Again and again him. Without crushing the competition but still with as much accuracy and confidence in his skiing, Marco Odermatt dominated the first round of the giant Adelboden on Saturday. More careful than usual on the first part of the route, in conditions of visibility then rather good, the Swiss made the difference in the final wall where he stuck nearly a second to all his opponents. He is ahead of the French Alexis Pinturault (+ 0 “31), much better than at Alta Badia, and the Croatian Filip Zubcic (+ 0” 50) while the tricolor world champion Mathieu Faivre is on the lookout (4th, + 0 “52). The second round will take place at 1:30 p.m.
Two weeks after the galley weekend at Alta Badia (15th and 18th), Alexis Pinturault has visibly left his worries behind him. On the Chuenisbärgli where he won twice last year, the Frenchman regained his best level and made perfect use of his number 1 with an aggressive, authoritarian and committed ski. In conditions that were far from easy, with an icy slope, with lots of small terrain movements and visibility that quickly diminished, the Courchevel skier offered one of his best performances of the very fair winter, despite a small fault in the wall. A boss’s performance, but the latter, this winter, is called Marco Odermatt.
Adelboden
Pinturault engaged and just for a 2nd time: relive his 1st round of giant slalom
AN HOUR AGO
The Blues perfectly in the game
The Swiss, however, did not have a legendary performance, showing himself to be quite “cautious” on the vast majority of the route. Far from being 100% in the commitment on the top, the leader of the World Cup cut the final wall yet so hard to dig stratospheric gaps over such a short period. Pushed back to 0”36 from Pinturault just before the wall, Odermatt nevertheless won this first round with 0”31 ahead of the Frenchman. Very fair and finally at his level this winter as a giant, the Croatian Filip Zubcic (+ 0”50) completed the podium just in front of the other French arrow, Mathieu Faivre.
The four men now seem the only ones who can hope to win in Adelboden because, behind, the gaps are enormous. Fifth, Manuel Feller is 1”17 from Odermatt, while the 9th, Alexander Schmid, is 2”19! On the French side, they will finally be four in the second round since in addition to Pinturault and Faivre, we will also find Cyprien Sarrazin (14th, + 2”71) and Thibaut Favrot (16th, + 2”82), who can hope for the top 10. A year after winning the two giants on the Chuenisbärgli, France could therefore place four skiers in the top 10. Which would be crazy. But there is more than half the way …
“What is happening ?” : the incomprehensible stop in the middle of Braathen’s run
Adelboden
Adelboden, Pinturault’s best ally to (finally) start his winter?
A DAY AGO
Adelboden
Odermatt assaulting Swiss monuments
YESTERDAY At 9:05 AM