Hirscher enters the record books with Alta Badia win
In typical Alta Badia fashion, the infamous Gran Risa slope was as dark and challenging as ever for the men’s giant slalom on Sunday. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher skied as solid as ever and took advantage of rivals’ missteps en route to his fourth consecutive Alta Badia win with a combined time of 2:32.89 seconds. France’s Mathieu Faivre finished in second, 0.71 seconds behind and Italy’s Florian Eisath wowed the home crowd for his first career World Cup podium in third, 1.10 second off the pace.
The morning’s run was set extremely tight and turny, and many racers found it difficult to adjust to the dark and challenging course. Nevertheless, Hirscher set the early pace with Faivre and Eisath hot on his heels with the Austrian’s primary rival for the GS globe, France’s Alexis Pinturault, sitting in an uncharacteristic seventh, 1.12 seconds back.
Second run action saw the standings shake up with several racers throwing down impressive runs to make big jumps in the standings. However, Eisath, Faivre, and Hirscher managed to come down with the lead one after the other to close out the race, creating an electric atmosphere in the finish. With Pinturault failing to finish his second run, Hirscher has now opened up an 80-point lead over the Frenchman in the giant slalom standings.
Hirscher’s four career wins in Alta Badia match Italian legend Alberto Tomba’s record of four victories. One more win on the Gran Risa and Hirscher will stand alone as the best GS skier Alta Badia has ever seen. Sunday was also Hirscher’s 41st career World Cup win, surpassing Switzerland’s Pirmin Zurbriggen’s mark of 40 for fourth of all time.
“You always have to ski smart and you need a little bit of a routine,” Hirscher said of his win. “It’s physically one of the toughest races of the year. First victory this season in a GS race, I’m super happy with this. It is inspiring, but I am not thinking about these kinds of records. I don’t know how long I want to ski, but if I’m done with skiing, I will look underneath my name and be happy.”
After Faivre’s strong showing in the first run, he did not want to lose focus and did everything he could to concentrate on his performance and his performance only, trying to block out any distractions until the moment he pushed out of the start.
“It was of course a big fight and I’m pretty satisfied, of course,” Faivre said. “I think I am pretty proud of my first run, I was able to really fully charge. In the second run, as usual, I tried to remain focused and concentrate. I was listening to my music until the last moment. Second run, Hirscher really put on the high level.”
Sunday’s race was the 32-year-old Eisath’s 100th World Cup start and his first podium. It was an emotional day as the Italian grew up mere kilometers from Alta Badia and had family and friends on hand to witness his accomplishment.
“It’s an incredible day for me,” he explained. “Twelve years ago in 2004, I had my first World Cup race here and from there, it was a really long journey to come to this podium. There was a lot of ups and downs and a lot of fighting. Today is my one hundredth World Cup race, and I am finally on the podium. I did two really good runs. For me, on the performance side, that was really important.”
The Americans had a day of ups and downs as disappointments from veterans Ted Ligety and Tim Jitloff were balanced by strong performances by Tommy Ford in 13th despite costly mistakes on both runs and Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 20th.
“I’ve just got to continue the work I’ve been doing, skiing well, getting in good positions,” Ford said of his performance. “I skied better first run, kind of had an unlucky mistake in the middle there. Second run was pretty good skiing but I have some more work to do. That mistake on the bottom, my bad!”
Ligety fell victim early on to the first run set while Jitloff and David Chodounsky failed to qualify for the second run. Brennan Rubie also did not finish his first run. Ligety has been experiencing nerve pain in his leg recently, which could be to blame for his uncharacteristic DNFs in Val d’Isere and Alta Badia. Although he is seeking treatment, the American star has had to sacrifice training time in order to feel healthy enough to compete.
“I just have stabbing pain all the way down my leg, nerve pain, so I haven’t been able to ski much,” he explained. “I’ve been getting injections and trying to get it sorted out, but it hasn’t really turned the corner yet.”
Next, the men race a parallel GS on Monday in Alta Badia.
