race for the season.
Full results