Norwegian Lucas Braathen has won the first World Cup slalom of the winter in Val d’Isère. As the best German, Linus Straßer missed the top ten.
That was an announcement: With the third World Cup victory of his still young career, Lucas Braathen threw down the gauntlet to the established runners around his compatriot Henrik Kristoffersen in the first men’s slalom of the winter in the French Val d’Isère. In the second round in particular, the 22-year-old ignited the turbo and showed a top performance. Second in the first run, he was the 29th starter on the already battered track and set the best time.
Kristoffersen fails in the second run
That was also too good for his compatriot Henrik Kristoffersen. He was still in the lead after the first round, but made a few small mistakes shortly after the start that threw him out of rhythm. In the end, Kristoffersen fell back to sixth place (+ 1.35 seconds).
Second in the exciting race was Manuel Feller (Austria / + 0.84) in front of the Swiss Loïc Meillard (+ 0.98).
“Magic moment” for Braathen
“It’s a crazy feeling. I had a good preparation and I’m very happy. I really like Val d’Isère, winning here is magical”said Braathen after his winning run. “It was so nice, I would love to drive here again.”
Straßer missed the top ten
Linus Straßer, in 15th place after the first run, in which he had to struggle with problems, especially in the upper part, started the second run with a completely different body language. Full attack was the order of the day, and of course you can’t get through it without making mistakes. But the man from Munich, who is about to become a father, didn’t let minor mistakes throw him off his rhythm and still improved to 14th place.
Straßer had his this weekend “want to make peace” with the Face de Bellevarde in Val d’Isère, from which he had always let his guts be bought: More than ranks 16, 45 and 63 were not possible in the ten starts before the slalom on Sunday. What then came out in his special discipline “surely wasn’t perfect”he admitted, but also said: Given his “relationship” with the challenging slope “I’m quite satisfied”.
DSV with three out of seven starters in the final
In addition to Straßer, Anton Tremmel and Sebastian Holzmann were also able to secure a place in the final of the top 30. Both benefited from a few retirements, but missed out on a possible better placement due to problems in the lower section of the track. Tremmel finished 21st (+ 2.58), Holzmann came 25th, 2.96 seconds behind.
Adrian Meisen’s time of 53.17 seconds in the first run wasn’t enough for the final of the top 30. Alexander Schmid, who was sixth in the giant slalom the day before, lost his balance on the tighter turns and slipped off the track. Fabian Himmelsbach showed a decent ride in the upper part, but finally merged and was eliminated. David Ketterer’s run was also over early after a driving error.
Prominent failures
The selective track, which got significantly worse in the first run after only a few starters, caused prominent failures early on. That’s what happened to the Olympic champion and local hero Clément Noël, last year’s winner made a left turn just before the finish slope. Atle Lie McGrath, who won the last two slaloms in Flachau and Méribel last season, also had to give up the race early after a threader.
In the second round, Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (Norway) and Alex Vinatzer (Italy) were also hit.