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Top 10
- Marcel Hirscher (AUT) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
- Mathieu Faivre (FRA) – Head/Head/Head
- Florian Eisath (ITA) – Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
- Zan Kranjec (SLO) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
- Manuel Feller (AUT) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
- Felix Neureuther (GER) – Nordica/Nordica/Marker
- Luca De Aliprandini (ITA) – Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
- Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
- Stefan Luitz (GER) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
- Justin Murisier (SUI) – Voelkl/Dalbello/Marker
Official Results
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | Diff. | FIS Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | 53831 | HIRSCHER Marcel | 1989 | AUT | 1:16.81 | 1:16.08 | 2:32.89 | 0.00 | |
2 | 3 | 194495 | FAIVRE Mathieu | 1992 | FRA | 1:17.02 | 1:16.58 | 2:33.60 | +0.71 | 4.55 |
3 | 8 | 292967 | EISATH Florian | 1984 | ITA | 1:17.62 | 1:16.37 | 2:33.99 | +1.10 | 7.05 |
4 | 21 | 561244 | KRANJEC Zan | 1992 | SLO | 1:18.25 | 1:16.54 | 2:34.79 | +1.90 | 12.18 |
5 | 10 | 54063 | FELLER Manuel | 1992 | AUT | 1:17.99 | 1:16.81 | 2:34.80 | +1.91 | 12.24 |
6 | 4 | 201702 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | 1:17.88 | 1:17.14 | 2:35.02 | +2.13 | 13.65 |
7 | 19 | 990116 | DE ALIPRANDINI Luca | 1990 | ITA | 1:18.51 | 1:16.53 | 2:35.04 | +2.15 | 13.78 |
8 | 6 | 422304 | KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik | 1994 | NOR | 1:17.74 | 1:17.40 | 2:35.14 | +2.25 | 14.42 |
9 | 15 | 202437 | LUITZ Stefan | 1992 | GER | 1:17.92 | 1:17.90 | 2:35.82 | +2.93 | 18.78 |
10 | 9 | 511896 | MURISIER Justin | 1992 | SUI | 1:18.51 | 1:17.43 | 2:35.94 | +3.05 | 19.55 |
11 | 11 | 501017 | MYHRER Andre | 1983 | SWE | 1:18.37 | 1:17.60 | 2:35.97 | +3.08 | 19.74 |
12 | 27 | 192506 | MISSILLIER Steve | 1984 | FRA | 1:19.61 | 1:16.41 | 2:36.02 | +3.13 | 20.06 |
13 | 30 | 531799 | FORD Tommy | 1989 | USA | 1:18.41 | 1:17.88 | 2:36.29 | +3.40 | 21.79 |
14 | 29 | 51159 | NOESIG Christoph | 1985 | AUT | 1:19.02 | 1:17.31 | 2:36.33 | +3.44 | 22.05 |
15 | 20 | 54031 | LEITINGER Roland | 1991 | AUT | 1:18.42 | 1:17.96 | 2:36.38 | +3.49 | 22.37 |
16 | 24 | 380335 | ZUBCIC Filip | 1993 | CRO | 1:19.00 | 1:17.44 | 2:36.44 | +3.55 | 22.75 |
17 | 22 | 292491 | MOELGG Manfred | 1982 | ITA | 1:19.18 | 1:17.40 | 2:36.58 | +3.69 | 23.65 |
18 | 18 | 294890 | NANI Roberto | 1988 | ITA | 1:18.60 | 1:18.23 | 2:36.83 | +3.94 | 25.25 |
19 | 13 | 421669 | HAUGEN Leif Kristian | 1987 | NOR | 1:18.60 | 1:18.25 | 2:36.85 | +3.96 | 25.38 |
20 | 50 | 6530319 | COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan | 1992 | USA | 1:19.14 | 1:17.90 | 2:37.04 | +4.15 | 26.60 |
21 | 1 | 193967 | MUFFAT-JEANDET Victor | 1989 | FRA | 1:19.69 | 1:17.41 | 2:37.10 | +4.21 | 26.99 |
22 | 25 | 501324 | OLSSON Matts | 1988 | SWE | 1:19.56 | 1:17.58 | 2:37.14 | +4.25 | 27.24 |
