Ski racer Linus Straßer narrowly missed his third win of the season at the World Cup slalom in Aspen, Colorado.
Thanks to a strong second run, the Munich native came second when the Swiss Loic Meillard won and still has a chance of winning the small crystal ball.
In the discipline ranking, Straßer is now 169 points behind the Austrian Manuel Feller, who came fifth in Aspen. There are only two slalom races left in Kranjska Gora and the World Cup final in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
“The second run wasn’t easy, but it never really is,” said Straßer after his fourth trip to the podium this ski winter. He “got into the rhythm very well” and “found the accelerator pedal in the right places.” The chance of winning the small ball is only “still theoretically there”.
Straßer, third last weekend in Palisades Tahoe, California, was sixth after the first round, 1.37 seconds behind the leading Frenchman Clement Noel and was able to gain four positions in the second round. The winner of Kitzbühel and Schladming was 89 hundredths of a second behind Meillard. The Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen came third, Noel was eliminated.
From a German perspective, apart from Straßer, only Sebastian Holzmann made it into the second round; the Oberstdorfer came in 24th place. Anton Tremmel (Rottach-Egern) and Fabian Himmelsbach (Sonthofen) were eliminated in the first round.