Odermatt leads again in Adelboden

Marco Odermatt’s first run – Photo: GEPA pictures

ADELBODEN (Switzerland) – The Adelboden race hill is drenched in sunshine and warm temperatures. There is no natural snow outside the competition slope. The soft snow caused challenges for all the competitors except the amazing Marco Odermatt. The Swiss star continues to prove he is the best in the world. Odermatt didn’t have the most advantageous start number, but he excelled in the final two sections of the course to take a 0.32 of a second lead over bib one Henrik Kristoffersen. Just behind the Norwegian is another home-country favorite, Loic Meillard; he is only 0.49 off the lead.

The crowd in Adelboden is one of the best on tour. Today they had a lot to be excited about. The home crowd enjoys two athletes in the top three and a total of six athletes qualifying for the final run. Notably, the inspired Thomas Tumler skiing with bib 45 ignited the crowd crossing in 17th place.

The FIS and the local course crew did an amazing job with very little snow and warm temperatures. The temperature was just above freezing for the first starters Saturday and is forecast to rise to about 7 Celsius (45 Fahrenheit) when the second run started at 1:30 p.m. local time. Determined and committed skiers with later start numbers earned access to the second run with good skiing. However, the snow flying off the skis and the quickly forming grooves revealed that the course had deteriorated during the run. After the first 30 racers had completed the course, the time differential was a massive 5.16 seconds. At that point in the race, 20th was 3.31 behind. At the end of the first run, 30th place was 4.16 seconds behind the leader, Odermatt

Committed late starters qualified

Almost not a surprise Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, skiing with bib 31, completed the first run 9th. He showed when you are a great skier and in amazing condition, anything is possible. Eight other bibs above thirty are joining Kilde for the second run. The last skier to start the first run and qualify is bib 61 Leo Anguenot of France.

The good news was that the softer snow slowed the skiers that fell before they would make contact with the nearby fencing. Also, the final pitch was set exceptionally challenging and kept the speed significantly lower than usual into the finish. It was more than obvious that the effort required to ski the final pitch well took more energy than most had arrived with.

The fastest North American on the first run is USA’s River Radamus. Radamus used a fast third sector to finish 2.70 seconds behind Odermatt in the 16th position. Canadian Erik Read is 0.61 behind Radamus finishing the first run 21st. US racer Tommy Ford had trouble on the first run but finished 30th and will be the first to race the second course. The other North American to qualify is Canadian Trevor Philp, who finished 29th.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Analysis of top three and qualified North Americans and first run top 30 results

Top 30 first run results Adelboden January 7th men’s GS