Photo: Lucas Braathen. Val d’Isere. GEPA pictures.

VAL d’ISÈRE, France – After an entertaining first run, France provided sunny skies for the second. The cold snow is grippy but held up well for the first course, and nine athletes with bibs over 30 qualified for the second. The second course set by the Norwegians is faster with less swing and provided exciting slalom and a Norwegian winner.

As predicted, the stars came out to shine. 22-year-old Norwegian Lucas Braathen wins his third career World Cup by 0.84 seconds over Austrian Feller. Swiss athlete Meillard rounded out the podium 0.15 behind Feller. 

Braathen let out a yell and thumped his chest after seeing his time on the board and then he had to wait for his compatriot. Defending World Cup slalom champion Henrik Kristoffersen had a slender lead of 0.07 seconds from the first run.

“Man, I just want to do it again,” the 22-year-old Braathen said. “It’s an amazing feeling right now.

“I’ll admit I’ve had a great pre-season, to be able to deliver what I’ve been delivering in practice today at the race was simply amazing. I love this place so to be here on the top of the podium today is just magical.”

First-run leader Henrik Kristoffersen struggled with the second-run course and conditions and finished sixth. 

Feller and Meillard skied well but couldn’t come close to matching the effort of Braathen.

It ended a miserable run for Feller in the slalom in Val d’Isère after he failed to finish in his five previous races on the course. He was 23rd in 2012, his first on the hill.

“It’s more like a hate and love place combined because I think this was my second finish in slalom over all of the years,” Feller said.

“I was just finishing in my second World Cup race, my first time here, and then always DNF. So that was also the reason why I didn’t risk everything in the second run.”

Braathen is undoubtedly one of the biggest characters in the Alpine World Cup. He is a popular winner. He skied with a special competence none of the leaders could match. Undoubtedly, a level few have ever achieved. Will he be the Odermatt of SL? Time will tell. 

After straddling gates, Olympic champion Clément Noël, silver medallist Johannes Strolz and Atle Lie McGrath went out of the race in the first run. Three of the first nine skiers failed to finish.

With only five athletes at the start to ski. Frances’s Alexis Pinturault ignited the home crowd crossing the finish in first. Unfortunately, the joy lasted until the next racer Swiss Loic Meillard finished 0.35 faster than the Frenchman. Pinturault finished a strong fifth.

Italian, Kastlunger, the highest bib to qualify for the second run, ran fifth. Kastlunger had skied eight previous World Cups but had never scored. He took the lead and kept it for 11 racers before Timon Haugan moved into first. The 23-year-old Italian had a fantastic day moving up 16 places on the second run to finish 10th. 

Unfortunate disqualification nullifies Ginnis’ result

Former US Ski Team athlete, Greek AJ Ginnis, skied very well. When the race was over, he thought skiing with 48 he had finished 12th. However, after the race, the Croatian team submitted a protest, and a video review was initiated. It was clear in the video that Ginnis had straddled the bottom gate of the flush, and he was disqualified. But, this doesn’t detract from the level he is currently skiing.

Canadian Erik Read, who qualified 30th after the first run, moved up from 30th to 21st to score good points in the first SL of the season.

The battle for the slalom title was wide open last season, with seven different winners in the first seven races. It was a third slalom season title for Kristoffersen.

Analysis of top three, Ginnis and Erik Read and the final results of Dec 11th Val d’lsere SL

Final results Val d’lsere Dec 11th SL

The Associated Press contributed to this report.