Lizeroux wins Kitzbuehel warm-up slalom in Kirchberg

Julien Lizeroux for the win in Kirchberg (GEPA/Hans Osterauer)

It wasn’t a World Cup, but maybe it should have been. Frenchman Julien Lizeroux claimed victory in the annual FIS race, typically held in Westendorf, Austria but moved to Kirchberg this year, boasting a stacked field that precedes the Kitzbuehel slalom each winter.

With a minimum penalty of nine, World Cup athletes use the non-Europa Cup slalom event not in an effort to score points but rather to prepare for what awaits in Kitzbuehel later in the week. Lizeroux’s teammate Steve Missilier finished just 0.07 of a second back, and Austrian Wolfgang Hoerl rounded out the podium in third.

The first run was downright brutal for some, as 59 of the 131 starters failed to finish. But the Kirchberg race turned into a solid showing for a few North American slalom skiers who have recently struggled on the World Cup circuit including Canadian Mike Janyk, who finished fifth, and American Nolan Kasper who punched in a promising sixth-place result.

“Conditions were really good — hard snow that held up well, grooved up after awhile but was solid,” noted Kasper. “Definitely more challenging conditions second run because of my start position (25th), but still good conditions with a hard groove.”

A switch in the schedule in Kitzbuehel, moving the slalom from Sunday to Friday (Jan. 24), made it tight for athletes to squeeze in the Kirchberg event. As such, the race was slightly less attended by the top of the World Cup field than usual when held in Westendorf, but that didn’t really make the competition any less fierce.

“I’m sure more guys would have shown up if Kitzbuehel wasn’t tomorrow, but it was still a stacked field with 7.5 points getting you into the seed,” added Kasper.

Despite a fast-paced second run, Canadian Julien Cousineau could only muster 13th in the race. The University of New Mexico’s Joonas Rasanen, skiing for Finland, finished 21st, and the University of Utah’s Mark Engel was 24th.

Results