23 | 46 | 512269 | ODERMATT Marco | 1997 | SUI | 1:19.37 | 1:17.87 | 2:37.24 | +4.35 | 27.88 |
24 | 23 | 511852 | CAVIEZEL Gino | 1992 | SUI | 1:19.36 | 1:18.29 | 2:37.65 | +4.76 | 30.51 |
25 | 44 | 422073 | NETELAND Bjoernar | 1991 | NOR | 1:19.40 | 1:18.95 | 2:38.35 | +5.46 | 35.00 |
26 | 48 | 511718 | PLEISCH Manuel | 1990 | SUI | 1:19.78 | 1:19.95 | 2:39.73 | +6.84 | 43.84 |
27 | 34 | 194873 | SARRAZIN Cyprien | 1994 | FRA | 1:18.47 | 1:21.37 | 2:39.84 | +6.95 | 44.55 |
Disqualified 2nd run | ||||||||||
41 | 700879 | ZAMPA Andreas | 1993 | SVK | ||||||
Did not start 2nd run | ||||||||||
32 | 512182 | MEILLARD Loic | 1996 | SUI | ||||||
Did not start 1st run | ||||||||||
36 | 700830 | ZAMPA Adam | 1990 | SVK | ||||||
Did not qualify for 2nd run | ||||||||||
71 | 800013 | TOLA Erjon | 1986 | ALB | ||||||
70 | 54106 | BREITFUSS KAMMERLANDER Simon | 1992 | BOL | ||||||
69 | 380374 | VUKELIC William | 1998 | CRO | ||||||
68 | 6300464 | KOYAMA Yohei | 1998 | JPN | ||||||
65 | 304242 | NARITA Hideyuki | 1993 | JPN | ||||||
64 | 194457 | GALEOTTI Greg | 1992 | FRA | ||||||
63 | 202451 | STRASSER Linus | 1992 | GER | ||||||
62 | 502015 | JAKOBSEN Kristoffer | 1994 | SWE | ||||||
61 | 6290440 | ZINGERLE Alex | 1992 | ITA | ||||||
59 | 6291725 | ZINGERLE Hannes | 1995 | ITA | ||||||
58 | 290095 | BALLERIN Andrea | 1989 | ITA | ||||||
55 | 6190074 | GATEAU Elie | 1995 | FRA | ||||||
54 | 54144 | MEIER Daniel | 1993 | AUT | ||||||
53 | 54320 | SCHWARZ Marco | 1995 | AUT | ||||||
52 | 103865 | PHILP Trevor | 1992 | CAN | ||||||
51 | 103762 | WERRY Tyler | 1991 | CAN | ||||||
49 | 481103 | ANDRIENKO Aleksander | 1990 | RUS | ||||||
47 | 511857 | JENAL Sandro | 1992 | SUI | ||||||
45 | 53889 | HIRSCHBUEHL Christian | 1990 | AUT | ||||||
43 | 534508 | CHODOUNSKY David | 1984 | USA | ||||||
42 | 6291430 | MAURBERGER Simon | 1995 | ITA | ||||||
38 | 53985 | MATHIS Marcel | 1991 | AUT | ||||||
37 | 202345 | SCHWAIGER Dominik | 1991 | GER | ||||||
33 | 150644 | KRYZL Krystof | 1986 | CZE | ||||||
31 | 421483 | JANSRUD Kjetil | 1985 | NOR | ||||||
26 | 534959 | JITLOFF Tim | 1985 | USA | ||||||
14 | 291318 | TONETTI Riccardo | 1989 | ITA | ||||||
Did not finish 2nd run | ||||||||||
7 | 194364 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | ||||||
Did not finish 1st run | ||||||||||
67 | 60253 | MARCHANT Armand | 1997 | BEL | ||||||
66 | 561322 | HADALIN Stefan | 1995 | SLO | ||||||
60 | 6190329 | GUILLOT Victor | 1996 | FRA | ||||||
57 | 511638 | TUMLER Thomas | 1989 | SUI | ||||||
56 | 180666 | TORSTI Samu | 1991 | FIN | ||||||
40 | 422278 | WINDINGSTAD Rasmus | 1993 | NOR | ||||||
39 | 180705 | PIRINEN Eemeli | 1993 | FIN | ||||||
35 | 934568 | RUBIE Brennan | 1991 | USA | ||||||
28 | 103729 | READ Erik | 1991 | CAN | ||||||
17 | 422139 | KILDE Aleksander Aamodt | 1992 | NOR | ||||||
16 | 511313 | JANKA Carlo | 1986 | SUI | ||||||
12 | 51007 | SCHOERGHOFER Philipp | 1983 | AUT | ||||||
2 | 534562 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA |